Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1874 — Small Fruits on the Farm. [ARTICLE]

Small Fruits on the Farm.

The extensive cultivation of small fruits for market has undoubtedly proved profitable to the planters, else tlie markets of our cities would not continue to he supplied, year after-year, at such comparatively low rates as nowadays prevail. And yet, in the farm garefenwe seldom see plantations of small fruits sufficient to give the family even a moderate supply. Too often the few bushes or vines obtained are thrust in some out-of-the-way place, to take care of themselves, spread into thickets, or degenerate into wildings, and are finally grubbed and cast out as rubbish. From time to time we have called attention not only to tlie pleasure alto tilling a well-kept farm garden, but also to its economy'. It would seem that there was a vast amount of missionary work yet to be done in this direction before the average farmer is fully waked up to the importance and economy of this subject. We shall continue to call attention to gardening as an important part of the farmer’s art until the people, shall be fully waked up to its value, and shall come to practice what tliey.believe. Our present purpose is to call attention to small fruits.

It is.impossible to have success in anytliiiig valuable as food without cultivation; and, while this is true as a rule, it is especially' so with berries, They siidoni.have space enougli allowed them, and when this is the ease it is impossible to properly prune them, much less cultivate then!. ' Currants and gooseberries should never be planted at a less distance than from four,to four and a half feet between the rows; raspberries, five to five and a half feet, and blackberries never less than six feet. If so, the two ! first may be planted three feet distant in the row, the third three and-a half feet, and the latter four feet in the row. Currants and gooseberries should be kept properly thinned, so that the foliage may get a due proportion of'sun and air; anil raspberries and blackberries should have the old wood taken out each season and the new growth cut back to three and a half or .four feet, or be pinched when the seifcon’g growth lias progressed so fair. If to tiffs we Tid'd cultivation suffioieqt to keep the surface mellow and the weeds killed there is no reason why a full crop of fruit should not, be gathered every season that is favorable to its maturity; .and experience has demonstrated that there are few that are not favorable if the early-blossoming sorts “are kept back- sd .that the blossoming season may no.t occur during frosty weather. As a rule small fruits are more easy «f cultivation than strawberries and fully as easily gathered as strawberries, even when this fruit is well cultivated; that is, when the plants have been placed three feet apart between the rows by not less than twelve inches in the row and therunners kept scrupulously cut. Else first-class fruit cannot be expected, and

certainly the beds cannot be kept free of weeds unless so treated without more labor than the crop is worth. , To those who have already good gardiehs without berries as a prominent feature therein we say, Lose no time in setting apart a sufficient portion, or, if need be, enlarge it for this purpose. If there are any who have not yet got ready to have the garden permanently fixed we say, Do so at the earliest prat?-' ticablg moment and make It of size to al

low ample spaee for berries. —

Western Rural.