EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE CULTUKE OF SMALL FRUITS. 
BY A. M. PURDY, SOUTH BEND, IND. 
To those who have enjoyed the luxury of “ small fruits,” for even a single 
season, it seems unaccountably strange that more do not plant of these de 
licious and healthy fruits. First in the season, and long before any other 
fruits come in, we have the luscious and melting strawberry, either fresh 
from the vines or smothered ” in 'sugar and cream. Next, follows the 
sprightly raspberry, with its many beautiful colors and flavors ; after which, 
come the magnificent and glossy blackberries, hanging like so many sparkl¬ 
ing jets on the overloaded bushes; also the grapes, rich in their many favorite 
localities. These with the currant and gooseberry mixed in at their proper sea¬ 
son, make a paradise of one’s home, and add to it an interest which attract 
the love and attachment of the children, who may be growing up around 
the dear old hearth-stone, with an ardor too strong to be broken. 
* * * I in jny observations, the almost universal objection to 
growing these luxuries is, that “it is too much labor ; too much attention is 
required,” &c. Such complaints are generally raised by those who have 
never had success in growing them; and the reason is that they were neg¬ 
lected from the hour they were set out. If a small share of the useless avo¬ 
cations are devoted to giving the proper and smple care required to grow 
these luxuries, a bountiful harvest would repay them for it and they would 
not fail ever afterwards to keep them in good order; thereby insuring a cer¬ 
tain crop &oery season. 
Again, many are deterred from setting them out after reading a long and 
elaborate work, from some theorizing author, giving directions that would 
puzzle any common brain, and deter most people from setting such fruit. 
For instance, one writer will take strong ground, that a certain amount of a 
certain kind of fertilizers must be put on the ground at a certain season ; 
and it must be “ trenched ” in to a certain depth. A certain variety must 
be planted, and must be set in “hills,” and not a runner allowed to grow. 
They must be mulched Jwsi so, in the fall, and withyMS^ mch kind of litter. In 
fact, if the directions of some of these writers on grape culture and other 
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