40 
House' & Garden 
CANE and BUSH FRUITS for the KITCHEN GARDEN 
Some Reasons for Taking Them Up in a Serious Way and Granting Them the Attention 
They Deserve in the Well Balanced Garden of Utility 
G. T. HUNTINGTON 
I N the planning of even a modest kitchen 
garden the desirability of the small 
fruits—currants, raspberries, blackberries, 
etc.,-—is-often overlooked. The thoughts 
of beginners especially are prone to center 
on vegetables, to the exclusion of the ber¬ 
ries, which, while of perhaps less nourish¬ 
ing value, are nevertheless highly impor¬ 
tant articles of diet. 
The requirements of these cane and bush 
fruits are not exacting. Any fairly sunny, 
well drained soil which will produce a 
good general vegetable crop will be suit¬ 
able. Such necessary care as spraying, 
pruning, mulching, etc., is easily given 
and amounts to. little enough compared 
with that which the regular vegetable gar¬ 
den demands. As for the fruit itself, it 
will be of better quality and much less 
expensive than you can buy in market. 
Finally, it is possible on almost every 
place to find room for a few plants of 
small fruits along the edges of the paths, 
boundary fences or in some out-of-the-way 
corner which could not well be utilized for 
anything else. So, on the whole, the pro 
arguments far outway the con. 
Laying Plans 
As soon in the spring as the ground is 
dry enough to crumble is the time to plant. 
The stock should be ordered, therefore, at 
once; but before deciding what to get you 
should look the ground over carefully and 
decide exactly how much space will be 
available. In doing this the following 
planting distances should be kept in mind. 
Raspberries ought to be 
planted 3' or 4' apart in 
the row; blackberries and 
dewberries, 5'; currants, 
4'; gooseberries, 5'. If 
only a single row is to be 
planted, perhaps along a 
fence or at the edge of the 
garden, these figures will 
suffice. If, however, you 
decide upon two or more 
parallel rows, you must 
allow an average distance 
of 6' between the rows, to 
allow room for you to 
move about comfortably 
while attending to the cul¬ 
tivation, picking, etc. 
Deciding what sorts to 
plant is naturally gov¬ 
erned largely by personal 
preference for certain 
kinds of fruit. The space 
may therefore be allotted 
as best suits you, and un¬ 
til that is done the selec¬ 
tion of varieties of the dif¬ 
ferent things may be post¬ 
poned. 
All of the good nurseries 
supply varieties of small 
fruits in great numbers. It 
would be out of the ques¬ 
Burying the long canes of black¬ 
berries and raspberries is a good 
plan to protect them from dam¬ 
age by winter winds and cold 
Before covering the canes with 
earth they should be carefully 
bent down to the ground parallel 
to the direction of the row 
Just to show its pro¬ 
ductiveness, the worms 
were allowed to defoli¬ 
ate this gooseberry bush 
and expose the fruit 
tion to set down here anything like a com¬ 
prehensive list of these, but you will not 
go far wrong if you make your choices 
from among the following: 
Raspberries: The King (extra early); 
Cuthbert; Columbian; Reliance; St. Regis 
Everbearing; Cardinal; Palmer (black); 
Golden Queen (yellow). 
Blackberries: Mercereau (early); 
Early Harvest; Early King; Snyder. 
Currants: Perfection; Fay’s Prolific; 
Lee’s Prolific (black); White Grape. 
Dewberries: Premo (early); Lucretia. 
Dewberries ripen somewhat earlier than 
raspberries, but in other respects are quite 
similar to them. 
Gooseberries: Industry (English va¬ 
riety well suited to our climate); Hough¬ 
ton’s Seedling; Downing; Golden Prolific. 
Planting and Pruning 
A liberal amount of well rotted manure 
dug into the soil where the plants are to 
go will prove a paying investment for 
higher quality fruit. For blackberries and 
raspberries, too, you must 
provide stakes, a trellis or 
some other support for 
their long, slender canes, 
but the gooseberries and 
currants need nothing of 
this sort. 
When setting out the 
raspberries and blackber¬ 
ries, cut off the shoots 
close to the ground, leav¬ 
ing only one or two “eyes” 
{Continued on page 80) 
Gooseberries are easily 
grown and deserve a 
place in the small fruit 
border. They are gen¬ 
erally made into jam 
