VOL. XLVIII. NO. 2079. NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 3o, i889. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered According to Act of Congress in the Year 1889 , by the Rura'. New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.J 
A FARMER’S SMALL FRUIT GARDEN. 
T. B. TERRY. 
Worth rending, studying and imitating : 
the small-fruit plot; treatment and 
kinds planted; cultivation at odd times; 
pleasure in work; a non-regrettable 
mistake; small fruits galore in 15 
months from planting; truth frozen in 
a photo; “seeing is believinggreat 
pleasure and profit within reach of all 
for small outlay. 
T hree years ago the writer knew but lit¬ 
tle about the small-fruit busiuess. He 
certainly did not know in how short a time 
after the plants were set out one could get 
a good crop of raspberries. Probably many 
readers of the R. N.-Y. are equally ignor¬ 
ant. With the hope of starting some 
farmers to growing small fruits in abund¬ 
ance for home use, he gives his experience, 
with a photograph from life to back it. 
There are 100 rods of pretty good garden 
soil between my house and the little orch¬ 
ard seen in the background of the picture at 
Fig. 282. It slopes toward the east, where the 
house stands. One year ago last April, I 
determined to devote this land to small 
fruits for our home use. It was then a 
very heavy clover sod, which had been 
mowed one year. It was thoroughly 
plowed and harrowed, and about the first 
of May, raspberry, blackberry, currant, 
grape and strawberry plants were set out. 
I bought two or thi-ee little books treating 
on the subject, and 
read up the bach 
numbers of the pa¬ 
pers on small-fruit 
culture. Several 
friends in the busi¬ 
ness were consulted 
as to the choice of 
varieties. I was 
practically entirely 
green in the busi¬ 
ness, never having 
set out a raspberry 
plant or a grape¬ 
vine, nor had I seen 
any one else do it. 
I put no manure 
on the land, as I 
felt that it could 
not be spared from 
the fields. What has 
been done comes 
from good tillage 
on a heavy clover 
sod. We set out 
four varieties of red 
raspberries, three 
of black-caps, three 
of blackberries, two 
of currants an d 
quite a number of 
grapes. Last sum¬ 
mer we kept the 
cultivator and hoe 
moving pretty con¬ 
st a n 11 y l n t h a t 
patch. We would 
run th rough it 
hastily with the 
cult ivator before 
going into the po¬ 
tato field, after a 
shower, and then 
after we got 
through in the field we would go over the 
fruit garden again and finish around the 
plants with the hoe or rake. The rows 
were all eight feet apart and there was 
plenty of room to turn at the ends. It 
took only an hour or two to go over the 
plot with the cultivator. We hardly missed 
the time. We always kept ahead of the 
weeds, just stirring the mellow ground 
each time, so that it was a pleasant job. It 
was a great surprise and pleasure also to 
see how the plants grew under such treat¬ 
ment. In a very short time passers-by 
seemed to look as though they were sur¬ 
prised too. This stimulated us to work 
even more faithfully. I got so interested 
that before fall I would have laughed at an 
offer of 8100 for my vines and plants, which 
I presume had not really cost me more than 
$50, labor and all. 
We had rows of strawberries between the 
rows of raspberries, grapes, etc. This was 
a mistake; but still we got probably 20 
bushels of berries, all of which we ate and 
canned or gave away. This was not new, 
as we had had strawberries before. On the 
Fourth of July we ate our last st ra wberries 
for dinner, and that night we had our first 
raspberries for supper. At this time (Au¬ 
gust 3) the raspberries are not quite gone. 
During the past month we have had them 
not as freely as we had strawberries, but in 
great abundance. They were large and 
fine. We cut the bushes about two-thirds 
back last spring, and took care to keep the 
ground mellow about them, or mulched 
during the season. I confess I never knew 
how nice raspberries might be until I had 
eaten heaping saucers full of Cuthberts 
and Shaffers, large and fresh, right from 
my own bushes and fully ripe when picked. 
Now, this might all pass as talk, not ex¬ 
actly lying, but the rather pardonable ex¬ 
aggeration of an enthusiast; but, friends, 
how about the photograph? It shows our 
two rows of Shaffer Raspberries only. 
There was a shrub in the way so we were 
obliged to set the camera close to the ends 
of the rows, which brings the first bushes 
out of focus; but you can see the middle 
of the rows. They were set eight feet 
apart, but you can see that there was only 
room to go between them when the photo¬ 
graph was taken, and they were still grow¬ 
ing. As to hight, my man who stands 
there is five feet 10 inches without his hat. 
The rows of raspberries are each six rods 
long and we have certainly picked more 
than a bushel to the row from the rows 
you see, while the prospect for next year is 
tremendous. As soon as the strawberries 
were all picked we cut Hp the vines and 
mulched all the ground between the rows 
of raspberries heavily, with the strawberry 
vines and wheat straw. The picture shows 
this. Cultivation has, of course, not been 
needed since then. 
Now had I written that in 15 months from 
setting out the plants, I had grown rasp¬ 
berry bushes six feet high and six feet 
wide, which had during that time produced 
berries enough to more than pay for the 
plants and labor, how many farmers with¬ 
out experience would have believed it ? But 
there is the photograph, and you know I 
would not dare lie about the time of setting 
the plants out, or much about the yield, 
with the R. N.-Y. coming to neighbors. 
Oh ! my friends, you can get lots of pleas¬ 
ure, and for months have the choicest ber¬ 
ries on the table at every meal as free as 
water from a very little good land, if you 
will only be thorough in your work. The 
cost of the plants and vines is hardly worth 
mentioning ; the knowledge of how to do it 
is now free to all; all that is lacking is 
grim determination. How many farmers 
will get that before next spring ? 
Summit County, O. 
Dinni Ijitsban^n). 
HOW DO YOU PEOCEED TO 
DRY UP 
Your Cows ? Methods of Deeding 
Treatment. Some Able Dairymen 
STATE FACTS! 
Bjgrelf 
T. B. TERRY’S RASPBERRY PATCH. From a Photograph. Fig. 282. 
FROM SMITHS, POW¬ 
ELL & LAMB. 
Of course, any 
one acquainted 
with dairying mat¬ 
ters knows that ex¬ 
ceptions are met 
with at almost 
every turn, and for 
these exceptions 
the treatment must 
be special. We aim 
to give all our cows 
a rest from milk¬ 
ing after making 
a record. This we 
do both for the good 
of the animal and 
the calf it will pro¬ 
duce. We prefer to 
milk young heifers 
through the entire 
season, believing 
that it may influ¬ 
ence the milking 
properties of the 
calf which any of 
them carries. We 
intend to allow our 
cows to go dry 
from four weeks to 
two months, the 
period depending 
somewhat upon cir¬ 
cumstances and the 
amount of milk 
they have been 
giving the previous 
season, their con¬ 
dition, etc. We 
lessen the feed, 
partioularly the 
grain feed we give 
them and many 
