NEW YOKE, APRIL 5, 1902. 
Vol. LXI. No. 2723 
CULTURE OF THE DEWBERRY. 
POSSIBILIt IES OF THE crop. 
How to Hard to It. 
The cultivated dewberry seems somewhat slow in 
claiming popular favor among our farmers and fruit 
gardeners. Nor is it to be wondered that its praises 
by nurserymen and a few who have successfully grown 
it for home or market, should be “discounted” more 
or less by those who have, for years, been trying to 
eradicate the wild dewberry from their fields. But 
the fact remains that our excellent, improved varie¬ 
ties of this fruit do occupy a prominent place in our 
list of desirable berries. When well grown they are 
of wonderful size, delicious in quality, excellent for 
canning and general culinary use and greatly appre¬ 
ciated upon the market. True, a considerable planta¬ 
tion requires a great deal of tedious labor, but here 
at Dale View this labor has, so far, been liberally re¬ 
warded. A single row of from 50 to 100 plants, in the 
family fruit garden, if well cared for, would add inter¬ 
est, pleasure and an abundance of healthful fruit. 
There will be no trouble from their innate principle 
of expansion” if the rooted tips are pulled up early 
each Spring, at which season this is readily done. 
SOIL, PLANTS AND PLANTING.—The idea that 
dewberries do better upon and should be given the 
“poorest” soil in one’s possession is erroneous. At 
least this has been our experience. We have a little 
plantation of 1,100 plants upon a long, narrow strip 
of hillside which is somewhat thin at one end and 
growing deeper and more fertile as the southern limit 
is approached. Just in proportion to the increase in 
the degree of fertility are the productiveness of the 
vines and the size of the fruit. The plants increase 
by the “tips” of the current season’s growth becoming 
rooted, the same as blackcap raspberries. In good 
soil these plants make an astonishing mass of roots. 
In Fig. 90 is shown a couple of these “business Lu- 
cretias”—the one in the right hand of the little girl, 
with its adhering soil, being just about all she could 
support at half arm’s length. The plants should be 
set in rows at least seven feet apart and three feet 
apart in the row. I find it is a mistake to set them 
closer, as they make a surprising growth of cane 
upon fairly fertile soil when once established. 
CULTURE AND TRAINING.—Nothing but clean 
culture, every season, will keep the dewberry planta¬ 
tion under control or make it profitable. When the 
plants have reached considerable size and try to push 
across the spaces between the rows the cultivator 
should always be run in the same direction. At the 
end of the first growing season the rows will appear 
as in Fig. 89. The following Spring the plants are 
staked—one four-foot stake being driven between each 
two plants, which are carefully disengaged from the 
interwoven row and tied to the support, near the top 
DEWBERRIES AT END OF FIRST SEASON. Fie. 89. 
After being tied a single clip of the pruning shears 
will shorten back each hill to its proper height. We 
clip ours about one foot above the point at which they 
are tied to the stake, which tends to balance the hill, 
in a measure, as well as giving more bearing surface. 
The point at which these canes cross and are fastened 
seems to grow into an ideal and oft-chosen nesting 
place for many of our smaller bird friends. Fig. 91 
shows the plantation properly staked, trained and 
under clean cultivation, at the blooming period, when 
it is certainly a beautiful sight. 
The management of succeeding seasons is practically 
the same operation, intensified; the increased vigor 
in growth makes the pruning, training and cultivation 
much more difficult after the first year. The old fruit¬ 
ing canes, too, are to be removed, as with the other 
bush fruits. I made one discovery in pruning our 
dewberries, which has been almost invaluable. In ex¬ 
tricating the new fruiting canes, one by one, from the 
tangled row, a temporary support was desirable to 
hold them up out of the way while the others were 
being “unraveled.” This question was solved as, I 
hope, is clearly shown in the hastily-made sketch at 
“ BUSINESS” LUCRETIA DEWBERRIES. FiO. 90. 
Fig. 92. The only requisites are an old 10-pound 
white-lead bucket, a piece of heavy wire and a strip 
of strong cloth which is to be neatly wrapped about 
the wire forming the books which are stapled to the 
bucket as shown. This invention is simply hung, bot- 
tomside up , over the top of the stake and the vines 
or canes lifted and hung over the cloth-covered hooks 
where the small, sharp, curved spines or thorns will 
tenaciously cling to the fabric until released and tied 
to the stake. f. u. ballou. 
Ohio. 
FAMILY APPLES.—We never half appreciated our 
Roxbury Russet apples until this season. In a small 
orchard of 15 trees that we have principally for 
family use, are three trees of this variety, the other 
sorts being Red Astrachan, Fall Pippin, Rhode Is¬ 
land Greening and Baldwin. For the past 18 years 
we have never missed a good crop of fruit from our 
Russet trees. They bore well last year, and as other 
varieties, like Baldwin and Greening, were scarce, 
we stored away for Winter use several barrels of the 
Russets. They kept finely—as they usually do—and 
we enjoyed them immensely. When thoroughly 
baked, with cream and sugar, they make a dish fit for 
a king. t. j. d. 
II PER YEAR 
DEV BERRIES STAKED AND TRAINED. Fir. 91. 
THE MULCH METHOD OF ORCHARDING. 
Believing that the best way to increase profits is to 
lower cost of production, it has occurred to me that 
an estimate of cost of production from the advocates 
of the several methods of orchard treatment would 
be interesting. As a firm believer in the sod or mulch 
method of growing fruit I submit the following fact3 
to the consideration of those who realize that we of 
the East have got to meet in the future strong com¬ 
petition from the West, and to meet that competition 
and make a profit we must learn not only how to pro¬ 
duce good fruit, but how to produce it cheaply. We 
who practice the mulch method find that our only 
work during Spring and Summer in the orchard, except 
spraying, which is the same in both methods, until 
the hai vesting of the fruit, is to cut the growing grass 
once and place it around the trees. The cost of this 
has been ascertained by trial to be 70 cents per acre. 
It is done by the regular farm help during a wet spell 
in July, when soil is too wet to cultivate or weather 
unfit for harvesting, thus utilizing labor when least 
valuable.'* This system gives one practically the whole 
Spring and Summer to grow and market other crops, 
while the orchard is growing of its own accord a sup¬ 
ply of vegetable matter for humus that all authorities 
agree is so necessary for proper soil maintenance. 
This means that you can do a good business without 
extra help, growing strawberries, green peas, early 
potatoes, etc., and have the money for the fruit in the 
Fall to swell your bank account instead of paying it 
out for fertilizers and cultivation. Other advantages 
are that you can drive through your orchard to spray 
better on sod than on cultivated soil, as the latter 
sometimes gets muddy, and also washes badly on roll¬ 
ing ground. You can allow your apples to mature 
fully on the trees, for if they should fall on the grassy 
mulch nine-tenths of them would be marketable. By 
making repeated gatherings the yield will be largely 
increased and quality improved. With the mulch 
method you accumulate humus in your soil; with 
clean cultivation you burn it out or exhaust it. )) 
Perhaps a statement of work accomplished besides 
caring for a growing orchard of 36 acres, by the writer 
and two helpers, would give an idea how cheap the 
mulch method is. My books show that in 1900 we 
grew 20 acres of potatoes, nine acres of green peas, 
three acres strawberries, four acres sweet corn, 10 
acres oats, 17 acres wheat, 16 acres hay. These were 
all grown and marketed without extra help, except 
berries and peas, which were picked by pickers. Since 
1900 only one regular man has been kept, hiring by 
the day when extra help is needed. The orchard is 
being enlarged yearly, and the cultivated crops are 
being reduced in acreage. If my friends who cultivate 
their orchards can place a bushel of good apples on 
the market any cheaper I would be glad to hear fx'om 
them. GRANT G. HITCHING8. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
