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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Home Acre, by E. P. Roe
+#6 in our series by E. P. Roe
+
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+Title: The Home Acre
+
+Author: E. P. Roe
+
+Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5418]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 14, 2002]
+[Date last updated: August 16, 2005]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOME ACRE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HOME ACRE
+
+E. P. ROE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+   CHAPTER I   TREE-PLANTING
+
+  CHAPTER II   FRUIT-TREES AND GRASS
+
+ CHAPTER III   THE GARDEN
+
+  CHAPTER IV   THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD
+
+   CHAPTER V   THE RASPBERRY
+
+  CHAPTER VI   THE CURRANT
+
+ CHAPTER VII   STRAWBERRIES
+
+CHAPTER VIII   THE KITCHEN-GARDEN
+
+  CHAPTER IX   THE KITCHEN-GARDEN (Concluded)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+TREE-PLANTING
+
+
+Land hunger is so general that it may be regarded as a natural
+craving. Artificial modes of life, it is true, can destroy it, but
+it is apt to reassert itself in later generations. To tens of
+thousands of bread-winners in cities a country home is the dream
+of the future, the crown and reward of their life-toil. Increasing
+numbers are taking what would seem to be the wiser course, and are
+combining rural pleasures and advantages with their business. As
+the questions of rapid transit are solved, the welfare of children
+will turn the scale more and more often against the conventional
+city house or flat. A home CAN be created in rented dwellings and
+apartments; but a home for which we have the deed, a cottage
+surrounded by trees, flowers, lawn, and garden, is the refuge
+which best satisfies the heart. By means of such a suburban nook
+we can keep up our relations with Nature and all her varied and
+health-giving life. The tired man returning from business finds
+that his excited brain will not cease to act. He can enjoy
+restoring rest in the complete diversion of his thoughts; he can
+think of this tree or that plant, and how he can fill to advantage
+unoccupied spaces with other trees, flowers, and vegetables. If
+there is a Jersey cow to welcome him with her placid trust, a good
+roadster to whinny for an airing, and a flock of chickens to
+clamor about his feet for their supper, his jangling nerves will
+be quieted, in spite of all the bulls and bears of Wall Street.
+Best of all, he will see that his children have air and space in
+which to grow naturally, healthfully. His fruit-trees will testify
+to his wisdom in providing a country home. For instance, he will
+observe that if sound plums are left in contact with stung and
+decaying specimens, they too will be infected; he will see that
+too close crowding renders the prospect for good fruit doubtful;
+and, by natural transition of thought, will be glad that his boys
+and girls are not shut in to the fortuitous associations of hall-
+way and street. The area of land purchased will depend largely on
+the desires and purse of the buyer; but about one acre appears to
+satisfy the majority of people. This amount is not so great that
+the business man is burdened with care, nor is its limit so small
+that he is cramped and thwarted by line fences. If he can give to
+his bit of Eden but little thought and money, he will find that an
+acre can be so laid out as to entail comparatively small expense
+in either the one or the other; if he has the time and taste to
+make the land his play-ground as well as that of his children,
+scope is afforded for an almost infinite variety of pleasing
+labors and interesting experiments. When we come to co-work with
+Nature, all we do has some of the characteristics of an
+experiment. The labor of the year is a game of skill, into which
+also enter the fascinating elements of apparent chance. What a
+tree, a flower, or vegetable bed will give, depends chiefly upon
+us; yet all the vicissitudes of dew, rain, frost, and sun, have
+their part in the result. We play the game with Nature, and she
+will usually let us win if we are not careless, ignorant, or
+stupid. She keeps up our zest by never permitting the game to be
+played twice under the same conditions. We can no more carry on
+our garden this season precisely as we did last year than a
+captain can sail his ship exactly as he did on the preceding
+voyage. A country home makes even the weather interesting; and the
+rise and fall of the mercury is watched with scarcely less
+solicitude than the mutations of the market.
+
+In this chapter and in those which may ensue I merely hope to make
+some useful suggestions and give practical advice--the result of
+experience, my own and others'--which the reader may carry out and
+modify according to his judgment.
+
+We will suppose that an acre has been bought; that it is
+comparatively level, with nothing of especial value upon it--in
+brief, that the home and its surroundings are still to be created.
+
+It is not within my design to treat of the dwelling, its
+architecture, etc., but we shall have something to say further on
+in regard to its location. Before purchasing, the most careful
+investigations should be made as to the healthfulness of the
+region and the opportunities for thorough drainage. Having bought
+the acre, the question of removing all undue accumulations of
+water on or beneath the surface should be attended to at first.
+The dry appearance of the soil during much of the year may be
+misleading. It should be remembered that there are equinoctial
+storms and melting snows. Superabundant moisture at every period
+should have channels of immediate escape, for moisture in excess
+is an injury to plant as well as to family life; while thoroughly
+and quickly drained land endures drought far better than that
+which is rendered heavy and sour by water stagnating beneath the
+surface. Tile-drains are usually the cheapest and most effective;
+but if there are stones and rocks upon the place, they can be
+utilized and disposed of at the same time by their burial in
+ditches--and they should be covered so deeply that a plow,
+although sunk to the beam, can pass over them. Tiles or the top of
+a stone drain should be at least two feet below the surface. If
+the ground of the acre is underlaid with a porous subsoil, there
+is usually an adequate natural drainage.
+
+Making haste slowly is often the quickest way to desired results.
+It is the usual method to erect the dwelling first, and afterward
+to subdue and enrich the ground gradually. This in many instances
+may prove the best course; but when it is practicable, I should
+advise that building be deferred until the land (with the
+exception of the spaces to be occupied with the house and barn)
+can be covered with a heavy dressing of barnyard manure, and that
+this be plowed under in the autumn. Such general enriching of the
+soil may seem a waste in view of the carriage-drive and walks yet
+to be laid out; but this will not prove true. It should be
+remembered that while certain parts of the place are to be kept
+bare of surface-vegetation, they nevertheless will form a portion
+of the root-pasturage of the shade and fruit trees. The land,
+also, can be more evenly and deeply plowed before obstructions are
+placed upon it, and roots, pestiferous weeds, and stones removed
+with greatest economy. Moreover, the good initial enriching is
+capital, hoarded in the soil, to start with. On many new places I
+have seen trees and plants beginning a feeble and uncertain life,
+barely existing rather than growing, because their roots found the
+soil like a table with dishes but without food. If the fertilizer
+is plowed under in the autumn, again mixed with the soil by a
+second plowing in the spring, it will be decomposed and ready for
+immediate use by every rootlet in contact with it. Now, as farmers
+say, the "land is in good heart," and it will cheer its owner's
+heart to see the growth promptly made by whatever is properly
+planted. Instead of losing time, he has gained years. Suppose the
+acre to have been bought in September, and treated as I have
+indicated, it is ready for a generous reception of plants and
+trees the following spring.
+
+Possibly at the time of purchase the acre may be covered with
+coarse grass, weeds, or undergrowth of some kind. In this case,
+after the initial plowing, the cultivation for a season of some
+such crop as corn or potatoes may be of great advantage in
+clearing the land, and the proceeds of the crop would partially
+meet expenses. If the aim is merely to subdue and clean the land
+as quickly as possible, nothing is better than buckwheat, sown
+thickly and plowed under just as it comes into blossom. It is the
+nature of this rampart-growing grain to kill out everything else
+and leave the soil light and mellow. If the ground is encumbered
+with many stones and rocks, the question of clearing it is more
+complicated. They can be used, and often sold to advantage, for
+building purposes. In some instances I have seen laboring-men
+clear the most unpromising plots of ground by burying all rocks
+and stones deeply beneath the surface--men, too, who had no other
+time for the task except the brief hours before and after their
+daily toil.
+
+I shall give no distinct plan for laying out the ground. The taste
+of the owner, or more probably that of his wife, will now come
+into play. Their ideas also will be modified by many local
+circumstances--as, for instance, the undulations of the land, if
+there are any; proximity to neighbors, etc. If little besides
+shade and lawn is desired, this fact will have a controlling
+influence; if, on the other hand, the proprietor wishes to make
+his acre as productive as possible, the house will be built nearer
+the street, wider open space will be left for the garden, and
+fruit-trees will predominate over those grown merely for shade and
+beauty. There are few who would care to follow a plan which many
+others had adopted. Indeed, it would be the natural wish of
+persons of taste to impart something of their own individuality to
+their rural home; and the effort to do this would afford much
+agreeable occupation. Plates giving the elevation and arrangement
+of country homes can be studied by the evening lamp; visits to
+places noted for their beauty, simplicity, and good taste will
+afford motives for many a breezy drive; while useful suggestions
+from what had been accomplished by others may repay for an
+extended journey. Such observations and study will cost little
+more than an agreeable expenditure of time; and surely a home is
+worth careful thought. It then truly becomes YOUR home--something
+that you have evolved with loving effort. Dear thoughts of wife
+and children enter into its very materiality; walks are planned
+with a loving consciousness of the feet which are to tread them,
+and trees planted with prophetic vision of the groups that will
+gather beneath the shade. This could scarcely be true if the acre
+were turned over to architect, builders, and landscape-gardeners,
+with an agreement that you should have possession at a specified
+time.
+
+We will suppose that it is early spring, that the ground has
+received its second plowing, and that the carriage-drive and the
+main walks have been marked out on paper, or, better still, on a
+carefully considered map. There is now so much to do that one is
+almost bewildered; and the old saying, "Rome was not built in a
+day," is a good thing to remember. An orderly succession of labor
+will bring beauty and comfort in good time, especially if
+essential or foundation labors are first well performed. Few
+things will prove more satisfactory than dry, hard, smooth
+carriage-roads and walks. These, with their curves, can be
+carefully staked out, the surface-earth between the stakes to the
+depth of four or five inches carted to the rear of the place near
+the stable, or the place where the stable is to be. Of the value
+of this surface-soil we shall speak presently, and will merely
+remark in passing that it is amply worth the trouble of saving.
+Its removal leaves the beds of the driveway and walks depressed
+several inches below the surrounding surface. Fill these shallow
+excavations with little stones, the larger in the bottom, the
+smaller on top, and cover all with gravel. You now have roads and
+walks that will be dry and hard even in oozy March, and you can
+stroll about your place the moment the heaviest shower is over.
+The greater first cost will be more than made good by the fact
+that scarcely a weed can start or grow on pathways thus treated.
+All they will need is an occasional rounding up and smoothing with
+a rake.
+
+While this labor is going on you can begin the planting of trees.
+To this task I would earnestly ask careful attention. Your house
+can be built in a summer; but it requires a good part of a century
+to build the best trees into anything like perfection.
+
+The usual tendency is to plant much too closely. Observe well-
+developed trees, and see how wide a space they require. There is
+naturally an eager wish for shade as soon as possible, and a
+desire to banish from surroundings an aspect of bareness. These
+purposes can, it is true, often be accomplished by setting out
+more trees at first than could mature, and by taking out one and
+another from time to time when they begin to interfere with each
+other's growth. One symmetrical, noble tree, however, is certainly
+worth more than a dozen distorted, misshapen specimens. If given
+space, every kind of tree and shrub will develop its own
+individuality; and herein lies one of their greatest charms. If
+the oak typifies manhood, the drooping elm is equally suggestive
+of feminine grace, while the sugar-maple, prodigal of its rich
+juices, tasselled bloom, and winged seeds, reminds us of
+wholesome, cheerful natures. Even when dying, its foliage takes on
+the earliest and richest hues of autumn.
+
+The trees about our door become in a sense our companions. They
+appeal to the eye, fancy, and feelings of different people
+differently. Therefore I shall leave the choice of arboreal
+associates to those who are to plant them--a choice best guided by
+observation of trees. Why should you not plant those you like the
+best, those which are the most congenial?
+
+A few suggestions, however, may be useful. I would advise the
+reader not to be in too great haste to fill up his grounds. While
+there are trees to which his choice reverts almost instantly,
+there are probably many other beautiful varieties with which he is
+not acquainted. If he has kept space for the planting of something
+new every spring and fall, he has done much to preserve his zest
+in his rural surroundings, and to give a pleasing direction to his
+summer observation. He is ever on the alert to discover trees and
+shrubs that satisfy his taste.
+
+During the preparation of this book I visited the grounds of Mr.
+A. S. Fuller, at Kidgewood, N. J., and for an hour or two I broke
+the tenth commandment in spite of myself. I was surrounded by
+trees from almost every portion of the northern temperate zone,
+from Oregon to Japan; and in Mr. Fuller I had a guide whose
+sympathy with his arboreal pets was only equalled by his knowledge
+of their characteristics. All who love trees should possess his
+book entitled "Practical Forestry." If it could only be put into
+the hands of law-makers, and they compelled to learn much of its
+contents by heart, they would cease to be more or less conscious
+traitors to their country in allowing the destruction of forests.
+They might avert the verdict of the future, and prevent posterity
+from denouncing the irreparable wrong which is now permitted with
+impunity. The Arnolds of to-day are those who have the power to
+save the trees, yet fail to do so.
+
+Japan appears to be doing as much to adorn our lawns and gardens
+as our drawing-rooms; and from this and other foreign lands much
+that is beautiful or curious is coming annually to our shores. At
+the same time I was convinced of the wisdom of Mr. Fuller's
+appreciation of our native trees. In few instances should we have
+to go far from home to find nearly all that we wanted in beautiful
+variety--maples, dogwoods, scarlet and chestnut oaks, the liquid-
+amber, the whitewood or tulip-tree, white birch, and horn-beam, or
+the hop-tree; not to speak of the evergreens and shrubs indigenous
+to our forests. Perhaps it is not generally known that the
+persimmon, so well remembered by old campaigners in Virginia, will
+grow readily in this latitude. There are forests of this tree
+around Paterson, N. J., and it has been known to endure twenty-
+seven degrees below zero. It is a handsome tree at any season, and
+its fruit in November caused much straggling from our line of
+march in the South. Then there is our clean-boled, graceful beech,
+whose smooth white bark has received so many tender confidences.
+In the neighborhood of a village you will rarely find one of these
+trees whereon is not linked the names of lovers that have sat
+beneath the shade. Indeed I have found mementoes of trysts or
+rambles deep in the forest of which the faithful beech has kept
+the record until the lovers were old or dead. On an immense old
+beech in Tennessee there is an inscription which, while it
+suggests a hug, presents to the fancy an experience remote from a
+lover's embrace. It reads, "D. Boone cilled bar on tree."
+
+There is one objection to the beech which also lies against the
+white oak--it does not drop its leaves within the space of a few
+autumn days. The bleached foliage is falling all winter long, thus
+giving the ground near an untidy aspect. With some, the question
+of absolute neatness is paramount; with others, leaves are clean
+dirt, and their rustle in the wind does not cease to be music even
+after they have fallen.
+
+Speaking of native trees and shrubs, we shall do well to use our
+eyes carefully during our summer walks and drives; for if we do,
+we can scarcely fail to fall in love with types and varieties
+growing wild. They will thrive just as well on the acre if
+properly removed. In a sense they bring the forest with them, and
+open vistas at our door deep into the heart of Nature. The tree is
+not only a thing of beauty in itself, but it represents to the
+fancy all its wild haunts the world over.
+
+In gratifying our taste for native trees we need not confine
+ourselves to those indigenous to our own locality. From the
+nurseries we can obtain specimens that beautify other regions of
+our broad land; as, for instance, the Kentucky yellow-wood, the
+papaw, the Judas-tree, and, in the latitude of New Jersey and
+southward, the holly.
+
+In many instances the purchaser of the acre may find a lasting
+pleasure in developing a specialty. He may desire to gather about
+him all the drooping or weeping trees that will grow in his
+latitude, or he may choose to turn his acre largely into a nut-
+orchard, and delight his children with a harvest which they will
+gather with all the zest of the frisky red squirrel. If one could
+succeed in obtaining a bearing tree of Hale's paper-shell hickory-
+nut, he would have a prize indeed. Increasing attention is given
+to the growing of nut-trees in our large nurseries, and there
+would be no difficulty in obtaining a supply.
+
+In passing from this subject of choice in deciduous trees and
+shrubs, I would suggest, in addition to visits to woods and copse,
+to the well-ornamented places of men who have long gratified a
+fine taste in this respect, that the reader also make time to see
+occasionally a nursery like that of S.B. Parsons & Co., at
+Flushing, N.Y. There is no teaching like that of the eyes; and the
+amateur who would do a bit of landscape-gardening about his own
+home learns what he would like and what he can do by seeing shrubs
+and trees in their various stages of growth and beauty.
+
+I shall treat the subject of evergreens at the close of this
+chapter.
+
+As a rule, I have not much sympathy with the effort to set out
+large trees in the hope of obtaining shade more quickly. The trees
+have to be trimmed up and cut back so greatly that their symmetry
+is often destroyed. They are also apt to be checked in their
+growth so seriously by such removal that a slender sapling,
+planted at the same time, overtakes and passes them. I prefer a
+young tree, straight-stemmed, healthy, and typical of its species
+or variety. Then we may watch its rapid natural development as we
+would that of a child. Still, when large trees can be removed in
+winter with a great ball of frozen earth that insures the
+preservation of the fibrous roots, much time can be saved. It
+should ever be remembered that prompt, rapid growth of the
+transplanted tree depends on two things--plenty of small fibrous
+roots, and a fertile soil to receive them. It usually happens that
+the purchaser employs a local citizen to aid in putting his ground
+in order. In every rural neighborhood there are smart men--"smart"
+is the proper adjective; for they are neither sagacious nor
+trustworthy, and there is ever a dismal hiatus between their
+promises and performance. Such men lie in wait for newcomers, to
+take advantage of their inexperience and necessary absence. They
+will assure their confiding employers that they are beyond
+learning anything new in the planting of trees--which is true, in
+a sinister sense. They will leave roots exposed to sun and wind--
+in brief, pay no more attention to them than a baby-farmer would
+bestow on an infant's appetite; and then, when convenient, thrust
+them into a hole scarcely large enough for a post. They expect to
+receive their money long before the dishonest character of their
+work can be discovered. The number of trees which this class of
+men have dwarfed or killed outright would make a forest. The
+result of a well-meaning yet ignorant man's work might be equally
+unsatisfactory. Therefore, the purchaser of the acre should know
+how a tree should be planted, and see to it himself; or he should
+by careful inquiry select a man for the task who could bring
+testimonials from those to whom he had rendered like services in
+the past.
+
+The hole destined to receive a shade or fruit tree should be at
+least three feet in diameter and two feet deep. It then should be
+partially filled with good surface soil, upon which the tree
+should stand, so that its roots could extend naturally according
+to their original growth. Good fine loam should be sifted through
+and over them, and they should not be permitted to come in contact
+with decaying matter or coarse, unfermented manure. The tree
+should be set as deeply in the soil as it stood when first taken
+up. As the earth is thrown gently through and over the roots it
+should be packed lightly against them with the foot, and water,
+should the season be rather dry and warm, poured in from time to
+time to settle the fine soil about them. The surface should be
+levelled at last with a slight dip toward the tree, so that spring
+and summer rains may be retained directly about the roots. Then a
+mulch of coarse manure is helpful, for it keeps the surface moist,
+and its richness will reach the roots gradually in a diluted form.
+A mulch of straw, leaves, or coarse hay is better than none at
+all. After being planted, three stout stakes should be inserted
+firmly in the earth at the three points of a triangle, the tree
+being its centre. Then by a rope of straw or some soft material
+the tree should be braced firmly between the protecting stakes,
+and thus it is kept from being whipped around by the wind. Should
+periods of drought ensue during the growing season, it would be
+well to rake the mulch one side, and saturate the ground around
+the young tree with an abundance of water, and the mulch afterward
+spread as before. Such watering is often essential, and it should
+be thorough. Unskilled persons usually do more harm than good by
+their half-way measures in this respect.
+
+Speaking of trees, it may so happen that the acre is already in
+forest. Then, indeed, there should be careful discrimination in
+the use of the axe. It may be said that a fine tree is in the way
+of the dwelling. Perhaps the proposed dwelling is in the way of
+the tree. In England the work of "groving," or thinning out trees,
+is carried to the perfection of a fine art. One shudders at the
+havoc which might be made by a stolid laborer. Indeed, to nearly
+all who could be employed in preparing a wooded acre for
+habitation, a tree would be looked upon as little more than so
+much cord-wood or lumber.
+
+If I had a wooded acre I should study the trees most carefully
+before coming to any decision as to the situation of the dwelling
+and out-buildings. Having removed those obviously unworthy to
+remain, I should put in the axe very thoughtfully among the finer
+specimens, remembering that I should be under the soil before
+Nature could build others like them.
+
+In the fitting up of this planet as the home of mankind it would
+appear that the Creator regarded the coniferae, or evergreen
+family, as well worthy of attention; for almost from the first,
+according to geologists, this family records on the rocky tablets
+of the earth its appearance, large and varied development, and its
+adaptation to each change in climate and condition of the globe's
+surface during the countless ages of preparation. Surely,
+therefore, he who is evolving a home on one acre of the earth's
+area cannot neglect a genus of trees that has been so signally
+honored. Evergreens will speedily banish the sense of newness from
+his grounds; for by putting them about his door he has added the
+link which connects his acre with the earliest geological record
+of tree-planting. Then, like Diedrich Knickerbocker, who felt that
+he must trace the province of New York back to the origin of the
+universe, he can look upon his coniferae and feel that his latest
+work is in accord with one of the earliest laws of creation. I
+imagine, however, that my readers' choice of evergreens will be
+determined chiefly by the fact that they are always beautiful, are
+easily managed, and that by means of them beautiful effects can be
+created within comparatively small space. On Mr. Fuller's grounds I
+saw what might be fittingly termed a small parterre of dwarf
+evergreens, some of which were twenty-five years old.
+
+Numbers of this family might be described as evergreen and gold;
+for part of the perennial foliage shades off from the deepest
+green to bright golden hues. Among the group of this variety,
+Japanese in origin, Mr. Fuller showed me a "sporting" specimen,
+which, from some obscure and remarkable impulse, appeared bent on
+producing a new and distinct type. One of the branches was quite
+different from all the others on the tree. It was pressed down and
+layered in the soil beneath; when lo! a new tree was produced, set
+out beside its parent, whom it soon surpassed in size, beauty, and
+general vigor. Although still maintaining its green and golden
+hues, it was so distinct that no one would dream that it was but a
+"sport" from the adjacent dwarf and modest tree. Indeed, it
+reminded one of Beatrix Esmond beside her gentle and retiring
+mother. If it should not in the future emulate in caprice the fair
+subject of comparison, it may eventually become one of the best-
+known ornaments of our lawns. At present it appears nowise
+inclined to hide its golden light under a bushel.
+
+What I have said about forming the acquaintance of deciduous trees
+and shrubs before planting to any great extent, applies with even
+greater force to the evergreen, family. There is a large and
+beautiful variety from which to choose, and I would suggest that
+the choice be made chiefly from the dwarf-growing kinds, since the
+space of one acre is too limited for much indulgence in. Norway
+spruces, the firs, or pines. An hour with a note-book spent in
+grounds like those of Mr. Fuller would do more in aiding a
+satisfactory selection than years of reading. Moreover, it should
+be remembered that many beautiful evergreens, especially those of
+foreign origin, are but half hardy. The amateur may find that
+after an exceptionally severe winter some lovely specimen, which
+has grown to fill a large space in his heart, as well as on his
+acre, has been killed. There is an ample choice from entirely
+hardy varieties for every locality, and these, by careful inquiry
+of trustworthy nurserymen, should be obtained.
+
+Moreover, it should be remembered that few evergreens will thrive
+in a wet, heavy soil. If Nature has not provided thorough drainage
+by means of a porous subsoil, the work must be done artificially.
+As a rule, light but not poor soils, and warm exposures, are best
+adapted to this genus of trees.
+
+I think that all authorities agree substantially that spring in
+our climate is the best time for the transplanting of evergreens;
+but they differ between early and advanced spring. The late Mr. A.
+J. Downing preferred early spring; that is, as soon as the frost
+is out, and the ground dry enough to crumble freely. Mr. A. S.
+Fuller indorses this opinion. Mr. Josiah Hoopes, author of a
+valuable work entitled "The Book of Evergreens," advises that
+transplanting be deferred to later spring, when the young trees
+are just beginning their season's growth; and this view has the
+approval of the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder and Mr. S. B. Parsons,
+Jr., Superintendent of City Parks. Abundant success is undoubtedly
+achieved at both seasons; but should a hot, dry period ensue after
+the later planting--early May, for instance--only abundant
+watering and diligent mulching will save the trees.
+
+It should be carefully remembered that the evergreen families do
+not possess the vitality of deciduous trees, and are more easily
+injured or killed by removal. The roots of the former are more
+sensitive to exposure to dry air and to sunlight; and much more
+certainty of life and growth is secured if the transfer can be
+accomplished in cloudy or rainy weather. The roots should never be
+permitted to become dry, and it is well also to sprinkle the
+foliage at the time of planting. Moreover, do not permit careless
+workmen to save a few minutes in the digging of the trees. Every
+fibrous root that can be preserved intact is a promise of life and
+vigor. If a nurseryman should send me an assortment of evergreens
+with only the large woody roots left, I should refuse to receive
+the trees.
+
+What I have said in opposition to the transplanting of large trees
+applies with greater force to evergreens. Mr. Hoopes writes: "An
+error into which many unpracticed planters frequently fall is that
+of planting large trees; and it is one which we consider opposed
+to sound common-sense. We are aware that the owner of every new
+place is anxious to produce what is usually known as an immediate
+effect, and therefore he proceeds to plant large evergreens,
+covering his grounds with great unsightly trees. In almost every
+case of this kind the lower limbs are apt to die, and thus greatly
+disfigure the symmetry of the trees. Young, healthy plants, when
+carefully taken up and as properly replanted, are never subject to
+this disfigurement, and are almost certain to form handsome
+specimens."
+
+Any one who has seen the beautiful pyramids, cones, and mounds of
+green into which so many varieties develop, if permitted to grow
+according to the laws of their being, should not be induced to
+purchase old and large trees which nurserymen are often anxious to
+part with before they become utterly unsalable.
+
+When the evergreens reach the acre, plant them with the same care
+and on the same general principles indicated for other trees. Let
+the soil be mellow and good. Mulch at once, and water abundantly
+the first summer during dry periods. Be sure that the trees are
+not set any deeper in the ground than they stood before removal.
+If the soil of the acre is heavy or poor, go to the roadside or
+some old pasture and find rich light soil with which to fill in
+around the roots. If no soil can be found without a large
+proportion of clay, the addition of a little sand, thoroughly
+mixed through it, is beneficial. The hole should be ample in size,
+so that the roots can be spread out according to their natural
+bent. If the ground after planting needs enriching, spread the
+fertilizer around the trees, not against them, and on the surface
+only. Never put manure on or very near the roots.
+
+Fine young seedling evergreens can often be found in the woods or
+fields, and may be had for the asking, or for a trifling sum. Dig
+them so as to save all the roots possible. Never permit these to
+become dry till they are safe in your own grounds. Aim to start
+the little trees under the same conditions in which you found them
+in Nature. If taken from a shady spot, they should be shaded for a
+season or two, until they become accustomed to sunlight. This can
+easily be accomplished by four crotched stakes supporting a light
+scaffolding, on which is placed during the hot months a few
+evergreen boughs.
+
+Very pretty and useful purposes can often be served by the
+employment of certain kinds of evergreens as hedges. I do not like
+the arbitrary and stiff divisions of a small place which I have
+often seen. They take away the sense of roominess, and destroy the
+possibility of pretty little vistas; but when used judiciously as
+screens they combine much beauty with utility. As part of line
+fences they are often eminently satisfactory, shutting out prying
+eyes and inclosing the home within walls of living green. The
+strong-growing pines and Norway spruce are better adapted to large
+estates than to the area of an acre. Therefore we would advise the
+employment of the American arbor vitae and of hemlock. The hedge
+of the latter evergreen on Mr. Fuller's place formed one of the
+most beautiful and symmetrical walls I have ever seen. It was so
+smooth, even, and impervious that in the distance it appeared like
+solid emerald.
+
+The ground should be thoroughly prepared for a hedge by deep
+plowing or by digging; the trees should be small, young, of even
+height and size, and they should be planted carefully in line,
+according to the directions already given for a single specimen;
+the ground on each side mulched and kept moist during the first
+summer. In the autumn, rake the mulch away and top-dress the soil
+on both sides for the space of two or three feet outward from the
+stems with well-decayed manure. This protects the roots and
+ensures a vigorous growth the coming season. Allow no weeds or
+even grass to encroach on the young hedge until it is strong and
+established. For the first year no trimming will be necessary
+beyond cutting back an occasional branch or top that is growing
+stronger than the others; and this should be done in early
+October. During the second season the plants should grow much more
+strongly; and now the shears are needed in summer. Some branches
+and top shoots will push far beyond the others. They should be cut
+back evenly, and in accordance with the shape the hedge is to
+take. The pyramidal form appears to me to be the one most in
+harmony with Nature. In October, the hedge should receive its
+final shearing for the year; and if there is an apparent
+deficiency of vigor, the ground on both sides should receive
+another top-dressing, after removing the summer mulch. As the
+hedge grows older and stronger, the principal shearing will be
+done in early summer, as this checks growth and causes the close,
+dense interlacing of branches and formation of foliage wherein the
+beauty and usefulness of the hedge consist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FRUIT-TREES AND GRASS
+
+
+It is a happy proof of our civilization that a dwelling-place, a
+shelter from sun and storm, does not constitute a home. Even the
+modest rooms of our mechanics are not furnished with useful
+articles merely; ornaments and pictures appear quite as
+indispensable. Out-of-doors the impulse to beautify is even
+stronger; and usually the purchaser's first effort is to make his
+place attractive by means of trees and shrubs that are more than
+useful--they are essential; because the refined tastes of men and
+women to-day demand them.
+
+In the first chapter I endeavored to satisfy this demand in some
+degree, and now will ask the reader's attention to a few practical
+suggestions in regard to several of the fruits which best supply
+the family need. We shall find, however, that while Nature is
+prodigal in supplying what appeals to the palate and satisfies
+hunger, she is also like a graceful hostess who decks her banquet
+with all the beauty that she can possibly bestow upon it. We can
+imagine that the luscious fruits of the year might have been
+produced in a much more prosaic way. Indeed, we are at a loss to
+decide which we value the more, the apple-blossoms or the apples
+which follow. Nature is not content with bulk, flavor, and
+nutriment, but in the fruit itself so deftly pleases the eye with
+every trick of color and form that the hues and beauty of the
+flower are often surpassed. We look at a red-cheeked apple or
+purple cluster of grapes hesitatingly, and are loth to mar the
+exquisite shadings and perfect outlines of the vessel in which the
+rich juices are served. Therefore, in stocking the acre with
+fruit, the proprietor has not ceased to embellish it; and should
+he decide that fruit-trees must predominate over those grown for
+shade and ornament only, he can combine almost as much beauty as
+utility with his plan.
+
+All the fruits may be set out both in the spring and the fall
+seasons; but in our latitude and northward, I should prefer early
+spring for strawberries and peaches.
+
+By this time we may suppose that the owner of the acre has matured
+his plans, and marked out the spaces designed for the lawn,
+garden, fruit trees, vines, etc. Fruit trees, like shade trees,
+are not the growth of a summer. Therefore there is natural
+eagerness to have them in the ground as soon as possible, and they
+can usually be ordered from the same nursery, and at the same time
+with the ornamental stock. I shall speak first of apples, pears,
+and cherries, and I have been at some pains to secure the opinions
+of eminent horticulturists as to the best selections of these
+fruits for the home table, not for market. When there is a
+surplus, however, there will be no difficulty in disposing of the
+fine varieties named.
+
+The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, the veteran President of the American
+Pomological Society, writes as follows: "Herewith is the selection
+I have made for family use; but I could put in as many more in
+some of the classes which are just as desirable, or nearly so.
+These have been made with reference to covering the seasons.
+Apples--Red Astrakhan, Porter, Gravenstein, Rhode Island Greening,
+Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, and Sweet Bough for baking. Pears--
+Clapp's Favorite (to be gathered August 20), Bartlett, Seckel,
+Sheldon, Beurre Bosc, Buerre d'Anjou, and Vicar of Winkfield for
+baking, etc. Cherries--Black Eagle, Black Tartarian, Downer,
+Windsor, Cumberland, and Red Jacket."
+
+Mr. Wilder's honored name, like that of the late Charles Downing,
+is inseparably linked with American fruits, and the country owes
+these two men a debt of gratitude which never can be paid for
+their lifelong and intelligent efforts to guide the people wisely
+in the choice and culture of the very best varieties. A moment's
+thought will convince the reader that I am not giving too much
+space to this matter of selection. We are now dealing with
+questions which wide and varied experience can best answer. Men
+who give their lives to the cultivation and observation of fruits
+in all their myriad varieties acquire a knowledge which is almost
+invaluable. We cannot afford to put out trees, to give them good
+culture, and wait for years, only to learn that all our care has
+been bestowed on inferior or second-rate varieties. Life is too
+brief. We all feel that the best is good enough for us; and the
+best usually costs no more in money or time than do less desirable
+varieties. Therefore I seek to give on this important question of
+choice the opinions of some of the highest authorities in the
+land.
+
+Mr. A. S. Fuller is not only a well-known horticultural author,
+but has also had the widest experience in the culture and
+observation of fruit. He prefaces his opinion with the following
+words: "How much and how often we horticulturists have been
+puzzled with questions like yours! If we made no progress, were
+always of the same mind, and if seasons never changed, then
+perhaps there would be little difficulty in deciding which of the
+varieties of the different kinds of fruit were really the best.
+But seasons, our tastes, and even the varieties sometimes change;
+and our preferences and opinions must vary accordingly. Apples--
+Early Harvest, Fall Pippins, Spitzenburgh, Rhode Island Greening,
+Autumn Sweet Bough, and Talman's Sweet. Cherries--Early Purple
+Guigne, Bigarreau of Mezel, Black Eagle, Coe's Transparent,
+Governor Wood, and Belle Magnifique."
+
+The choice of Mr. E. S. Carmen, editor of the "Rural New Yorker:"
+"Apples--Early Harvest, Gravenstein, Jefferis, Baldwin, Mother,
+Spitzenburgh. Pears--Seckel, Tyson, Clapp's Favorite, Bartlett,
+Beurre d'Anjou, and Dana's Hovey. Cherries--Black Tartarian, Coe's
+Transparent, Governor Wood, Mezel, Napoleon Bigarreau."
+
+The authorities appear to differ. And so they would in regard to
+any locality; but it should be remembered that President Wilder
+advises for the latitude of Massachusetts, Messrs. Fuller and
+Carmen for that of New Jersey. I will give now the selection of
+the eminent horticulturist Mr. P. O. Berckmans for the latitude of
+Georgia: "Cherries (this is not a good cherry-producing region,
+but I name the following as the best in order of merit)--Buttners,
+Governor Wood, Belle de Choisy, Early Richmond, and May Duke.
+Pears (in order of maturity)--Clapp's Favorite, Seckel, Duchesse,
+Beurre Superfine, Leconte, Winter Nellis, or Glout. Morceau.
+Apples--Early Harvest, Red June, Carter's Blue, Stevenson's
+Winter, Shockley, Buncombe, Carolina Greening."
+
+He who makes his choice from these selections will not meet with
+much disappointment. I am aware, however, that the enjoyment of
+fruit depends much upon the taste of the individual; and who has a
+better right to gratify his taste than the man who buys, sets out,
+and cares for the trees? Some familiar kind not in favor with the
+fruit critics, an old variety that has become a dear memory of
+boyhood, may be the best one of all for him--perhaps for the
+reason that it recalls the loved faces that gathered about the
+wide, quaint fireplace of his childhood's home.
+
+It is also a well-recognized fact that certain varieties of fruit
+appear to be peculiarly adapted to certain localities. Because a
+man has made a good selection on general principles, he need not
+be restricted to this choice. He will soon find his trees growing
+lustily and making large branching heads. Each branch can be made
+to produce a different kind of apple or pear, and the kindred
+varieties of cherries will succeed on the same tree. For instance,
+one may be visiting a neighbor who gives him some fruit that is
+unusually delicious, or that manifest great adaptation to the
+locality. As a rule the neighbor will gladly give scions which,
+grafted upon the trees of the Home Acre, will soon begin to yield
+the coveted variety. This opportunity to grow different kinds of
+fruit on one tree imparts a new and delightful interest to the
+orchard. The proprietor can always be on the lookout for something
+new and fine, and the few moments required in grafting or budding
+make it his. The operation is so simple and easy that he can learn
+to perform it himself, and there are always plenty of adepts in
+the rural vicinage to give him his initial lesson. While he will
+keep the standard kinds for his main supply, he can gratify his
+taste and eye with some pretty innovations. I know of an apple-
+tree which bears over a hundred varieties. A branch, for instance,
+is producing Yellow Bell-flowers. At a certain point in its growth
+where it has the diameter of a man's thumb it may be grafted with
+the Red Baldwin. When the scion has grown for two or three years,
+its leading shoots can be grafted with the Roxbury Russet, and
+eventually the terminal bough of this growth with the Early
+Harvest. Thus may be presented the interesting spectacle of one
+limb of a tree yielding four very distinct kinds of apples.
+
+In the limited area of an acre there is usually not very much
+range in soil and locality. The owner must make the best of what
+he has bought, and remedy unfavorable conditions, if they exist,
+by skill. It should be remembered that peaty, cold, damp, spongy
+soils are unfit for fruit-trees of any kind. We can scarcely
+imagine, however, that one would buy land for a home containing
+much soil of this nature. A sandy loam, with a subsoil that dries
+out so quickly that it can be worked after a heavy rain, is the
+best for nearly all the fruit-trees, especially for cherries and
+peaches. Therefore in selecting the ground, be sure it is well
+drained.
+
+If the acre has been enriched and plowed twice deeply, as I have
+already suggested, little more is necessary in planting than to
+excavate a hole large enough to receive the roots spread out in
+their natural positions. Should no such thorough and general
+preparation have been made, or if the ground is hard, poor, and
+stony, the owner will find it to his advantage to dig a good-sized
+hole three or four feet across and two deep, filling in and around
+the tree with fine rich surface soil. If he can obtain some
+thoroughly decomposed compost or manure, for instance, as the
+scrapings of a barnyard, or rich black soil from an old pasture,
+to mix with the earth beneath and around the roots, the good
+effects will be seen speedily; but in no instance should raw
+manure from the stable, or anything that must decay before
+becoming plant food, be brought in contact with the roots. Again I
+repeat my caution against planting too deeply--one of the
+commonest and most fatal errors. Let the tree be set about as
+deeply as it stood before removal. If the tree be planted early in
+spring, as it should be, there will be moisture enough in the
+soil; but when planting is delayed until the ground has become
+rather dry and warm, a pail of water poured about its roots when
+the hole has been nearly filled will be beneficial. Now that the
+tree is planted, any kind of coarse manure spread to the depth of
+two or three inches on the surface as a mulch is very useful.
+Stake at once to protect against the winds. Do not make the common
+mistake of planting too closely. Observe the area shaded by fully
+grown trees, and you will learn the folly of crowding. Moreover,
+dense shade about the house is not desirable. There should be
+space for plenty of air and sunshine. The fruit from one well-
+developed tree will often more than supply a family; for ten or
+fifteen barrels of apples is not an unusual yield. The standard
+apples should be thirty feet apart. Pears, the dwarfer-growing
+cherries, plums, etc., can be grown in the intervening spaces. In
+ordering from the nurseries insist on straight, shapely, and young
+trees, say three years from the bud. Many trees that are sent out
+are small enough, but they are old and stunted. Also require that
+there should be an abundance of fibrous and unmutilated roots.
+
+Because the young trees come from the nursery unpruned, do not
+leave them in that condition. Before planting, or immediately
+after, cut back all the branches at least one-half; and where they
+are too thick, cut out some altogether. In removal the tree has
+lost much of its root power, and it is absurd to expect it to
+provide for just as much top as before.
+
+In many books on fruit-culture much space has been given to dwarf
+pears, apples, and cherries, and trees of this character were
+planted much more largely some years ago than they are at present.
+The pear is dwarfed by grafting it on the quince; the apple can be
+limited to a mere garden fruit-tree in size by being grown on a
+Doucin stock, or even reduced to the size of a bush if compelled
+to draw its life through the roots of the Paradise. These two
+named stocks, much employed by European nurserymen, are distinct
+species of apples, and reproduce themselves without variation from
+the seed. The cherry is dwarfed by being worked on the Mahaleb--a
+small, handsome tree, with glossy, deep-green foliage, much
+cultivated abroad as an ornament of lawns. Except in the hands of
+practiced gardeners, trees thus dwarfed are seldom satisfactory,
+for much skill and care are required in their cultivation. Their
+chief advantages consist in the fact that they bear early and take
+but little space. Therefore they may be considered worthy of
+attention by the purchasers of small places. Those who are
+disposed to make pets of their trees and to indulge in
+horticultural experiments may derive much pleasure from these
+dwarfs, for they can be developed into symmetrical pyramids or
+graceful, fruitful shrubs within the limits of a garden border.
+
+When the seeds of ordinary apples and pears are sown they produce
+seedlings, or free stocks, and upon these are budded or grafted
+the fine varieties which compose our orchards. They are known as
+standard trees; they come into bearing more slowly, and eventually
+attain the normal size familiar to us all. Standard cherries are
+worked on seedlings of the Mazzard, which Barry describes as a
+"lofty, rapid-growing, pyramidal-headed tree." I should advise the
+reader to indulge in the dwarfs very charily, and chiefly as a
+source of fairly profitable amusement. It is to the standards that
+he will look for shade, beauty, and abundance of fruit.
+
+Since we have been dwelling on the apple, pear, and cherry, there
+are certain advantages of continuing the subject in the same
+connection, giving the principles of cultivation and care until
+the trees reach maturity. During the first summer an occasional
+watering may be required in long periods of drought. In many
+instances buds will form and start along the stem of the tree, or
+near the roots. These should be rubbed off the moment they are
+detected.
+
+One of our chief aims is to form an evenly balanced, open,
+symmetrical head; and this can often be accomplished better by a
+little watchfulness during the season of growth than at any other
+time. If, for instance, two branches start so closely together
+that one or the other must be removed in the spring pruning, why
+let the superfluous one grow at all? It is just so much wasted
+effort. By rubbing off the pushing bud or tender shoot the
+strength of the tree is thrown into the branches that we wish to
+remain. Thus the eye and hand of the master become to the young
+tree what instruction, counsel, and admonition are to a growing
+boy, with the difference that the tree is easily and certainly
+managed when taken in time.
+
+The study of the principles of growth in the young trees can be
+made as pleasing as it is profitable, for the readiness with which
+they respond to a guiding hand will soon invest them with almost a
+human interest. A child will not show neglect more certainly than
+they; and if humored and allowed to grow after their own fashion,
+they will soon prove how essential are restraint and training. A
+fruit tree is not like one in a forest--a simple, unperverted
+product of Nature. It is a result of human interference and
+development; and we might just as reasonably expect our domestic
+animals to take care of themselves as our grafted and budded
+trees. Moreover, they do not comply with their raison d'etre by
+merely existing, growing, and propagating their kind. A Bartlett
+pear-tree, like a Jersey cow, is given place for the sake of its
+delicious product. It is also like the cow in requiring judicious
+feeding and care.
+
+Trees left to themselves tend to form too much wood, like the
+grape-vine. Of course fine fruit is impossible when the head of a
+tree is like a thicket. The growth of unchecked branches follows
+the terminal bud, thus producing long naked reaches of wood devoid
+of fruit spurs. Therefore the need of shortening in, so that side
+branches may be developed. When the reader remembers that every
+dormant bud in early spring is a possible branch, and that even
+the immature buds at the axil of the leaves in early summer can be
+forced into immediate growth by pinching back the leading shoot,
+he will see how entirely the young tree is under his control.
+These simple facts and principles are worth far more to the
+intelligent man than any number of arbitrary rules as to pruning.
+Reason and observation soon guide his hand in summer or his knife
+in March--the season when trees are usually trimmed.
+
+Beyond shortening in leading branches and cutting out crossing and
+interfering boughs, so as to keep the head symmetrical and open to
+light and air, the cherry does not need very much pruning. If with
+the lapse of years it becomes necessary to take off large limbs
+from any fruit-tree, the authorities recommend early June as the
+best season for the operation.
+
+It will soon be discovered--quite likely during the first summer--
+that fruit-trees have enemies, that they need not only cultivation
+and feeding, but also protection. The pear, apple, and quince are
+liable to one mysterious disease which it is almost impossible to
+guard against or cure--the fireblight. Of course there have been
+innumerable preventives and cures recommended, just as we see a
+dozen certain remedies for consumption advertised in any popular
+journal; but the disease still remains a disheartening mystery,
+and is more fatal to the pear than to its kindred fruits. I have
+had thrifty young trees, just coming into bearing, suddenly turn
+black in both wood and foliage, appearing in the distance as if
+scorched by a blast from a furnace. In another instance a large
+mature tree was attacked, losing in a summer half its boughs.
+These were cut out, and the remainder of the tree appeared healthy
+during the following summer, and bore a good crop of fruit. The
+disease often attacks but a single branch or a small portion of a
+tree. The authorities advise that everything should be cut away at
+once below all evidence of infection and burned. Some of my trees
+have been attacked and have recovered; others were apparently
+recovering, but died a year or two later. One could theorize to
+the end of a volume about the trouble. I frankly confess that I
+know neither the cause nor the remedy. It seems to me that our
+best resource is to comply with the general conditions of good and
+healthy growth. The usual experience is that trees which are
+fertilized with wood-ashes and a moderate amount of lime and salt,
+rather than with stimulating manures, escape the disease. If the
+ground is poor, however, and the growth feeble, barnyard manure or
+its equivalent is needed as a mulch. The apple-blight is another
+kindred and equally obscure disease. No better remedy is known
+than to cut out the infected part at once.
+
+In coping with insects we can act more intelligently, and
+therefore successfully. We can study the characters of our
+enemies, and learn their vulnerable points. The black and green
+aphides, or plant-lice, are often very troublesome. They appear in
+immense numbers on the young and tender shoots of trees, and by
+sucking their juices check or enfeeble the growth. They are the
+milch-cows of ants, which are usually found very busy among them.
+Nature apparently has made ample provision for this pest, for it
+has been estimated that "one individual in five generations might
+be the progenitor of six thousand millions." They are easily
+destroyed, however. Mr. Barry, of the firm of Ellwanger & Barry,
+in his excellent work "The Fruit Garden," writes as follows: "Our
+plan is to prepare a barrel of tobacco juice by steeping stems for
+several days, until the juice is of a dark brown color; we then
+mix this with soap-suds. A pail is filled, and the ends of the
+shoots, where the insects are assembled, are bent down and dipped
+in the liquid. One dip is enough. Such parts as cannot be dipped
+are sprinkled liberally with a garden-syringe, and the application
+repeated from time to time, as long as any of the aphides remain.
+The liquid may be so strong as to injure the foliage; therefore it
+is well to test it on one or two subjects before using it
+extensively. Apply it in the evening."
+
+The scaly aphis or bark-louse attacks weak, feeble-growing trees,
+and can usually be removed by scrubbing the bark with the
+preparation given above.
+
+In our region and in many localities the apple-tree borer is a
+very formidable pest, often destroying a young tree before its
+presence is known. I once found a young tree in a distant part of
+my place that I could push over with my finger. In June a brown
+and white striped beetle deposits its eggs in the bark of the
+apple-tree near the ground. The larvae when hatched bore their way
+into the wood, and will soon destroy a small tree. They cannot do
+their mischief, however, without giving evidence of their
+presence. Sawdust exudes from the holes by which they entered, and
+there should be sufficient watchfulness to discover them before
+they have done much harm. I prefer to cut them out with a sharp,
+pointed knife, and make sure that they are dead; but a wire thrust
+into the hole will usually pierce and kill them. Wood-ashes
+mounded up against the base of the tree are said to be a
+preventive. In the fall they can be spread, and they at least make
+one of the best of fertilizers.
+
+The codling-moth, or apple-worm, is another enemy that should be
+fought resolutely, for it destroys millions of bushels of fruit.
+In the latitude of New York State this moth begins its
+depredations about the middle of June. Whatever may be thought of
+the relation of the apple to the fall of man, this creature
+certainly leads to the speedy fall of the apple. Who has not seen
+the ground covered with premature and decaying fruit in July,
+August, and September? Bach specimen will be found perforated by a
+worm-hole. The egg has been laid in the calyx of the young apple,
+where it soon hatches into a small white grub, which burrows into
+the core, throwing out behind it a brownish powder. After about
+three weeks of apple diet it eats its way out, shelters itself
+under the scaly bark of the tree--if allowed to be scaly--or in
+some other hiding-place, spins a cocoon, and in about three weeks
+comes out a moth, and is ready to help destroy other apples. This
+insect probably constitutes one of Nature's methods of preventing
+trees from overbearing; but like some people we know, it so
+exaggerates its mission as to become an insufferable nuisance. The
+remedies recommended are that trees should be scraped free of all
+scales in the spring, and washed with a solution of soft soap.
+About the 1st of July, wrap bandages of old cloth, carpet, or rags
+of any kind around the trunk and larger limbs. The worms will
+appreciate such excellent cover, and will swarm into these hiding-
+places to undergo transformation into moths. Therefore the wraps
+of rags should often be taken down, thrown into scalding water,
+dried, and replaced. The fruit as it falls should be picked up at
+once and carried to the pigs, and, when practicable, worm-infested
+specimens should be taken from the trees before the worm escapes.
+
+The canker-worm in those localities where it is destructive can be
+guarded against by bands of tar-covered canvas around the trees.
+The moth cannot fly, but crawls up the tree in the late autumn and
+during mild spells in winter, but especially throughout the spring
+until May. When, the evil-disposed moth meets the 'tarry band he
+finds no thoroughfare, and is either caught or compelled to seek
+some other arena of mischief.
+
+We have all seen the flaunting, unsightly abodes of the tent
+caterpillar and the foliage-denuded branches about them.
+Fortunately these are not stealthy enemies, and the owner can
+scarcely see his acre at all without being aware of their
+presence. He has only to look very early in the morning or late in
+the evening to find them all bunched up in their nests. These
+should be taken down and destroyed.
+
+Cherry and pear slugs, "small, slimy, dark brown worms," can be
+destroyed by dusting the trees with dry wood ashes or air-slacked
+lime.
+
+Field-mice often girdle young trees, especially during the winter,
+working beneath the snow. Unless heaps of rubbish are left here
+and there as shelter for these little pests, one or two good cats
+will keep the acre free of them. Treading the snow compactly
+around the tree is also practiced.
+
+Do not let the reader be discouraged by this list of the most
+common enemies, or by hearing of others. After reading some
+medical works we are led to wonder that the human race does not
+speedily die out. As a rule, however, with moderate care, most of
+us are able to say, "I'm pretty well, I thank you," and when
+ailing we do not straightway despair. In spite of all enemies and
+drawbacks, fruit is becoming more plentiful every year. If one man
+can raise it, so can another.
+
+Be hospitable to birds, the best of all insect destroyers. Put up
+plenty of houses for bluebirds and wrens, and treat the little
+brown song-sparrow as one of your stanchest friends.
+
+A brief word in regard to the quince, and our present list of
+fruits is complete.
+
+If the quince is cultivated after the common neglectful method, it
+would better be relegated to an obscure part of the garden, for,
+left to itself, it makes a great sprawling bush; properly trained,
+it becomes a beautiful ornament to the lawn, like the other fruits
+that I have described. Only a little care, with the judicious use
+of the pruning-shears, is required to develop it into a miniature
+and fruitful tree, which can be grown with a natural rounded head
+or in the form of a pyramid, as the cultivator chooses. It will
+thrive well on the same soil and under similar treatment accorded
+to the pear or the apple. Procure from a nursery straight-stemmed
+plants; set them out about eight feet apart; begin to form the
+head three feet from the ground, and keep the stem and roots free
+from all sprouts and suckers. Develop the head just as you would
+that of an apple-tree, shortening in the branches, and cutting out
+those that interfere with each other. Half a dozen trees will soon
+give an ample supply. The orange and the pear shaped are the
+varieties usually recommended. Rea's Mammoth is also highly spoken
+of. Remember that the quince equally with the apple is subject to
+injury from the borer, and the evil should be met as I have
+already described.
+
+There is a natural wish to have as much grass about the dwelling
+as possible, for nothing is more beautiful. If there are children,
+they will assuredly petition for lawn-tennis and croquet grounds.
+I trust that their wishes may be gratified, for children are worth
+infinitely more than anything else that can be grown upon the
+acre. With a little extra care, all the trees of which I have
+spoken can be grown in the spaces allotted to grass. It is only
+necessary to keep a circle of space six feet in diameter--the
+trunk forming the centre--around the tree mellow and free from any
+vegetable growth whatever. This gives a chance to fertilize and
+work the ground immediately over the roots. Of course vigorous
+fruit-trees cannot be grown in a thick sod, while peaches and
+grapes require the free culture of the garden, as will be shown
+hereafter. In view, however, of the general wish for grass, I have
+advised on the supposition that all the ornamental trees, most of
+the shrubs, and the four fruits named would be grown on the
+portions of the acre to be kept in lawn. It may be added here that
+plums also will do well under the same conditions, if given good
+care.
+
+Grass is a product that can be cultivated as truly as the most
+delicate and fastidious of fruits, and I had the lawn is mind when
+I urged the generous initial deep plowing and enriching. Nothing
+that grows responds more promptly to good treatment than grass;
+but a fine lawn cannot be created in a season, any more than a
+fine tree.
+
+We will suppose that the spring plantings of trees have been made
+with open spaces reserved for the favorite games. Now the ground
+can be prepared for grass-seed, for it need not be trampled over
+any more. If certain parts have become packed and hard, they
+should be dug or plowed deeply again, then harrowed and raked
+perfectly smooth, and all stones, big or little, taken from the
+surface. The seed may now be sown, and it should be of thick,
+fine-growing varieties, such as are employed in Central Park and
+other pleasure-grounds. Mr. Samuel Parsons, Jr., Superintendent of
+Central Park, writes me: "The best grass-seeds for ordinary lawns
+are a mixture of red-top and Kentucky blue-grass in equal parts,
+with perhaps a small amount of white clover. On very sandy ground
+I prefer the Kentucky blue-grass, as it is very hardy and vigorous
+under adverse circumstances." Having sown and raked in the seed
+very lightly a great advantage will be gained in passing a lawn-
+roller over the ground. I have succeeded well in getting a good
+"catch" of grass by sowing the seed with oats, which were cut and
+cured as hay as soon as the grain was what is termed "in the
+milk." The strong and quickly growing oats make the ground green
+in a few days, and shelter the slower maturing grass-roots. Mr.
+Parsons says, "I prefer to sow the grass-seed alone." As soon as
+the grass begins to grow with some vigor, cut it often, for this
+tends to thicken it and produce the velvety effect that is so
+beautiful. From the very first the lawn will need weeding. The
+ground contains seeds of strong growing plants, such as dock,
+plantain, etc., which should be taken out as fast as they appear.
+To some the dandelion is a weed; but not to me, unless it takes
+more than its share of space, for I always miss these little earth
+stars when they are absent. They intensify the sunshine shimmering
+on the lawn, making one smile involuntarily when seeing them.
+Moreover, they awaken pleasant memories, for a childhood in which
+dandelions had no part is a defective experience.
+
+In late autumn the fallen leaves should be raked carefully away,
+as they tend to smother the grass if permitted to lie until
+spring. Now comes the chief opportunity of the year, in the form
+of a liberal top-dressing of manure from the stable. If this is
+spread evenly and not too thickly in November, and the coarser
+remains of it are raked off early in April, the results will be
+astonishing. A deep emerald hue will be imparted to the grass, and
+the frequent cuttings required will soon produce a turf that
+yields to the foot like a Persian rug. Any one who has walked over
+the plain at West Point can understand the value of these regular
+autumnal top-dressings. If the stable-manure can be composted and
+left till thoroughly decayed, fine and friable, all the better. If
+stable-manure can not be obtained, Mr. Parsons recommends Mapes's
+fertilizer for lawns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE GARDEN
+
+
+We now approach that part of the acre to which its possessor will
+probably give his warmest and most frequent thoughts--the garden.
+If properly made and conducted, it will yield a revenue which the
+wealth of the Indies could not purchase; for whoever bought in
+market the flavor of fruit and vegetables raised by one's own
+hands or under our own eyes? Sentiment does count. A boy is a boy;
+but it makes a vast difference whether he is our boy or not. A
+garden may soon become a part of the man himself, and he be a
+better man for its care. Wholesome are the thoughts and schemes it
+suggests; healthful are the blood and muscle resulting from its
+products and labor therein. Even with the purse of a millionaire,
+the best of the city's markets is no substitute for a garden; for
+Nature and life are here, and these are not bought and sold. From
+stalls and pedlers' wagons we can buy but dead and dying things.
+The indolent epicure's enjoyment of game is not the relish of the
+sportsman who has taken his dinner direct from the woods and
+waters.
+
+I am often told, "It is cheaper to buy fruit and vegetables than
+to raise them." I have nothing to say in reply. There are many
+cheap things that we can have; experience has proved that one of
+the BEST things to have is a garden, either to work in or to visit
+daily when the season permits. We have but one life to live here,
+and to get the cheapest things out of it is a rather poor
+ambition.
+
+There are multitudes who can never possess an acre, more or less,
+and who must obtain Nature's products at second hand. This is not
+so great a misfortune as to have no desire for her companionship,
+or wish to work under her direction in dewy mornings and shadowy
+evenings. We may therefore reasonably suppose that the man who has
+exchanged his city shelter for a rural home looks forward to the
+garden with the natural, primal instinct, and is eager to make the
+most of it in all its aspects. Then let us plunge in medias res at
+once.
+
+The ideal soil for a garden is a mellow, sandy loam, underlaid
+with a subsoil that is not too open or porous. Such ground is
+termed "grateful," and it is not the kind of gratitude which has
+been defined as "a lively appreciation of favors to come," which
+is true of some other soils. This ideal land remembers past
+favors; it retains the fertilizers with which it has been
+enriched, and returns them in the form of good crops until the
+gift is exhausted; therefore it is a thrifty as well as a grateful
+soil. The owner can bring it up to the highest degree of
+fertility, and keep it there by judicious management. This sandy
+loam--Nature's blending of sand and clay--is a safe bank. The
+manure incorporated with it is a deposit which can be drawn
+against in fruit and vegetables, for it does not leach away and
+disappear with one season's rains.
+
+Light, thin, sandy soil, with a porous or gravelly subsoil, is of
+a very different type, and requires different treatment. It is a
+spendthrift. No matter how much you give it one year, it very soon
+requires just so much more. You can enrich it, but you can't keep
+it rich. Therefore you must manage it as one would take care of a
+spendthrift, giving what is essential at the time, and in a way
+that permits as little waste as possible. I shall explain this
+treatment more fully further on.
+
+In the choice of a garden plot you may be restricted to a stiff,
+tenacious, heavy clay. Now you have a miser to deal with--a soil
+that retains, but in many cases makes no proper use of, what it
+receives. Skill and good management, however, can improve any
+soil, and coax luxuriant crops from the most unpropitious.
+
+We will speak first of the ideal soil already mentioned, and hope
+that the acre contains an area of it of suitable dimensions for a
+garden. What should be the first step in this case? Why, to get
+more of it. A quarter of an acre can be made equal to half an
+acre. You can about double the garden, without adding to it an
+inch of surface, by increasing the depth of good soil. For
+instance, ground has been cultivated to the depth of six or seven
+inches. Try the experiment of stirring the soil and enriching it
+one foot downward, or eighteen inches, or even two feet, and see
+what vast differences will result. With every inch you go down,
+making all friable and fertile, you add just so much more to root
+pasturage. When you wish to raise a great deal, increase your
+leverage. Roots are your levers; and when they rest against a deep
+fertile soil they lift into the air and sunshine products that may
+well delight the eyes and palate of the most fastidious. We
+suggest that this thorough deepening, pulverization, and enriching
+of the soil be done at the start, when the plow can be used
+without any obstructions. If there are stones, rocks, roots,
+anything which prevents the treatment which a garden plot should
+receive, there is a decided advantage in clearing them all out at
+the beginning. Last fall I saw a half-acre that was swampy, and so
+encumbered with stones that one could walk all over it without
+stepping off the rocks. The land was sloping, and therefore
+capable of drainage. The proprietor put three men to work on the
+lower side with picks, shovels, and blasting-tools. They turned
+the soil over to the depth of eighteen inches, taking out every
+stone larger than a walnut. Eight or ten feet apart deep ditches
+were cut, and the stones, as far as possible, placed in these. The
+rest were carted away for a heavy wall. You may say it was
+expensive work. So it was; yet so complete a garden spot was made
+that I believe it would yield a fair interest in potatoes alone. I
+relate this instance to show what can be done. A more forbidding
+area for a garden in its original state could scarcely be found.
+Enough vegetables and fruit can be raised from it hereafter, with
+annual fertilizing, to supply a large family, and it will improve
+every year under the refining effects of frost, sun, and
+cultivation.
+
+It should be remembered that culture does for soil what it does
+for men and women. It mellows, brings it up, and renders it
+capable of finer products. Much, indeed, can be done with a crude
+piece of land in a single year when treated with the thoroughness
+that has been suggested, and some strong-growing vegetables may be
+seen at their best during the first season; but the more delicate
+vegetables thrive better with successive years of cultivation. No
+matter how abundantly the ground may be enriched at first, time
+and chemical action are required to transmute the fertilizers into
+the best forms of plant-food, and make them a part of the very
+soil itself. Plowing or spading, especially if done in late
+autumn, exposes the mould to the beneficial action of the air and
+frost, and the garden gradually takes on the refined, mellow,
+fertile character which distinguishes it from the ordinary field.
+
+In dealing with a thin, sandy soil, one has almost to reverse the
+principles just given. Yet there is no cause for discouragement.
+Fine results, if not the best, can be secured. In this case there
+is scarcely any possibility for a thorough preparation of the soil
+from the start. It can gradually be improved, however, by making
+good its deficiencies, the chief of which is the lack of vegetable
+mould. If I had such soil I would rake up all the leaves I could
+find, employ them as bedding for my cow and pigs (if I kept any),
+and spread the compost-heap resulting on the sandy garden. The
+soil is already too light and warm, and it should be our aim to
+apply fertilizers tending to counteract this defect. A nervous,
+excitable person should let stimulants alone, and take good,
+solid, blood-making food. This illustration suggests the proper
+course to be taken. Many a time I have seen action the reverse of
+this resulting disastrously. For instance, a man carts on his
+light thin soil hot fermenting manure from the horse-stable, and
+plows it under. Seeds are planted. In the moist, cool, early
+spring they make a great start, feeling the impulse of the
+powerful stimulant. There is a hasty and unhealthful growth; but
+long before maturity the days grow long and hot, drought comes,
+and the garden dries up. Therefore every effort should be made to
+supply cool manures with staying qualities, such as are furnished
+by decayed vegetable matter composted with the cleanings of the
+cow-stable. We thus learn the value of fallen leaves, muck from
+the swamp, etc.; and they also bring with them but few seeds of
+noxious vegetation.
+
+On the other hand, stolid, phlegmatic clay requires the stimulus
+of manure from the horse-stable. It can be plowed under at once,
+and left to ferment and decay in the soil. The process of
+decomposition will tend to banish its cold, inert qualities, and
+make the ground loose, open, and amenable to the influences of
+frost, sun, and rain.
+
+Does the owner of light, warm soils ask, "What, then, shall I do
+with my stable-manure, since you have said that it will be an
+injury to my garden?" I have not said this--only that it will do
+harm if applied in its raw, hot, fermenting state. Compost it with
+leaves, sod, earth, muck, anything that will keep it from burning
+up with its own heat. If you can obtain no such ingredients, have
+it turned over and exposed to the air so often that it will decay
+without passing through a process approaching combustion. When it
+has become so thoroughly decomposed as to resemble a fine black
+powder, you have a fertilizer superior to any high-priced patent
+compound that can be bought. Further on I will show how it can be
+used both in this state and also in its crude condition on light
+soils with the best results.
+
+It is scarcely possible to lay too much stress on this subject of
+fertilizers. The soil of the garden-plot looks inert: so does
+heavy machinery; but apply to it the proper motive power, and you
+have activity at once. Manure is the motive power to soil, and it
+should be applied in a way and degree to secure the best results.
+To produce some vegetables and fruits much is required; in other
+growths, very little.
+
+In laying out a garden there are several points to be considered.
+The proprietor may be more desirous of securing some degree of
+beauty in the arrangement than of obtaining the highest condition
+of productiveness. If this be true, he may plan to make down its
+centre a wide, gravelled walk, with a grape-arbor here and there,
+and fruit-trees and flowers in borders on each side of the path.
+So far from having any objection to this arrangement, I should be
+inclined to adopt it myself. It would be conducive to frequent
+visits to the garden and to lounging in it, especially if there be
+rustic seats under the arbors. I am inclined to favor anything
+which accords with my theory that the best products of a garden
+are neither eaten nor sold. From such a walk down the middle of
+the garden the proprietor can glance at the rows of vegetables and
+small fruits on either side, and daily note their progress. What
+he loses in space and crops he gains in pleasure.
+
+Nor does he lose much; for if the borders on each side of the path
+are planted with grape-vines, peach and plum trees, flowers and
+shrubs, the very ground he walks on becomes part of their root
+pasturage. At the same time it must be admitted that the roots
+will also extend with depleting appetites into the land devoted to
+vegetables. The trees and vines above will, to some extent, cast
+an unwholesome shade. He who has set his heart on the biggest
+cabbages and best potatoes in town must cultivate them in ground
+open to the sky, and unpervaded by any roots except their own. If
+the general fruitfulness of the garden rather than perfection in a
+few vegetables is desired, the borders, with their trees, vines,
+and flowers, will prove no objection. Moreover, when it comes to
+competing in cabbages, potatoes, etc., the proprietor of the Home
+Acre will find that some Irishman, by the aid of his redolent pig-
+pen, will surpass him. The roots and shade extending from his
+borders will not prevent him from growing good vegetables, if not
+the largest.
+
+We will therefore suppose that, as the simplest and most
+economical arrangement, he has adopted the plan of a walk six feet
+wide extending through the centre of his garden. As was the case
+with the other paths, it will be greatly to his advantage to stake
+it out and remove about four inches of the surface-soil, piling it
+near the stable to be used for composting purposes or in the
+earth-closet. The excavation thus made should be filled with small
+stones or cinders, and then covered with fine gravel. A walk that
+shall be dry at all times is thus secured, and it will be almost
+wholly free from weeds. In these advantages alone one is repaid
+for the extra first cost, and in addition the rich surface soil
+obtained will double the bulk and value of the fertilizers with
+which it is mixed.
+
+Having made the walk, borders five feet wide can be laid out on
+each side of it, and the soil in these should be as rich and deep
+as any other parts of the garden. What shall be planted in these
+borders will depend largely on the tastes of the gardener; but, as
+has been suggested, there will assuredly be one or more shadowy
+grape-arbors under which the proprietor can retire to provide
+horticultural strategy. This brings us to that chef-d'oeuvre of
+Nature--
+
+The vine. It climbs by its tendrils, and they appear to have
+clasped the heart of humanity. Among the best of Heaven's gifts,
+it has sustained the worst perversions. But we will refrain from a
+temperance lecture; also from sacred and classical reminiscences.
+The world is not composed of monks who thought to escape
+temptation--and vainly too--in stony cells. To some the purple
+cluster suggests Bacchanal revelry; to others, sitting under one's
+own vine and fig-tree--in brief, a home. The vine is like woman,
+the inspiration of the best and the worst.
+
+It may well become one of the dreams of our life to own land, if
+for no other reason than that of obtaining the privilege of
+planting vines. As they take root, so will we, and after we have
+eaten their delicious fruit, the very thought of leaving our acre
+will be repugnant. The literature of the vine would fill a
+library; the literature of love would crowd many libraries. It is
+not essential to read everything before we start a little vineyard
+or go a-courting.
+
+It is said that about two thousand known and named varieties of
+grapes have been and are being grown in Europe; and all these are
+supposed to have been developed from one species (Vitis vinifera),
+which originally was the wild product of Nature, like those
+growing in our thickets and forests. One can scarcely suppose this
+possible when contemplating a cluster of Tokay or some other
+highly developed variety of the hot-house. Yet the native vine,
+which began to "yield fruit after his kind, the third day"
+(whatever may have been the length of that day), may have been,
+after all, a good starting-point in the process of development.
+One can hardly believe that the "one cluster of grapes" which the
+burdened spies, returning from Palestine, bore "between two of
+them upon a staff," was the result of high scientific culture. In
+that clime, and when the world was young, Nature must have been
+more beneficent than now. It is certain that no such cluster ever
+hung from the native vines of this land; yet it is from our wild
+species, whose fruit the Indians shared with the birds and foxes
+(when not hanging so high as to be sour), that we have developed
+the delicious varieties of our out-door vineyards. For about two
+centuries our forefathers kept on planting vines imported from
+Europe, only to meet with failure. Nature, that had so abundantly
+rewarded their efforts abroad, quietly checkmated them here. At
+last American fruit-growers took the hint, and began developing
+our native species. Then Nature smiled; and as a lure along this
+correct path of progress, gave such incentives as the Isabella,
+the Catawba, and Concord. We are now bewildered by almost as great
+a choice of varieties from native species as they have abroad; and
+as an aid to selection I will again give the verdict of some of
+the authorities.
+
+The choice of the Hon. Norman J. Colman, Commissioner of
+Agriculture: "Early Victor, Worden, Martha, Elvira, Cynthiana."
+This is for the region of Missouri. For the latitude of New
+Jersey, A.S. Fuller's selection: "Delaware, Concord, Moore's
+Early, Antoinette (white), Augusta (white), Goethe (amber)." E.S.
+Carmen: "Moore's Early [you cannot praise this too much. The
+quality is merely that of the Concord; but the vines are marvels
+of perfect health, the bunches large, the berries of the largest
+size. They ripen all at once, and are fully ripe when the Concord
+begins to color], Worden, Brighton, Victoria (white), Niagara
+(white), El Dorado. [This does not thrive everywhere, but the
+grapes ripen early--September 1, or before--and the quality is
+perfection--white.]" Choice of P.J. Berckman, for the latitude of
+Georgia: "White grapes--Peter Wylie, Triumph, Maxatawny,
+Scuppernong. Bed grapes--Delaware, Berckman's, Brighton. Black--
+Concord, Ives."
+
+As I have over a hundred varieties in bearing, I may venture to
+express an opinion also. I confess that I am very fond of those
+old favorites of our fathers, the Isabella and Catawba. They will
+not ripen everywhere in our latitude, yet I seldom fail to secure
+a good crop. In the fall of 1885 we voted the Isabella almost
+unsurpassed. If one has warm, well-drained soil, or can train a
+vine near the south side of a building, I should advise the trial
+of this fine old grape. The Iona, Brighton, and Agawam also are
+great favorites with me. We regard the Diana, Wyoming Red,
+Perkins, and Rogers' hybrids, Lindley, Wilder, and Amenia, as
+among the best. The Rebecca, Duchess, Lady Washington, and Purity
+are fine white grapes. I have not yet tested the Niagara. Years
+ago I obtained of Mr. James Ricketts, the prize-taker for seedling
+grapes, two vines of a small wine grape called the Bacchus. To my
+taste it is very pleasant after two or three slight frosts.
+
+Our list of varieties is long enough, and one must be fastidious
+indeed who does not find some to suit his taste. In many
+localities the chief question is, What kind CAN I grow? In our
+favored region on the Hudson almost all the out-door grapes will
+thrive; but as we go north the seasons become too cool and short
+for some kinds, and proceeding south the summers are too long and
+hot for others. The salt air of the sea-coast is not conducive to
+vine-culture, and only the most vigorous, like the Concord and
+Moore's Early, will resist the mildew blight. We must therefore do
+the best we can, and that will be very well indeed in most
+localities.
+
+Because our list of good grapes is already so long, it does not
+follow that we have reached the limit of development by any means.
+When we remember that almost within a lifetime our fine varieties
+have been developed from the wild northern Fox grape (Vitis
+labrusca), the Summer grape (oestivalis), Frost (cordifolia), we
+are led to think that perhaps we have scarcely more than crossed
+the stile which leads into the path of progress. If I should live
+to keep up my little specimen vineyard ten years longer, perhaps
+the greater part of the varieties now cultivated will have given
+place to others. The delicious Brighton requires no more space
+than a sour, defective variety; while the proprietor starts with
+the best kinds he can obtain, he will find no restraint beyond his
+own ignorance or carelessness that will prevent his replacing the
+Brighton with a variety twice as good when it is developed. Thus
+vine-planting and grape-tasting stretch away into an alluring and
+endless vista.
+
+When such exchanges are made, we do not recommend the grafting of
+a new favorite on an old vine. This is a pretty operation when one
+has the taste and leisure for it, and a new, high-priced variety
+can sometimes be obtained speedily and cheaply in this way.
+Usually, however, new kinds soon drop down within the means of
+almost any purchaser, and there are advantages in having each
+variety growing upon its own root. Nature yields to the skill of
+the careful gardener, and permits the insertion of one distinct
+variety of fruit upon another; but with the vine she does not
+favor this method of propagation and change, as in the case of
+pears and apples, where the graft forms a close, tenacious union
+with the stock in which it is placed. Mr. Fuller writes: "On
+account of the peculiar structure of the wood of the vine, a
+lasting union is seldom obtained when grafted above-ground, and is
+far from being certain even when grafted below the surface, by the
+ordinary method." The vine is increased so readily by easy and
+natural methods, to be explained hereafter, that he who desires
+nothing more than to secure a good supply of grapes for the table
+can dismiss the subject. On the other hand, those who wish to
+amuse themselves by experimenting with Nature can find abundant
+enjoyment in not only grafting old vines, but also in raising new
+seedlings, among which he may obtain a prize which will "astonish
+the natives." Those, however, whose tastes carry them to such
+lengths in vine-culture will be sure to purchase exhaustive
+treatises on the subject, and will therefore give no heed to these
+simple practical chapters. It is my aim to enable the business man
+returning from his city office, or the farmer engrossed with the
+care of many acres, to learn in a few moments, from time to time,
+just what he must do to supply his family abundantly with fruits
+and vegetables.
+
+If one is about to adopt a grape-culture as a calling, common-
+sense requires that he should locate in some region peculiarly
+adapted to the vine. If the possessor of a large farm purposes to
+put several acres in vineyard, he should also aim to select a soil
+and exposure best suited to his purpose. Two thousand years ago
+Virgil wrote, "Nor let thy vineyard bend toward the sun when
+setting." The inference is that the vines should face the east, if
+possible; and from that day to this, eastern and southern
+exposures have been found the best. Yet climate modifies even this
+principle. In the South, I should plant my vineyard on a north-
+western slope, or on the north side of a belt of woods, for the
+reason that the long, hot days there would cause too rapid an
+evaporation from the foliage of the vines, and enfeeble, if not
+kill them. In the limited space of the Home Acre one can use only
+such land as he has, and plant where he must; but if the favorable
+exposures indicated exist, it would be well to make the most of
+them. I can mention, however, as encouragement to many, that I
+saw, last fall, splendid grapes growing on perfectly level and
+sandy soil in New Jersey.
+
+A low-lying, heavy, tenacious clay is undoubtedly the worst ground
+in which to plant a vine; and yet by thorough drainage, a liberal
+admixture of sand, and light fertilizers, it can be made to
+produce good grapes of some varieties. A light sandy soil, if
+enriched abundantly with well-decayed vegetable and barnyard
+manures, gives wider scope in choice of kinds; while on the ideal
+well-drained sandy loam that we have described, any outdoor grape
+can be planted hopefully if the garden is sufficiently removed
+from the seaboard.
+
+As a general truth it may be stated that any land in a condition
+to produce a fine crop of corn and potatoes is ready for the vine.
+This would be true of the entire garden if the suggestions
+heretofore made have been carried out. Therefore the borders which
+have been named are ready to receive the vines, which may be
+planted in either spring or fall. I prefer the fall season for
+several reasons. The ground is usually drier then, and crumbles
+more finely; the young vine becomes well established and settled
+in its place by spring, and even forms new roots before the
+growing season begins, and in eight cases out of ten makes a
+stronger growth than follows spring planting; it is work
+accomplished when there is usually the greatest leisure. If the
+ground is ready in EARLY spring, I should advise no delay. A
+year's growth is gained by setting out the vines at once. As a
+rule I do not advise late spring planting--that is, after the buds
+have started on the young vines. They may live, but usually they
+scarcely do more, the first year.
+
+In ordering from a nursery I should ask for vigorous, well-rooted
+two-year-old vines, and I should be almost as well contented with
+first-class one-year-olds. If any one should advertise "extra
+large, strong vines, ready to bear at once," I should have nothing
+to do with him. That's a nursery trick to get rid of old stock.
+The first year after the shock of removal a vine should not be
+permitted to bear at all; and a young vigorous vine is worth a
+dozen old stunted ones.
+
+Having procured the vines, keep them in a cool, moist place until
+ready to plant. Never permit the roots to become dry; and if some
+of them are long and naked, shorten them to two feet, so as to
+cause them to throw out side fibrous roots, which are the true
+feeders. Excavate holes of ample size, so that all the roots may
+be spread out naturally. If you have reason to think the ground is
+not very good, two or three quarts of fine bone-dust thoroughly
+mixed with the soil that is placed on and about the roots will
+give a fine send-off. Usually a good mulch of any kind of barnyard
+manure placed on the SURFACE after planting will answer all
+purposes. Before filling in the hole over the roots, place beside
+the vine a stout stake six or seven feet high. This will be all
+the support required the first year. Cut back the young vine to
+three buds, and after they get well started, let but one grow. If
+the planting is done in the fall, mound the earth up over the
+little vine at the approach of winter, so as to cover it at least
+six inches below the surface. In spring uncover again as soon as
+hard frosts are over--say early April in our latitude. Slow-
+growing varieties, like the Delaware, may be set out six feet
+apart; strong growers, like the Concord, eight feet. Vines can not
+be expected to thrive under the shade of trees, or to fight an
+unequal battle in ground filled with the roots of other plants.
+
+Vines may be set out not only in the garden borders, but also in
+almost any place where their roots will not be interfered with,
+and where their foliage will receive plenty of light and air. How
+well I remember the old Isabella vines that clambered on a trellis
+over the kitchen door at my childhood's home! In this sunny
+exposure, and in the reflected heat of the building, the clusters
+were always the sweetest and earliest ripe. A ton of grapes may be
+secured annually by erecting trellises against the sides of
+buildings, walls, and poultry yard, while at the same time the
+screening vines furnish grateful shade and no small degree of
+beauty. With a little petting, such scattered vines are often
+enormously productive. An occasional pail of soapsuds gives them a
+drink which eventually flushes the thickly hanging clusters with
+exquisite color. People should dismiss from their minds the usual
+method of European cultivation, wherein the vines are tied to
+short stakes, and made to produce their fruit near the ground.
+This method can be employed if we find pleasure in the experiment.
+At Mr. Fuller's place I saw fine examples of it. Stubby vines with
+stems thick as one's wrist rose about three feet from the ground,
+then branched off on every side, like an umbrella, with loads of
+fruit. Only one supporting stake was required. This method
+evidently is not adapted to our climate and species of grape,
+since in that case plenty of keen, practical fruit-growers would
+have adopted it. I am glad this is true, for the vine-clad hills
+of France do not present half so pleasing a spectacle as an
+American cornfield. The vine is beautiful when grown as a vine,
+and not as a stub; and well-trained, well-fed vines on the Home
+Acre can be developed to almost any length required, shading and
+hiding with greenery every unsightly object, and hanging their
+finest clusters far beyond the reach of the predatory small boy.
+
+We may now consider the vines planted and growing vigorously, as
+they will in most instances if they have been prepared for and
+planted according to the suggestions already given. Now begins the
+process of guiding and assisting Nature. Left to herself, she will
+give a superabundance of vine, with sufficient fruit for purposes
+of propagation and feeding the birds. Our object is to obtain the
+maximum of fruit from a minimum of vine. The little plant, even
+though grown from a single bud, will sprawl all over everything
+near it in three or four years, if unchecked. Pruning may begin
+even before midsummer of the first year. The single green shoot
+will by this time begin to produce what are termed "laterals." The
+careful cultivator who wishes to throw all the strength and growth
+into the main shoot will pinch these laterals back as soon as they
+form one leaf. Each lateral will start again from the axil of the
+leaf that has been left, and having formed another leaf, should
+again be cut off. By repeating this process during the growing
+season you have a strong single cane by fall, reaching probably
+beyond the top of the supporting stake. In our latitude I advise
+that this single cane--that is, the vine--be cut back to within
+fifteen inches of the surface when the leaves have fallen and the
+wood has well-ripened--say about the middle of November--and that
+the part left be bent over and covered with earth. When I say
+"bent over," I do not mean at right angles, so as to admit of the
+possibility of its being broken, but gently and judiciously. I
+cover with earth all my vines, except the Concords and Isabellas,
+just before hard freezing weather; and even these two hardy kinds
+I weight down close to the ground. I have never failed to secure a
+crop from vines so treated. Two men will protect over a hundred
+vines in a day.
+
+In early April the young vine is uncovered again; and now the two
+uppermost buds are allowed to grow and form two strong canes,
+instead of one, and on this new growth four or five clusters of
+grapes may be permitted to mature if the vine is vigorous. If it
+is feeble, take off all the fruit, And stimulate the vine into
+greater vigor. Our aim is not to obtain half a dozen inferior
+clusters as soon as possible, but to produce a vine that will
+eventually almost supply a family by itself. If several varieties
+have been planted, some will be found going ahead rampantly;
+others will exhibit a feebler growth, which can be hastened and
+greatly increased by enriching the surface of the soil around them
+and by a pail of soap-suds now and then in May or June--but not
+later, unless there should be a severe drought. There should be no
+effort to produce much growth during the latter part of the summer
+and early autumn, for then both the wood and roots will be
+immature and unripened when frost begins, and thus the vine
+receive injury. For this reason it is usually best to apply
+fertilizers to vines in the fall; for if given in the spring, a
+late, unhealthful growth is often produced. Throughout all
+subsequent years manure must be applied judiciously. You may tell
+the hired man to top-dress the ground about the vines, and he will
+probably treat all alike; a vine that is already growing so
+strongly that it can scarcely be kept within bounds will receive
+as much as one that is slow and feeble in its development. This is
+worse than waste. Each vine should be treated in accordance with
+its condition and habit of growth. What would be thought of a
+physician who ordered a tonic for an entire family, giving as much
+to one who might need depleting, as to another who, as country
+people say, was "puny and ailin'?" With even an assortment of half
+a dozen varieties we shall find after the first good start that
+some need a curb, and others a spur.
+
+Stakes will answer as supports to the vines during the first and
+second seasons; but thereafter trellises or arbors are needed. The
+latter will probably be employed over the central walk of the
+garden, and may be constructed after several simple and pretty
+designs, which I leave to the taste of the reader. If vines are
+planted about buildings, fences, etc., trellises may be made of
+anything preferred--of galvanized wire, slats, or rustic poles
+fastened to strong, durable supports. If vines are to be trained
+scientifically in the open garden, I should recommend the
+trellises figured on pages 120 and 142 of Mr. Fuller's work, "The
+Grape Culturist." These, beyond anything I have seen, appear the
+best adapted for the following out of a careful system of pruning
+and training. Such a system Mr. Fuller has thoroughly and lucidly
+explained in the above-named book.
+
+Unless the reader has had experience, or is willing to give time
+for the mastery of this subject, I should advise that he employ an
+experienced gardener to prune his vines after the second year. It
+is a brief task, but a great deal depends upon it. In selecting a
+man for the work I should require something more than exaggerated
+and personal assurances. In every village there are terrible
+butchers of vines and fruit-trees, who have some crude system of
+their own. They are as ignorant of the true science of the subject
+as a quack doctor of medicine, and, like the dispenser of
+nostrums, they claim to be infallible. Skilful pruning and
+training is really a fine art, which cannot be learned in a day or
+a year. It is like a surgical operation, requiring but little
+time, yet representing much acquired skill and experience. In
+almost every locality there are trustworthy, intelligent
+gardeners, who will do this work for a small sum until the
+proprietor has learned the art himself, if so inclined. I should
+also employ the same man in spring to tie up the vines and train
+them.
+
+If one is not ambitious to secure the best results attainable, he
+can soon learn to perform both the tasks well enough to obtain
+fairly good fruit in abundance. It should be our constant aim not
+to permit long, naked reaches of wood, in one part of the vine,
+and great smothering bunches of fruit and foliage in another part.
+Of course the roots, stem, and leading arms should be kept free
+from useless shoots and sprouts; but having reached the trellis,
+the vine should be made to distribute bearing fruit-spurs evenly
+over it. Much can be learned about pruning from books and by
+watching an expert gardener while giving the annual pruning; but
+the true science of trimming a vine is best acquired by watching
+buds develop, by noting what they will do, where they go, and how
+much space they will take up in a single summer. In this way one
+will eventually realize how much is wrapped up in the
+insignificant little buds, and now great the folly of leaving too
+many on the vine.
+
+In my next chapter I shall treat briefly of the propagation of the
+grape, its insect enemies, diseases, etc.; and also of some other
+fruits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD
+
+
+He who proposes to plant grape-vines will scarcely fail to take
+the sensible course of inspecting the varieties already producing
+fruit in his locality. From causes often too obscure to be learned
+with certainty, excellent kinds will prove to be well adapted to
+one locality, and fail in others. If, therefore, when calling on a
+neighbor during August, September, or October, we are shown a vine
+producing fruit abundantly that is suited to our taste, a vine
+also which manifests unmistakable vigor, we may be reasonably sure
+that it belongs to a variety which we should have, especially if
+it be growing in a soil and exposure somewhat similar to our
+garden plot. A neighbor worthy of the name will be glad to give us
+a few cuttings from his vine at the time of its annual pruning;
+and with, very little trouble we also may soon possess the desired
+variety. When the vine is trimmed, either make yourself or have
+your friend make a few cuttings of sound wood from that season's
+growth. About eight inches is a good length for these vine-slips,
+and they should contain at least two buds. Let each slip be cut
+off smoothly just under the lowest bud, and extend an inch or two
+above the uppermost bud. If these cuttings are obtained in
+November or December, they may be put into a little box with some
+of the moist soil of the garden, and buried in the ground below
+the usual frost-line--say a foot or eighteen inches in our
+latitude. The simple object is to keep them in a cool, even
+temperature, but not a frosty one. Early in April dig up the box,
+open a trench in a moist but not wet part of the garden, and
+insert the cuttings perpendicularly in the soil, so that the upper
+bud is covered barely one inch. In filling up the trench, press
+the soil carefully yet firmly about the cuttings, and spread over
+the surface just about them a little fine manure. The cuttings
+should be a foot apart from each other in the row. Do not let the
+ground become dry about them at any time during the summer. By
+fall these cuttings will probably have thrown out an abundance of
+roots, and have made from two to three feet of vine. In this case
+they can be taken up and set out where they are to fruit. Possibly
+but one or two of them have started vigorously. The backward ones
+had better be left to grow another year in the cutting bed.
+Probably we shall not wish to cultivate more than one or two vines
+of the variety; but it is just as easy to start several cuttings
+as one, and by this course we guard against failure, and are able
+to select the most vigorous plant for our garden. By taking good
+care of the others we soon derive one of the best pleasures which
+our acre can afford--that of giving to a friend something which
+will enhance the productiveness of his acre, and add to his
+enjoyment for years to come.
+
+Not only on our neighbor's grounds, but also on our own we shall
+discover that some varieties are unusually vigorous, productive,
+and well-adapted to our locality; and we may very naturally wish
+to have more vines of the same sort, especially if the fruit is to
+our taste. We can either increase this kind by cuttings, as has
+been described, or we can layer part of the vine that has won our
+approval by well-doing. I shall take the latter course with
+several delicious varieties in my vineyard. Some kinds of grapes
+do not root readily as cuttings, but there is little chance of
+failure in layering. This process is simply the laying down of a
+branch of a vine in early spring, and covering it lightly with
+soil, so that some buds will be beneath the surface, and others
+just at or a little above it. Those beneath will form roots, the
+others shoots which by fall should be good vines for planting.
+Every bud that can reach the air and light will start upward, and
+thus there may be a thick growth of incipient vines that will
+crowd and enfeeble each other. The probabilities are that only two
+or three new vines are wanted; therefore all the others should be
+rubbed off at the start, so that the strength of the parent plant
+and of the new roots that are forming may go into those few shoots
+designed to become eventually a part of our vineyard. If we wish
+only one vine, then but one bud should grow from the layer; if two
+vines, then two buds. The fewer buds that are permitted to grow,
+the stronger vines they make.
+
+It must be remembered that this layer, for the greater part of the
+growing season, is drawing its sustenance from the parent plant,
+to which it is still attached. Therefore the other branches of
+this vine thus called upon for unusual effort should be permitted
+to fruit but sparingly. We should not injure and enfeeble the
+original vine in order to get others like it. For this reason we
+advise that no more buds be permitted to grow from the layer than
+we actually need ourselves. To injure a good vine and deprive
+ourselves of fruit that we may have plants to give away, is to
+love one's neighbor better than one's self--a thing permitted, but
+not required. When our vines are pruned, we can make as many
+cuttings as we choose, either to sell or give away.
+
+The ground in which a layer is placed should be very rich, and its
+surface round the young growing vines always kept moist and free
+from weeds. In the autumn, after the leaves have fallen and the
+wood is ripe and hard, cut off the layered branch close to the
+vine, and with a garden-fork gently and carefully lift it, with
+all its roots and young vines attached, out of the soil. First cut
+the young vines back to three or four buds, then separate them
+from the branch from which they grew, being sure to give each
+plant plenty of roots, and the roots BACK of the point from which
+it grew; that is, those roots nearest the parent plant from which
+the branch was layered. All the old wood of the branch that is
+naked, free of roots, should be cut off. The young shoots thus
+separated are now independent vines, and may be set out at once
+where they are to fruit. If you have a variety that does not do
+well, or that you do not like, dig it out, enrich the soil, and
+put one of your favorites in its place.
+
+We will now consider briefly the diseases and insect enemies of
+the grape. A vine way be doomed to ill-health from its very
+situation. Mr. Hussman, a grape-culturist of great experience and
+wide observation, writes: "Those localities may generally be
+considered safe for the grape in which there are no miasmatic
+influences. Where malaria and fevers prevail, there is no safety
+for the crop, as the vine seems to be as susceptible to such
+influences as human beings."
+
+Taking this statement literally, we may well ask, Where, then, can
+grapes be grown? According to physicians, malaria has become one
+of the most generally diffused products of the country. When a man
+asserts that it is not in his locality, we feel sure that if
+pressed he will admit that it is "round the corner." Country
+populations still survive, however, and so does grape-culture. Yet
+there are low-lying regions which from defective drainage are
+distinctively and, it would almost seem, hopelessly malarial. In
+such localities but few varieties of the vine will thrive, The
+people who are compelled to live there, or who choose to do so,
+should experiment until they obtain varieties so hardy and
+vigorous that they will triumph over everything. The best course
+with grape-diseases is not to have them; in other words, to
+recognize the fact at once that certain varieties of the grape
+will not thrive and be productive of good fruit unless the soil
+and climate suit them. The proprietor of the Home Acre can usually
+learn by a little inquiry or observation whether grapes thrive in
+his locality. If there is much complaint of mildew, grape-rot, and
+general feebleness of growth, he should seek to plant only the
+most hardy and vigorous kinds.
+
+As I have said before, our cultivated grapes are derived from
+several native species found growing wild, and some now valued
+highly for wine-making are nothing but wild grapes domesticated;
+as, for instance, Norton's Virginia, belonging to the oestivalis
+class. The original plant of this variety was found growing upon
+an island in the Potomac by Dr. Norton, of Virginia.
+
+The species from which the greatest number of well-known grapes is
+obtained is the Vitis labrusca, the common wild or fox grape,
+found growing in woods and thickets, usually where the ground is
+moist, from Canada to the Gulf. The dark purple berries, averaging
+about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, ripen in September,
+and they contain a tough, musky pulp. Yet this "slip of
+wilderness" is the parent of the refined Catawba, the delicious
+Brighton, and the magnificent white grape Lady Washington--indeed,
+of all the black, red, and white grapes with which most people are
+familiar. Our earliest grapes, which ripen in August, as well as
+some of the latest, like the Isabella, come from the labrusca
+species. It is said that the labrusca class will not thrive in the
+extreme South; and with the exception of the high mountain slopes,
+this appears reasonable to the student of the vine. It is said
+that but few of this class will endure the long hot summers of
+France. But there are great differences among the varieties
+derived from this native species. For example, the Concord thrives
+almost anywhere, while even here upon the Hudson we can scarcely
+grow the Catawba with certainty. It is so good a grape, however,
+that I persist in making the effort, with varying success; but I
+should not recommend it, or many of its class, for those
+localities not specially suited to the grape.
+
+I will now name a few varieties which have proved to be, or
+promise to be, the most thrifty and productive whereever grapes
+can be grown at all the labrusca class: Black--Concord, Wilder,
+Worden, Amenia, Early Canada, Telegraph or Christine, Moore's
+Early. Red-Wyoming, Goethe, Lindley, Beauty, Brighton, Perkins
+(pale red), and Agawam. White--Rebecca, Martha, Alien's Hybrid,
+Lady Pocklington, Prentiss, Lady Washington. These are all fine
+grapes, and they have succeeded throughout wide areas of country.
+Any and all are well worth a trial; but if the grower finds that
+some of them are weak and diseased in his grounds, I should advise
+that he root them out and replace them with those which thrive.
+The Niagara is highly praised, and may make good all that is
+claimed for it.
+
+Of the aestivalis class I can recommend the Cynthiana and the
+Herbemont, or Warren, for the extreme South. Both of them are
+black. There are new varieties of this vigorous species which
+promise well.
+
+The cordifolia species promises to furnish some fine, hardy, and
+productive grapes, of which the Amber is an example. The Elvira, a
+pale yellow grape, is highly praised by Mr. Hussman. Although the
+Bacchus is distinctively a wine grape, I have already said that
+its flavor, when fully ripe, was agreeable to me. The only
+difficulty in growing it is to keep the ground poor, and use the
+pruning-knife freely.
+
+I have enlarged on this point, for I wish to direct the mind of
+the reader to the fact that there are many very hardy grapes. I
+congratulate those who, with the taste of a connoisseur, have
+merely to sample until they find just the varieties that suit
+them, and then to plant these kinds in their genial soil and
+favored locality.
+
+At the same time I should like to prevent others from worrying
+along with unsatisfactory varieties, or from reaching the
+conclusion that they can not grow grapes in their region or
+garden. Let them rather admit that they can not raise some kinds,
+but may others. If a variety were persistently diseased, feeble,
+and unproductive under good treatment, I should root it out rather
+than continue to nurse and coddle it.
+
+When mildew and grape-rot first appear, the evil can often be
+remedied in part by dusting the vines with sulphur, and continuing
+the process until the disease is cured, if it ever is. I have
+never had occasion to do this, and will not do it. A variety that
+often requires such nursing in this favored locality should be
+discarded.
+
+There is one kind of disease, or feebleness rather, to which we
+are subject everywhere, and from which few varieties are exempt.
+It is the same kind of weakness which would be developed in a fine
+sound horse if we drove him until he dropped down every time we
+took him out. Cultivated vines are so far removed from their
+natural conditions that they will often bear themselves to death,
+like a peach-tree. To permit this is a true instance of avarice
+overreaching itself; or the evil may result from ignorance or
+neglect. Close pruning in autumn and thinning out the crowding
+clusters soon after they have formed is the remedy. If a vine had
+been so enfeebled, I should cut it back rigorously, feed it well,
+and permit it to bear very little fruit, if any, for a year.
+
+Of insect enemies we have the phylloxera of bad eminence, which
+has so dismayed Europe. The man who could discover and patent an
+adequate remedy in France might soon rival a Rothschild in his
+wealth. The remedy abroad is also ours--to plant varieties which
+are phylloxera-proof, or nearly so. Fortunately we have many which
+defy this pestiferous little root-louse, and European vine-growers
+have been importing them by the million. They are still used
+chiefly as stocks on which to graft varieties of the vinifera
+species. In California, grapes of the vinifera or European species
+are generally cultivated; but the phylloxera is at its destructive
+work among them. The wine-grapes of the future throughout the
+world may be developed from the hardy cestivalis and cordifolia
+classes. In many localities, even in this new land, varieties like
+the Delaware succumb to this scourge of foreign vineyards.
+
+The aphis, or plant-louse, sometimes attacks the young, tender
+shoots of the vine. The moment they appear, take off the shoot,
+and crush it on a board with the foot. Leaf-rollers, the grape-
+vine sphinx, and caterpillars in general must be caught by hand
+and killed. Usually they are not very numerous. The horrid little
+rose-chafers or rose-bugs are sometimes very destructive. Our best
+course is to take a basin of water and jar them off into it--they
+fall readily--and then scald them to death. We may discover lady-
+bugs--small red or yellow and black beetles--among our vines, and
+many persons, I fear, will destroy them with the rest. We should
+take off our hats to them and wish them godspeed. In their
+destruction of aphides and thrips they are among our best friends.
+The camel-cricket is another active destroyer of injurious
+insects. Why do not our schools teach a little practical natural
+history? Once, when walking in the Catskills, I saw the burly
+driver of a stage-load of ladies bound out of his vehicle to kill
+a garter-snake, the pallid women looking on, meanwhile, as if the
+earth were being rid of some terrible and venomous thing. They
+ought to have known that the poor little reptile was as harmless
+as one of their own garters, and quite as useful in its way. Every
+country boy and girl should be taught to recognize all our helpers
+in our incessant fight with insect enemies--a fight which must be
+maintained with more organized vigor and intelligence than at
+present, if horticulture is ever to reach its best development.
+
+Wasps and hornets often swarm about the sweet and early ripe
+varieties. A wide-mouthed bottle partially filled with molasses
+and water will entrap and drown great numbers of these ugly
+customers. Some of our favorite birds try our patience not a
+little. During the early summer I never wearied of watching the
+musical orioles flashing with their bright hues in and out of the
+foliage about the house; but when the early grapes were ripe, they
+took pay for their music with the sang-froid of a favorite prima
+donna. On one occasion I saw three or four alight on a Diana vine,
+and in five minutes they had spoiled a dozen clusters. If they
+would only take a bunch and eat it up clean, one would readily
+share with them, for there would be enough for all; but the dainty
+little epicures puncture an indefinite number of berries, merely
+taking a sip from each. Then the wasps and bees come along and
+finish the clusters. The cardinal, cat-bird, and our unrivalled
+songster the wood-thrush, all help themselves in the same wasteful
+fashion. One can't shoot wood-thrushes. We should almost as soon
+think of killing off our Nilssons, Nevadas, and Carys. The only
+thing to do is to protect the clusters; and this can be
+accomplished in several ways. The most expeditious and
+satisfactory method is to cover the vines of early grapes with
+cheap mosquito netting. Another method is to make little bags of
+this netting and inclose each cluster. Last fall, two of my
+children tied up many hundreds of clusters in little paper bags,
+which can be procured at wholesale for a trifling sum. The two
+lower corners of the paper bags should be clipped off to permit
+the rain to pass freely through them. Clusters ripen better, last
+longer on the vine, and acquire a more exquisite bloom and flavor
+in this retirement than if exposed to light as well as to birds
+and wasps. Not the fruit but the foliage of the grape-vine needs
+the sun.
+
+Few of the early grapes will keep long after being taken from the
+vine; but some of the later ones can be preserved well into the
+winter by putting them in small boxes and storing them where the
+temperature is cool, even, and dry. Some of the wine-grapes, like
+Norton's Virginia, will keep under these conditions almost like
+winter apples. One October day I took a stone pot of the largest
+size and put in first a layer of Isabella grapes, then a double
+thickness of straw paper, then alternate layers of grapes and
+paper, until the pot was full. A cloth was next pasted over the
+stone cover, so as to make the pot water-tight. The pot was then
+buried on a dry knoll below the reach of frost, and dug up again
+on New Year's Day. The grapes looked and tasted as if they had
+just been picked from the vine.
+
+For the mysteries of hybridizing and raising new seedlings,
+grafting, hot-house and cold grapery culture, the reader must look
+in more extended works than this, and to writers who have had
+experience in these matters.
+
+We shall next consider three fruits which upon the Home Acre may
+be regarded as forming a natural group-peaches, plums, and
+raspberries, if any one expresses surprise that the last-named
+fruit should be given this relationship, I have merely to reply
+that the raspberry thrives in the partial shade produced by such
+small trees as the peach and plum. Where there is need of economy
+of space it is well to take advantage of this fact, for but few
+products of the garden give any satisfaction when contending with
+roots below and shade above.
+
+We have taken it for granted that some grape-vines would be
+planted in the two borders extending through the centre of the
+garden, also that there would be spaces left which might be filled
+with peach and plum trees and small flowering shrubs. If there is
+to be a good-sized poultry-yard upon the acre, we should advise
+that plums be planted in that; but we will speak of this fruit
+later, and now give our attention to that fruit which to the taste
+of many is unrivalled--the peach.
+
+With the exception of the strawberry, it is perhaps the only fruit
+for which I prefer spring planting. At the same time, I should not
+hesitate to set out the trees in autumn. The ground should be
+good, but not too highly fertilized. I prefer young trees but one
+year old from the bud. If set out in the fall, I should mound up
+the earth eighteen inches about them, to protect the roots and
+stem, and to keep the tree firmly in the soil. With this
+precaution, I am not sure but that fall planting has the greater
+advantage, except when the climate is very severe and subject to
+great alternations. Plant with the same care and on the same
+principles which have been already described. If a careful system
+of pruning is to be adopted, the trees may be set out twelve feet
+apart; but if they are to be left to grow at will, which I regret
+to say is the usual practice, they should be planted fifteen feet
+from each other.
+
+There are many good reasons why the common orchard culture of the
+peach should not be adopted in the garden. There is no fruit more
+neglected and ill-treated than the beautiful and delicious peach.
+The trees are very cheap, usually costing but a few cents each;
+they are bought by the thousand from careless dealers, planted
+with scarcely the attention given to a cabbage-plant, and too
+often allowed to bear themselves to death. The land, trees, and
+cultivation cost so little that one good crop is expected to
+remunerate for all outlay. If more crops are obtained, there is so
+much clear gain. Under this slovenly treatment there is, of
+course, rapid deterioration in the stamina of the peach. Pits and
+buds are taken from enfeebled trees for the purpose of
+propagation, and so tendencies to disease are perpetuated and
+enhanced. Little wonder that, the fatal malady, the "yellows," has
+blighted so many hopes! I honestly believe that millions of trees
+have been sold in which this disease existed from the bud. If fine
+peaches were bred and propagated with something of the same care
+that is bestowed on blooded stock, the results would soon be
+proportionate. Gardeners abroad often give more care to one tree
+than hundreds receive here. Because the peach has grown so easily
+in our climate, we have imposed on its good-nature beyond the
+limits of endurance, and consequently it is not easy to get sound,
+healthful trees that will bear year after year under the best of
+treatment, as they did with our fathers with no care at all. I
+should look to men who had made a reputation for sending out
+sound, healthful stock grown under their own eyes from pits and
+wood which they know to be free from disease. Do not try to save a
+few pennies on the first cost of trees, for the probabilities are
+that such economy will result in little more than the "yellows."
+
+In large orchards, cultivated by horse-power, the stems of the
+trees are usually from four to six feet high; but in the garden
+this length of stem is not necessary, and the trees can be grown
+as dwarf standards, with stems beginning to branch two feet from
+the ground. A little study of the habit of growth in the peach
+will show that, to obtain the best results, the pruning-shears are
+almost as essential as in the case of the grape-vine. More than in
+any other fruit-tree, the sap tends strongly toward the ends of
+the shoots. Left to Nature, only the terminal buds of these will
+grow from year to year; the other buds lower down on the shoots
+fail and drop off. Thus we soon have long naked reaches of
+unproductive wood, or sucker-like sprouts starting from the bark,
+which are worse than useless. Our first aim should be to form a
+round, open, symmetrical head, shortening in the shoots at least
+one-half each year, and cutting out crossing and interlacing
+branches. For instance, if we decide to grow our trees as dwarf
+standards, we shall cut back the stems at a point two feet from
+the ground the first spring after planting, and let but three buds
+grow, to make the first three or leading branches. The following
+spring we shall cut back the shoots that have formed, so as to
+make six leading branches. Thereafter we shall continue to cut out
+and back so as to maintain an open head for the free circulation
+of air and light.
+
+To learn the importance of rigorous and careful pruning, observe
+the shoots of a vigorous peach-tree, say three or four years old.
+These shoots or sprays are long and slender, lined with fruit-
+buds. You will often find two fruit-buds together, with a leaf-bud
+between them. If the fruit-buds have been uninjured by the winter,
+they will nearly all form peaches, far more than the slender spray
+can support or mature. The sap will tend to give the most support
+to all growth at the end of the spray or branch. The probable
+result will be that you will have a score, more or less, of
+peaches that are little beyond skin and stones. By midsummer the
+brittle sprays will break, or the limbs split down at the
+crotches. You may have myriads of peaches, but none fit for market
+or table. Thousands of baskets are sent to New York annually that
+do not pay the expenses of freight, commission, etc.; while the
+orchards from which they come are practically ruined. I had two
+small trees from which, one autumn, I sold ten dollars' worth of
+fruit. They yielded more profit than is often obtained from a
+hundred trees.
+
+Now, in the light of these facts, realize the advantages secured
+by cutting back the shoots or sprays so as to leave but three or
+four fruit-buds on each. The tree can probably mature these buds
+into large, beautiful peaches, and still maintain its vigor. By
+this shortening-in process you have less tree, but more fruit. The
+growth is directed and kept within proper limits, and the tree
+preserved for future usefulness. Thus the peach-trees of the
+garden will not only furnish some of the most delicious morsels of
+the year, but also a very agreeable and light phase of labor. They
+can be made pets which will amply repay all kindness; and the
+attentions they most appreciate, strange to say, are cutting and
+pinching. The pruning-shears in March and early April can cut away
+forming burdens which could not be borne, and pinching back during
+the summer can maintain beauty and symmetry in growth. When the
+proprietor of the Home Acre has learned from experience to do this
+work judiciously, his trees, like the grape-vines, will afford
+many hours of agreeable and healthful recreation. If he regards it
+as labor, one great, melting, luscious peach will repay him. A
+small apple, pear, or strawberry usually has the flavor of a large
+one; but a peach to be had in perfection must be fully matured to
+its limit of growth on a healthful tree.
+
+Let no one imagine that the shortening in of shoots recommended
+consists of cutting the young sprays evenly all round the trees as
+one would shear a hedge. It more nearly resembles the pruning of
+the vine; for the peach, like the vine, bears its fruit only on
+the young wood of the previous summer's growth. The aim should be
+to have this young bearing wood distributed evenly over the tree,
+as should be true of a grape-vine. When the trees are kept low, as
+dwarf standards, the fruit is more within reach, and less liable
+to be blown off by high winds. Gradually, however, if the trees
+prove healthful, they will get high enough up in the world.
+
+Notwithstanding the rigorous pruning recommended, the trees will
+often overload themselves; and thinning out the young peaches when
+as large as hickory nuts is almost imperative if we would secure
+good fruit. Men of experience say that when a tree has set too
+much fruit, if two-thirds of it are taken off while little, the
+remaining third will measure and weigh more than would the entire
+crop, and bring three times as much money. In flavor and beauty
+the gain will certainly be more than double.
+
+Throughout its entire growth and fruiting life the peach-tree
+needs good cultivation, and also a good but not overstimulated
+soil. Well-decayed compost from the cow-stable is probably the
+best barnyard fertilizer. Wood-ashes are peculiarly agreeable to
+the constitution of this tree, and tend to maintain it in health
+and bearing long after others not so treated are dead. I should
+advise that half a peck be worked in lightly every spring around
+each tree as far as the branches extend. When enriching the ground
+about a tree, never heap the fertilizer round the trunk, but
+spread it evenly from the stem outward as far as the branches
+reach, remembering that the head above is the measure of the root
+extension below. Air-slacked lime is also useful to the peach in
+small quantities; and so, no doubt, would be a little salt from
+time to time. Bone-meal is highly recommended.
+
+Like other fruit-trees, the peach does not thrive on low, wet
+ground, and the fruit-buds are much more apt to be winter-killed
+in such localities. A light, warm soil is regarded as the most
+favorable.
+
+Of course we can grow this fruit on espaliers, as they do abroad;
+but there are few localities where any advantage is to be derived
+from this course. In our latitude I much prefer cool northern
+exposures, for the reason that the fruitbuds are kept dormant
+during warm spells in winter, and so late in spring that they
+escape injury from frost. Alternate freezing and thawing is more
+harmful than steady cold. The buds are seldom safe, however, at
+any time when the mercury sinks ten or fifteen degrees below zero.
+
+As we have intimated, abuse of the peach-tree has developed a
+fatal disease, known as the "yellows." It manifests itself in
+yellow, sickly foliage, numerous and feeble sprouts along the
+larger limbs and trunk, and small miserable fruit, ripening
+prematurely. I can almost taste the yellows in much of the fruit
+bought in market. Some regard the disease as very contagious;
+others do not. It is best to be on the safe side. If a tree is
+affected generally, dig it out by the roots and burn it at once;
+if only a branch shows evidence of the malady, cut it off well
+back, and commit it to the flames. The only remedy is to propagate
+from trees in sound health and vigor.
+
+Like the apple, the peach-tree is everywhere subject to injury
+from a borer, named "exitiosa, or the destructive." The eggs from
+which these little pests are hatched are laid by the moth during
+the summer upon the stem of the tree very near the root; the grubs
+bore through the outer bark, and devour the inner bark and sap-
+wood. Fortunately they soon reveal their evil work by the
+castings, and by the gum which exudes from the hole by which they
+entered. They can not do much harm, unless a tree is neglected; in
+this case, however, they will soon enfeeble, and probably destroy
+it. When once within a tree, borers must be cut out with a sharp-
+pointed knife, carefully yet thoroughly. The wounds from the knife
+may be severe, but the ceaseless gnawing of the grub is fatal. If
+the tree has been lacerated to some extent, a plaster of moistened
+clay or cow-manure makes a good salve. Keeping the borers out of
+the tree is far better than taking them out; and this can be
+effected by wrapping the stem at the ground--two inches below the
+surface, and five above--with strong hardware or sheathing paper.
+If this is tied tightly about the tree, the moth cannot lay its
+eggs upon the stem. A neighbor of mine has used this protection
+not only on the peach, but also on the apple, with almost complete
+success. Of course the pests will try to find their way under it,
+and it would be well to take off the wrapper occasionally and
+examine the trees. The paper must also be renewed before it is so
+far decayed as to be valueless. It should be remembered also that
+the borer will attack the trees from the first year of life to the
+end.
+
+In order to insure an unfailing supply of this delicious fruit, I
+should advise that a few trees be set out every spring. The labor
+and expense are scarcely greater than that bestowed upon a cabbage
+patch, and the reward is more satisfactory.
+
+For this latitude the following choice of varieties will prove, I
+think, a good one: Early Alexander, Early Elvers, Princess of
+Wales, Brandywine, Old Mixon Free, Stump the World, Picquet's
+Late, Crawford's Late, Mary's Choice, White Free Heath, Salway,
+and Lord Palmerston.
+
+If the soil of one's garden is stiff, cold, adhesive clay, the
+peach would succeed much better budded or grafted on plum-stocks.
+Some of the finest fruit I have ever seen was from seedlings, the
+trees having been grown from pits of unusually good peaches. While
+the autumn planting of pits lightly in the soil and permitting them
+to develop into bearing trees is a pleasing and often profitable
+amusement, there is no great probability that the result will be
+desirable. We hear of the occasional prizes won in this way, but
+not of the many failures.
+
+By easy transition we pass to the kindred fruit the plum, which
+does not generally receive the attention it deserves. If one has a
+soil suited to it--a heavy clay or loam--it can usually be grown
+very easily. The fruit is so grateful to the taste and useful to
+the housekeeper that it should be given a fair trial, either in
+the garden borders or wherever a tree can be planted so as to
+secure plenty of light and air. The young trees may be one or two
+years old from the bud; I should prefer the former, if vigorous.
+Never be induced to purchase old trees by promises of speedy
+fruit. It is quite possible you may never get any fruit at all
+from them worth mentioning. I should allow a space of from ten to
+fifteen feet between the trees when they are planted together, and
+I should cut them back so that they would begin to branch at two
+feet from the ground. Long, naked stems are subject to the gum-
+disease.
+
+In the place of general advice in regard to this fruit I shall give
+the experience of Mr. T. S. Force, of Newburgh, who exhibited
+seventy varieties at the last annual Orange County fair.
+
+His plum-orchard is a large poultry-yard, containing half an acre,
+of which the ground is a good loam, resting on a heavy clay
+subsoil. He bought trees but one year from the bud, set them out
+in autumn, and cut them back so that they began to form their
+heads at two feet from the ground. He prefers starting with strong
+young plants of this age, and he did not permit them to bear for
+the first three years, his primal aim being to develop a healthy,
+vigorous tree with a round, symmetrical head. During this period
+the ground about them was kept mellow by good cultivation, and,
+being rich enough to start with, received no fertilizers. It is
+his belief that over-fertilization tends to cause the disease so
+well known as the "black knot," which has destroyed many orchards
+in this vicinity. If the garden has been enriched as I have
+directed, the soil will probably need little, if anything, from
+the stables, and certainly will not if the trees are grown in a
+poultry-yard. During this growing and forming period Mr. Force
+gave careful attention to pruning. Budded trees are not even
+symmetrical growers, but tend to send up a few very strong shoots
+that rob the rest of the tree of sustenance. Of course these must
+be cut well back in early spring, or we have long, naked reaches
+of wood and a deformed tree. It is far better, however, not to let
+these rampant shoots grow to maturity, but to pinch them back in
+early summer, thus causing them to throw out side-branches. By
+summer pinching and rubbing off of tender shoots a tree can be
+made to grow in any shape we desire. When the trees receive no
+summer pruning, Mr. Force advises that the branches be shortened
+in at least one half in the spring, while some shoots are cut back
+even more rigorously. At the age of four or five years, according
+to the vigor of the trees, he permits them to bear. Now
+cultivation ceases, and the ground is left to grow hard, but not
+weedy or grassy, beneath the boughs. Every spring, just as the
+blossoms are falling, he spreads evenly under the branches four
+quarts of salt. While the trees thrive and grow fruitful with this
+fertilizer, the curculio, or plum-weevil, does not appear to find
+it at all to its taste. As a result of his methods, Mr. Force has
+grown large and profitable crops, and his trees in the main are
+kept healthy and vigorous. His remedy for the black knot is to cut
+off and burn the small boughs and twigs affected. If the disease
+appears in the side of a limb or in the stem, he cuts out all
+trace of it, and paints the wound with a wash of gum shellac and
+alcohol.
+
+Trees load so heavily that the plums rest against one another. You
+will often find in moist warm weather decaying specimens. These
+should be removed at once, that the infection may not spread.
+
+In cutting out the interfering boughs, do not take off the sharp-
+pointed spurs which are forming along the branches, for on these
+are slowly maturing the fruit-buds. In this case, as in others,
+the careful observer, after he has acquired a few sound principles
+of action to start with, is taught more by the tree itself than
+from any other source.
+
+Mr. Force recommends the following ten varieties, named in the
+order of ripening: Canada; Orleans, a red-cheeked plum;
+McLaughlin, greenish, with pink cheek; Bradshaw, large red, with
+lilac bloom; Smith's Orleans, purple; Green Gage; Bleeker's Gage,
+golden yellow; Prune d'Agen, purple; Coe's Golden Drop; and
+Shropshire Damson for preserves.
+
+If we are restricted to very light soils, we shall probably have
+to grow some of the native varieties, of the Canada and Wild-Goose
+type. In regard to both this fruit and peaches we should be guided
+in our selection by information respecting varieties peculiarly
+suited to the region.
+
+The next chapter will treat of small fruits, beginning with the
+raspberry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE RASPBERRY
+
+
+The wide and favorable consideration given to small fruits clearly
+marks one of the changes in the world's history. This change may
+seem trifling indeed to the dignified chroniclers of kings and
+queens and others of high descent--great descent, it may be added,
+remembering the moral depths attained; but to those who care for
+the welfare of the people, it is a mutation of no slight interest.
+I am glad to think, as has been shown in a recent novel, that
+Lucrezia Borgia was not so black as she has been painted; yet in
+the early days of June and July, when strawberries and raspberries
+are ripening, I fancy that most of us can dismiss her and her kin
+from mind as we observe Nature's alchemy in our gardens. When we
+think of the luscious, health-imparting fruits which will grace
+millions of tables, and remember that until recent years they were
+conspicuous only by their absence, we may not slightingly estimate
+a great change for the better. Once these fruits were wildings
+which the vast majority of our forefathers shared sparingly with
+the birds. Often still, unless we are careful, our share will be
+small indeed; for the unperverted taste of the birds discovered
+from the first what men have been so slow to learn--that the ruby-
+like berries are the gems best worth seeking. The world is
+certainly progressing toward physical redemption when even the
+Irish laborer abridges his cabbage-patch for the sake of small
+fruits--food which a dainty Ariel could not despise.
+
+We have said that raspberries thrive in partial shade; and
+therefore some advice in regard to them naturally follows our
+consideration of trees. Because the raspberry is not so exacting
+as are many other products of the garden, it does not follow that
+it should be marked out for neglect. As it is treated on many
+places, the only wonder is that even the bushes survive. Like many
+who try to do their best in adversity, it makes the most of what
+people term "a chance to get ahead."
+
+Moreover, the raspberry is perhaps as often injured by mistaken
+kindness as by neglect. If we can imagine it speaking for itself,
+it would say: "It is not much that I want, but in the name of
+common-sense and nature give me just what I do want; then you may
+pick at me to your heart's content."
+
+The first need of the raspberry is a well-drained but not a very
+dry, light soil. Yet such is its adaptability that certain
+varieties can be grown on any land which will produce a burdock or
+a mullien-stalk. In fact, this question of variety chiefly
+determines our chances of success and the nature of our treatment
+of the fruit. The reader, at the start, should be enabled to
+distinguish the three classes of raspberries grown in this
+country.
+
+As was true of grapes, our fathers first endeavored to supply
+their gardens from foreign nurseries, neglecting the wild species
+with which our woods and roadsides abounded. The raspberry of
+Europe (Rubus idaeus) has been developed, and in many instances
+enfeebled, by ages of cultivation. Nevertheless, few other fruits
+have shown equal power to adapt themselves to our soil and
+climate, and we have obtained from foreign sources many valuable
+kinds--as, for instance, the Antwerp, which for weeks together
+annually taxed the carrying power of Hudson River steamers. In
+quality these foreign kinds have never been surpassed; but almost
+invariably they have proved tender and fastidious, thriving well
+in some localities, and failing utterly (except under the most
+skilful care) in others. The frosts of the North killed them in
+winter, and Southern suns shrivelled their foliage in summer.
+Therefore they were not raspberries for the million, but for those
+who resided in favored regions, and were willing to bestow upon
+them much care and high culture.
+
+Eventually another process began, taking place either by chance or
+under the skilful manipulation of the gardener--that of
+hybridizing, or crossing these foreign varieties with our hardier
+native species. The best results have been attained more
+frequently, I think, by chance; that is, the bees, which get more
+honey from the raspberry than from most other plants, carried the
+pollen from a native flower to the blossom of the garden exotic.
+The seeds of the fruit eventually produced were endowed with
+characteristics of both the foreign and native strains.
+Occasionally these seeds fell where they had a chance to grow, and
+so produced a fortuitous seedling plant which soon matured into a
+bearing bush, differing from, both of its parents, and not
+infrequently surpassing both in good qualities. Some one
+horticulturally inclined having observed the unusually fine fruit
+on the chance plant, and believing that it is a good plan to help
+the fittest to survive, marked the bush, and in the autumn
+transferred it to his garden. It speedily propagated itself by
+suckers, or young sprouts from the roots, and he had plants to
+sell or give away. Such, I believe, was the history of the
+Cuthbert--named after the gentleman who found it, and now probably
+the favorite raspberry of America.
+
+Thus fortuitously, or by the skill of the gardener, the foreign
+and our native species were crossed, and a new and hardier class
+of varieties obtained. The large size and richness in flavor of
+the European berry has been bred into and combined with our
+smaller and more insipid indigenous fruit. By this process the
+area of successful raspberry culture has been extended almost
+indefinitely.
+
+Within recent years a third step forward has been taken. Some
+localities and soils were so unsuited to the raspberry that no
+variety containing even a small percentage of the foreign element
+could thrive. This fact led fruit-growers to give still closer
+attention to our native species. Wild bushes were found here and
+there which gave fruit of such good quality and in such large
+quantities that they were deemed well worthy of cultivation. Many
+of these wild specimens accepted cultivation gratefully, and
+showed such marked improvement that they were heralded over the
+land as of wonderful and surpassing value. Some of these pure,
+unmixed varieties of our native species (Rubus strigosus) have
+obtained a wide celebrity; as, for instance, the Brandywine,
+Highland Hardy, and, best of all, the Turner. It should be
+distinctly understood, however, that, with the exception of the
+last-named kind, these native varieties are decidedly inferior to
+most of the foreign berries and their hybrids or crosses, like the
+Cuthbert and Marlboro. Thousands have been misled by their praise,
+and have planted them when they might just as easily have grown
+far better kinds. I suppose that many wealthy persons in the
+latitudes of New York and Boston have told their gardeners (or
+more probably were told by them): "We do not wish any of those
+wild kinds. Brinckle's Orange, Franconia, and the Antwerp are good
+enough for us." So they should be, for they are the best; but they
+are all foreign varieties, and scarcely will live at all, much
+less be productive, in wide areas of the country.
+
+I trust that this preliminary discussion in regard to red
+raspberries will prepare the way for the advice to follow, and
+enable the proprietor of the Home Acre to act intelligently.
+Sensible men do not like to be told, "You cannot do this, and must
+not do that"--in other words, to be met the moment they step into
+their gardens by the arbitrary dictum of A, B, or C. They wish to
+unite with Nature in producing certain results. Understanding her
+simple laws, they work hopefully, confidently; and they cannot be
+imposed upon by those who either wittingly or unwittingly give bad
+advice. Having explained the natural principles on which I base my
+directions, I can expect the reader to follow each step with the
+prospect of success and enjoyment much enhanced.
+
+The question first arising is, What shall we plant? As before, I
+shall give the selection of eminent authorities, then suggest to
+the reader the restrictions under which he should make a choice
+for his own peculiar soil and climate.
+
+Dr. F. M. Hexamer, the well-known editor of a leading
+horticultural journal, is recognized throughout the land as having
+few, if any, superiors in recent and practical acquaintance with
+small fruits. The following is his selection: "Cuthbert, Turner,
+and Marlboro." The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder's choice: "Brinckle's
+Orange, Franconia, Cuthbert, Herstine, Shaffer." The Hon. Norman
+J. Colman, Commissioner of Agriculture: "Turner, Marlboro,
+Cuthbert." P. J. Berckmans, of Georgia: "Cuthbert, Hansel, Lost
+Rubies, Imperial Red." A. S. Fuller: "Turner, Cuthbert, Hansel."
+
+In analyzing this list we find three distinctly foreign kinds
+named: the Orange, Franconia, and Herstine. If the last is not
+wholly of foreign origin, the element of our native species enters
+into it so slightly that it will not endure winters in our
+latitude, or the summer sun of the South. For excellence, however,
+it is unsurpassed.
+
+In the Cuthbert, Marlboro, and Lost Rubies we have hybrids of the
+foreign and our native species, forming the second class referred
+to; in the Turner and Hansel, examples of our native species
+unmixed. To each of these classes might be added a score of other
+varieties which have been more or less popular, but they would
+serve only to distract the reader's attention. I have tested forty
+or fifty kinds side by side at one time, only to be shown that
+four or five varieties would answer all practical purposes. I can
+assure the reader, however, that it will be scarcely possible to
+find a soil or climate where some of these approved sorts will not
+thrive abundantly and at slight outlay.
+
+Throughout southern New England, along the bank of the Hudson, and
+westward, almost any raspberry can be grown with proper treatment.
+There are exceptions, which are somewhat curious. For instance,
+the famous Hudson River Antwerp, which until within a very few
+years has been one of the great crops of the State, has never been
+grown successfully to any extent except on the west bank of the
+river, and within the limited area of Kingston on the north and
+Cornwall on the south. The Franconia, another foreign sort, has
+proved itself adapted to more extended conditions of soil and
+climate.
+
+I have grown successfully nearly every well-known raspberry, and
+perhaps I can best give the instruction I desire to convey by
+describing the methods finally adopted after many years of
+observation, reading, and experience. I will speak of the class
+first named, belonging to the foreign species, of which I have
+tested many varieties. I expect to set out this year rows of
+Brinckle's Orange, Franconia, Hudson River Antwerp, and others.
+For this class I should make the ground very rich, deep, and
+mellow. I should prefer to set out the plants in the autumn--from
+the middle of October to the tenth of November; if not then, in
+early spring--the earlier the better--while the buds are dormant.
+I should have the rows four feet apart; and if the plants were to
+be grown among the smaller fruit-trees, I should maintain a
+distance from them of at least seven feet. I should use only young
+plants, those of the previous summer's growth, and set them in the
+ground about as deeply as they stood when taken up--say three or
+four inches of earth above the point from which the roots
+branched. I should put two well-rooted plants in each hill, and
+this would make the hills four feet apart each way. By "hills" I
+do not mean elevations of ground. This should be kept level
+throughout all future cultivation. I should cut back the canes or
+stems of the plants to six inches. Thousands of plants are lost or
+put back in their growth by leaving two or three feet of the canes
+to grow the first year. Never do this. The little fruit gained
+thus prematurely always entails a hundred-fold of loss. Having set
+out the plants, I should next scatter over and about them one or
+two shovelfuls of old compost or decayed manure of some kind. If
+the plants had been set out in the fall, I should mound the earth
+over them before freezing weather, so that there should be at
+least four inches of soil over the tops of the stems. This little
+mound of earth over the plants or hill would protect against all
+injury from frost. In the spring I should remove these mounds of
+earth so as to leave the ground perfectly level on all sides, and
+the shortened canes projecting, as at first, six inches above the
+surface. During the remainder of the spring and summer the soil
+between the plants chiefly requires to be kept open, mellow, and
+free from weeds. In using the hoe, be careful not to cut off the
+young raspberry sprouts, on which the future crop depends. Do not
+be disappointed if the growth seems feeble the first year, for
+these foreign kinds are often slow in starting. In November,
+before there is any danger of the ground freezing, I should cut
+back the young canes at least one-third of their length, bend them
+gently down, and cover them with earth to the depth of four or
+five inches. It must be distinctly remembered that very few of the
+foreign kinds would endure our winter unprotected. Every autumn
+they must be covered as I have directed. Is any one aghast at this
+labor? Nonsense! Antwerps are covered by the acre along the
+Hudson. A man and a boy would cover in an hour all that are needed
+for a garden.
+
+After the first year the foreign varieties, like all others, will
+send up too many sprouts, or suckers. Unless new plants are
+wanted, these should be treated as weeds, and only from three to
+five young canes be left to grow in each hill. This is a very
+important point, for too often the raspberry-patch is neglected
+until it is a mass of tangled bushes. Keep this simple principle
+in mind: there is a given amount of root-power; if this cannot be
+expended in making young sprouts all over the ground, it goes to
+produce a few strong fruit-bearing canes in the hill. In other
+words, you restrict the whole force of the plant to the precise
+work required--the giving of berries. As the original plants grow
+older, they will show a constantly decreasing tendency to throw up
+new shoots, but as long as they continue to grow, let only those
+survive which are designed to bear the following season.
+
+The canes of cultivated raspberries are biennial. A young and in
+most varieties a fruitless cane is produced in one season; it
+bears in July the second year, and then its usefulness is over. It
+will continue to live in a half-dying way until fall, but it is a
+useless and unsightly life. I know that it is contended by some
+that the foliage on the old canes aids in nourishing the plants;
+but I think that, under all ordinary circumstances, the leaves on
+the young growth are abundantly sufficient. By removing the old
+canes after they have borne their fruit, an aspect of neatness is
+imparted, which would be conspicuously absent were they left.
+Every autumn, before laying the canes down, I should shorten them
+in one-third. The remaining two-thirds will give more fruit by
+actual measurement, and the berries will be finer and larger, than
+if the canes were left intact. From first to last the soil about
+the foreign varieties should be maintained in a high degree of
+fertility and mellowness. Of manures from the barnyard, that from
+the cow-stable is the best; wood-ashes, bone-dust, and decayed
+leaves also are excellent fertilizers. During all this period the
+partial shade of small trees will be beneficial rather than
+otherwise, for it should be remembered that sheltered localities
+are the natural habitat of the raspberry.
+
+By a little inquiry the reader can learn whether varieties of the
+foreign class are grown successfully in his vicinity. If they are,
+he can raise them also by following the directions which have been
+given. Brinckle's Orange--a buff-colored berry--is certainly one
+of the most beautiful, delicate, and delicious fruits in
+existence, and is well worth all the care it requires in the
+regions where it will grow; while the Franconia and others should
+never be permitted to die out by fruit connoisseurs. If the soil
+of your garden is light and sandy, or if you live much south of
+New York, I should not advise their trial. They may be grown far
+to the north, however. I am told that tender varieties of fruits
+that can be covered thrive even better in Canada than with us.
+There deep snow protects the land, and in spring and autumn they
+do not have long periods when the bare earth is alternately
+freezing and thawing.
+
+In the second class of raspberries, the crosses between the
+foreign and native species, we now have such fine varieties that
+no one has much cause for regret if he can raise them; and I
+scarcely see how he can help raising them if he has sufficient
+energy to set out a few plants and keep them free from weeds and
+superabundant suckers. Take the Cuthbert, for instance; you may
+set it out almost anywhere, and in almost any latitude except that
+of the extreme Southern States. But you must reverse the
+conditions required for the foreign kinds. If the ground is very
+rich, the canes will threaten to grow out of sight. I advise that
+this strong-growing sort be planted in rows five feet apart. Any
+ordinary soil is good enough for the Cuthbert to start in, and the
+plants will need only a moderate degree of fertilizing as they
+begin to lose a little of their first vigor. Of course, if the
+ground is unusually light and poor, it should be enriched and
+maintained in a fair degree of fertility. The point I wish to make
+is that this variety will thrive where most others would starve;
+but there is plenty of land on which anything will starve. The
+Cuthbert is a large, late berry, which continues long in bearing,
+and is deserving of a place in every garden. I have grown it for
+many years, and have never given it any protection whatever.
+Occasionally there comes a winter which kills the canes to the
+ground. I should perhaps explain to the reader here that even in
+the case of the tender foreign kinds it is only the canes that are
+killed by the frost; the roots below the surface are uninjured,
+and throw up vigorous sprouts the following spring. The Cuthbert
+is so nearly hardy that we let it take its chances, and probably
+in eight winters out of ten it would stand unharmed. Its hardiness
+is greatly enhanced when grown on well-drained soils.
+
+It now has a companion berry in the Marlboro--a variety but
+recently introduced, and therefore not thoroughly tested as yet.
+Its promise, however, is very fine, and it has secured the strong
+yet qualified approval of the best fruit critics. It requires
+richer soil and better treatment than the Cuthbert, and it remains
+to be seen whether it is equally hardy. It is well worth winter
+protection if it is not. It is not a suitable berry for the home
+garden if no other is grown, for the reason that it matures its
+entire crop within a brief time, and thus would give a family but
+a short season of raspberries. Cultivated in connection with the
+Cuthbert, it would be admirable, for it is very early, and would
+produce its fruit before the Cuthberts were ripe. Unitedly the two
+varieties would give a family six weeks of raspberries. There are
+scores of other kinds in this class, and some are very good
+indeed, well worth a place in an amateur's collection; but the two
+already named are sufficient to supply a family with excellent
+fruit.
+
+Of the third class of red raspberries, representing our pure
+native species, I should recommend only one variety--the Turner;
+and that is so good that it deserves a place in every collection.
+It certainly is a remarkable raspberry, and has an unusual
+history, which I have given in my work "Success with Small
+Fruits." I doubt whether there is a hardier raspberry in America--
+one that can be grown so far to the north, and, what is still more
+in its favor, so far to the south. In the latter region it is
+known as the Southern Thornless. The fact that it is almost wholly
+without spines is a good quality; but it is only one among many
+others. The Turner requires no winter protection whatever, will
+grow on almost any soil in existence, and in almost any climate.
+It yields abundantly medium-sized berries of good flavor. The
+fruit begins to ripen early, and lasts throughout a somewhat
+extended season. It will probably give more berries, with more
+certainty and less trouble, than any other variety. Even its fault
+leans to virtue's side. Set out a single plant, leave it to
+Nature, and in time it will cover the place with Turner
+raspberries; and yet it will do this in a quiet, unobtrusive way,
+for it is not a rampant, ugly grower. While it will persist in
+living under almost any circumstances, I have found no variety
+that responded more gratefully to good treatment. This consists
+simply in three things: (1) rigorous restriction of the suckers to
+four or five canes in the hill; (2) keeping the soil clean and
+mellow about the bearing plants; (3) making this soil rich. Its
+dwarf habit of growth, unlike that of the Cuthbert, enables one to
+stimulate it with any kind of manure. By this course the size of
+the bushes is greatly increased, and enormous crops can be
+obtained.
+
+I prefer to set out all raspberries in the fall, although as a
+matter of convenience I often perform the task in the early
+spring. I do not believe in late spring planting, except as one
+takes up a young sprout, two or three inches high, and sets it out
+as one would a tomato-plant. By this course time is often saved.
+When it is our wish to increase the quality and quantity of the
+fruit, I should advise that the canes of all varieties be cut back
+one-third of their length. A little observation will teach us the
+reason for this. Permit a long cane to bear throughout its natural
+length, and you will note that many buds near the ground remain
+dormant or make a feeble growth. The sap, following a general law
+of nature, pushes to the extremities, and is, moreover, too much
+diffused. Cut away one-third, and all the buds start with
+redoubled vigor, while more and larger fruit is the result. If,
+however, earliness in ripening is the chief consideration, as it
+often is, especially with the market-gardener, leave the canes
+unpruned, and the fruit ripens a few days sooner.
+
+In purveying for the home table, white raspberries offer the
+attractions of variety and beauty. In the case of Brinckle's
+Orange, its exquisite flavor is the chief consideration; but this
+fastidious foreign berry is practically beyond the reach, of the
+majority. There is, however, an excellent variety, the Caroline,
+which is almost as hardy as the Turner, and more easily grown. It
+would seem that Nature designed every one to have it (if we may
+say IT of Caroline), for not only does it sucker freely like the
+red raspberries, but the tips of the canes also bend over, take
+root, and form new plants. The one thing that Caroline needs is
+repression, the curb; she is too intense.
+
+I am inclined to think, however, that she has had her day, even as
+an attendant on royalty, for a new variety, claiming the high-
+sounding title of Golden Queen, has mysteriously appeared. I say
+mysteriously, for it is difficult to account for her origin. Mr.
+Ezra Stokes, a fruit-grower of New Jersey, had a field of twelve
+acres planted with Cuthbert raspberries. In this field he found a
+bush producing white berries. In brief, he found an Albino of the
+Cuthbert. Of the causes of her existence he knows nothing. All we
+can say, I suppose, is that the variation was produced by some
+unknown impulse of Nature. Deriving her claims from such a source,
+she certainly has a better title to royalty than most of her
+sister queens, who, according to history, have been commonplace
+women, suggesting anything but nature. With the exception of the
+Philadelphians, perhaps, we as a people will not stand on the
+question of ancestry, and shall be more inclined to see how she
+"queens it."
+
+Of course the enthusiastic discoverer and disseminators of this
+variety claim that it is not only like the Cuthbert, but far
+better. Let us try it and see; if it is as good, we may well be
+content, and can grace our tables with beautiful fruit.
+
+There is another American species of raspberry (Rubus
+occidentalis) that is almost as dear to memory as the wild
+strawberry--the thimble-berry, or black-cap. I confess that the
+wild flavor of this fruit is more to my taste than that of any
+other raspberry. Apparently its seeds have been sown broadcast
+over the continent, for it is found almost everywhere, and there
+have been few children in America whose lips have not been stained
+by the dark purple juice of its fruit. Seeds dropped in neglected
+pastures, by fence and roadsides, and along the edges of the
+forest, produce new varieties which do not propagate themselves by
+suckers like red raspberries, but in a manner quite distinct. The
+young purple canes bend over and take root in the soil during
+August, September, and October. At the extreme end of the tip from
+which the roots descend a bud is formed, which remains dormant
+until the following spring. Therefore the young plant we set out
+is a more or less thick mass of roots, a green bud, and usually a
+bit of the old parent cane, which is of no further service except
+as a handle and a mark indicating the location of the plant. After
+the ground has been prepared as one would for corn or potatoes, it
+should be levelled, a line stretched for the row, and the plants
+set four feet apart in the row. Sink the roots as straight down as
+possible, and let the bud point upward, covering it lightly with
+merely one or two inches of soil. Press the ground firmly against
+the roots, but not on the bud. The soil just over this should be
+fine and mellow, so that the young shoot can push through easily,
+which it will soon do if the plants are in good condition. Except
+in the extreme South, spring is by far the best time for planting,
+and it should be done early, while the buds are dormant. After
+these begin to grow, keep the ground mellow and free from weeds.
+The first effort of the young plant will be to propagate itself.
+It will sprawl over the ground if left to its wild impulses, and
+will not make an upright bearing bush. On this account put a stake
+down by the young sprout, and as it grows keep it tied up and away
+from the ground. When the side-branches are eight or ten inches
+long, pinch them back, thus throwing the chief strength into the
+central cane. By keeping all the branches pinched back you form
+the plant into an erect, sturdy bush that will load itself with
+berries the following year. No fruit will be borne the first
+season. The young canes of the second year will incline to be more
+sturdy and erect in their growth; but this tendency can be greatly
+enhanced by clipping the long slender branches which are thrown
+out on every side. As soon as the old canes are through bearing,
+they should be cut out and burned or composted with other refuse
+from the garden. Black-caps may be planted on any soil that is not
+too dry. When the plant suffers from drought, the fruit consists
+of little else than seeds. To escape this defect I prefer to put
+the black-caps in a moist location; and it is one of the few
+fruits that will thrive in a cold, wet soil. One can set out
+plants here and there in out-of-the-way corners, and they often do
+better than those in the garden. Indeed, unless a place is kept up
+very neatly, many such bushes will be found growing wild, and
+producing excellent fruit.
+
+The question may arise in some minds, Why buy plants? Why not get
+them from the woods and fields, or let Nature provide bushes for
+us where she will? When Nature produces a bush on my place where
+it is not in the way, I let it grow, and pick the fruit in my
+rambles; but the supply would be precarious indeed for a family.
+By all means get plants from the woods if you have marked a bush
+that produces unusually fine fruit. It is by just this course that
+the finest varieties have been obtained. If you go a-berrying, you
+may light on something finer than has yet been discovered; but it
+is not very probable. Meanwhile, for a dollar you can get all the
+plants you want of the two or three best varieties that have yet
+been discovered, from Maine to California. After testing a great
+many kinds, I should recommend the Souhegan for early, and the
+Mammoth Cluster and Gregg for late. A clean, mellow soil in good
+condition, frequent pinchings back of the canes in summer, or a
+rigorous use of the pruning-shears in spring, are all that is
+required to secure an abundant crop from year to year. This
+species may also be grown among trees. I advise that every kind
+and description of raspberries be kept tied to stakes or a wire
+trellis. The wood ripens better, the fruit is cleaner and richer
+from exposure to air and sunshine, and the garden is far neater
+than if the canes are sprawling at will. I know that all
+horticulturists advise that the plants be pinched back so
+thoroughly as to form self-supporting bushes; but I have yet to
+see the careful fruit-grower who did this, or the bushes that some
+thunder-gusts would not prostrate into the mud with all their
+precious burden, were they not well supported. Why take the risk
+to save a two-penny stake?
+
+If, just before the fruit begins to ripen, a mulch of leaves, cut
+grass, or any litter that will cover the ground slightly, is
+placed under and around the bushes, it may save a great deal of
+fruit from being spoiled. The raspberry season is also the hour
+and opportunity for thunder-showers, whose great slanting drops
+often splash the soil to surprising distances. Sugar-and-cream-
+coated, not mud-coated, berries, if you please.
+
+In my remarks on raspberries I have not named many varieties, and
+have rather laid stress on the principles which may guide the
+reader in his present and future selections of kinds. Sufficient
+in number and variety to meet the NEEDS of every family have been
+mentioned. The amateur may gratify his taste by testing other
+sorts described in nurserymen's catalogues. Moreover, every year
+or two some new variety will be heralded throughout the land. The
+reader has merely to keep in mind the three classes of raspberries
+described and their characteristics, in order to make an
+intelligent choice from old and new candidates for favor.
+
+It should also be remembered that the raspberry is a Northern
+fruit. I am often asked in effect, What raspberries do you
+recommend for the Gulf States? I suppose my best reply would be,
+What oranges do you think best adapted to New York? Most of the
+foreign kinds falter and fail in New Jersey and Southern
+Pennsylvania; the Cuthbert and its class can be grown much further
+south, while the Turner and the black-caps thrive almost to
+Florida.
+
+Raspberries, especially those of our native species, are
+comparatively free from disease. Foreign varieties and their
+hybrids are sometimes afflicted with the curl-leaf. The foliage
+crimps up, the canes are dwarfed, and the whole plant has a sickly
+and often yellow appearance. The only remedy is to dig up the
+plant, root and branch, and burn it.
+
+A disease termed the "rust" not infrequently attacks old and
+poorly nourished black-cap bushes. The leaves take on an ochreous
+color, and the plant is seen to be failing. Extirpate it as
+directed above. If many bushes are affected, I advise that the
+whole patch be rooted up, and healthy plants set out elsewhere.
+
+It is a well-known law of Nature that plants of nearly all kinds
+appear to exhaust from the soil in time the ingredients peculiarly
+acceptable to them. Skill can do much toward maintaining the
+needful supply; but the best and easiest plan is not to grow any
+of the small fruits too long in any one locality. By setting out
+new plants on different ground, far better results are attained
+with much less trouble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE CURRANT
+
+
+Who that has ever lived in the country does not remember the old
+straggling currant-bushes that disputed their existence with
+grass, docks, and other coarse-growing weeds along some ancient
+fence? Many also can recall the weary task of gathering a quart or
+two of the diminutive fruit for pies, and the endless picking
+required to obtain enough for the annual jelly-making. Nor is this
+condition of affairs a thing of the past. Drive through the land
+where you will in early July, and you will see farmers mowing
+round the venerable Red Dutch currants "to give the women-folks a
+chance at 'em." The average farmer still bestows upon this fruit
+about as much attention as the aborigines gave to their patches of
+maize. This seems very absurd when we remember the important place
+held in the domestic economy by the currant, and how greatly it
+improves under decent treatment. If it demanded the attention
+which a cabbage-plant requires, it would be given; but the currant
+belongs to that small class of creatures which permit themselves
+to be used when wanted, and snubbed, neglected, and imposed upon
+at other times. It is known that the bushes will manage to exist,
+and do the Very best they can, no matter how badly treated; and
+average human nature has ever taken advantage of such traits, to
+its continuous loss.
+
+The patience of the currant is due perhaps to its origin, for it
+grows wild round the northern hemisphere, its chief haunts being
+the dim, cold, damp woods of the high latitudes. You may tame,
+modify, and vastly change anything possessing life; but original
+traits are scarcely ever wholly eradicated. Therefore the natural
+habitat and primal qualities of the currant indicate the true
+lines of development, its capabilities and limitations. It is
+essentially a northern fruit, requiring coolness, moisture, and
+alluvial soils. It begins to falter and look homesick even in New
+Jersey; and one has not to go far down the Atlantic coast to pass
+beyond the range of its successful culture. I do not see why it
+should not thrive much further south on the northern slopes of the
+mountains. From Philadelphia northward, however, except on light
+dry soils and in sunny exposures, there is no reason why it should
+not give ample returns for the attention it requires.
+
+I shall not lay stress on the old, well-known uses to which this
+fruit is put, but I do think its value is but half appreciated.
+People rush round in July in search of health: let me recommend
+the currant cure. If any one is languid, depressed in spirits,
+inclined to headaches, and generally "out of sorts," let him
+finish his breakfast daily for a month with a dish of freshly
+picked currants. He will soon, almost doubt his own identity, and
+may even begin to think that he is becoming a good man. He will be
+more gallant to his wife, kinder to his children, friendlier to
+his neighbors, and more open-handed to every good cause. Work will
+soon seem play, and play fun. In brief, the truth of the ancient
+pun will be verified, that "the power to live a good life depends
+largely upon the LIVER." Out upon the nonsense of taking medicine
+and nostrums during the currant-season! Let it be taught at
+theological seminaries that the currant is a "means of grace." It
+is a corrective; and that is what average humanity most needs.
+
+The currant, like the raspberry, is willing to keep shady; but
+only because it is modest. It is one of the fruits that thrive
+better among trees than in too dry and sunny exposures. Therefore,
+in economizing space on the Home Acre it may be grown among
+smaller trees, or, better still, on the northern or eastern side
+of a wall or hedge. But shade is not essential, except as we go
+south; then the requisites of moisture and shelter from the
+burning rays of the sun should be complied with as far as
+possible. In giving this and kindred fruits partial shade, they
+should not be compelled to contend to any extent with the roots of
+trees. This will ever prove an unequal contest. No fruit can
+thrive in dense shade, or find sustenance among the voracious
+roots of a tree.
+
+Select, therefore, if possible, heavy, deep, moist, yet well-
+drained soil, and do not fear to make and keep it very rich. If
+you are restricted to sandy or gravelly soils, correct their
+defects with compost, decayed leaves and sods, muck, manure from
+the cow-stable, and other fertilizers with staying rather than
+stimulating qualities. Either by plowing or forking, deepen as
+well as enrich the soil. It is then ready for the plants, which
+may be set out either in the fall or in early spring. I prefer the
+autumn--any time after the leaves have fallen; but spring answers
+almost as well, while buds are dormant, or partially so. It should
+be remembered that the currant starts very early, and is in full
+foliage before some persons are fairly wakened to garden
+interests. It would, in this case, be better to wait until
+October, unless the plants can be obtained from a neighbor on a
+cloudy day; then they should be cut back two-thirds of their
+length before being removed, and the transfer made as quickly as
+possible. Under any circumstances, take off half of the wood from
+the plants bought. This need not be thrown away. Every cutting of
+young wood six inches long will make a new plant in a single
+season. All that is needful is to keep the wood moist until ready
+to put it in the ground, or, better still, a cool, damp place in
+the garden can be selected at once, and the cuttings sunk two-
+thirds of their length into the ground, and the soil pressed firm
+around them. By fall they will have a good supply of roots, and by
+the following autumn be ready to be set out wherever you wish them
+to fruit.
+
+Currant-bushes may be planted five feet apart each way, and at the
+same distance, if they are to line a fence. They should be sunk a
+few inches deeper in the soil than they stood before, and the
+locality be such as to admit of good culture. The soil should
+never be permitted to become hard, weedy, or grass-grown. As a
+rule, I prefer two-year-old plants, while those of one year's
+growth answer nearly as well, if vigorous. If in haste for fruit,
+it may be well to get three-year-old plants, unless they have been
+dwarfed and enfeebled by neglect. Subsequent culture consists
+chiefly in keeping the soil clean, mellow, rich, and therefore
+moist. I have named the best fertilizers for the currant; but if
+the product of the horse-stable is employed, use it first as a
+mulch. It will thus gradually reach the roots. Otherwise it is too
+stimulating, and produces a rampant growth of wood rather than
+fruit.
+
+Under any circumstances this tendency to produce an undue amount
+of wood must be repressed almost as rigorously as in the grape-
+vine. The secret of successful currant-culture is richness
+beneath, and restriction above. English gardeners are said to have
+as complete and minute systems of pruning and training currants as
+the grape; but we do not seem to have patience for such detail.
+Nor do I regard it as necessary. Our object is an abundant supply
+of excellent fruit; and this result can be obtained at a
+surprisingly small outlay of time and money, if they are expended
+judiciously.
+
+The art of trimming a currant-bush, like that of pruning a grape-
+vine, is best learned by observation and experience. One can give
+principles rather than lay down rules. Like the vine, the currant
+tends to choke itself with a superabundance of wood, which soon
+becomes more or less barren. This is truer of some varieties than
+of others; but in all instances the judicious use of the pruning-
+knife doubles the yield. In view of the supposition that the
+leading shoot and all the branches were shortened in one-half when
+the plant was set out, I will suggest that early in June it will
+be observed that much more wood is forming than can be permitted
+to remain. There are weak, crowding shoots which never can be of
+any use. If these are cut out at this time, the sap which would go
+to mature them will be directed into the valuable parts of the
+forming bush. Summer pruning prevents misspent force, and it may
+be kept up with great advantage from year to year. This is rarely
+done, however; therefore early in spring the bushes must receive a
+good annual pruning, and the long shoots and branches be cut well
+back, so as to prevent naked reaches of wood. Observe a very
+productive bush, and you will see that there are many points
+abounding in little side-branches. It is upon these that the fruit
+is chiefly borne. A bush left to itself is soon a mass of long,
+slender, almost naked stalks, with a little fruit at the ends. The
+ideal bush is stocky, open, well branched, admitting light, air,
+and sun in every part. There is no crowding and smothering of the
+fruit by the foliage. But few clusters are borne on very young
+wood, and when this grows old and black, the clusters are small.
+Therefore new wood should always be coming on and kept well cut
+back, so as to form joints and side-branches; and as other parts
+grow old and feeble they should be cut out. Observation and
+experience will teach the gardener more than all the rules that
+could be written, for he will perceive that he must prune each
+bush according to its own individuality.
+
+For practical purposes the bush form is the best in which to grow
+currants; but they can easily be made to form pretty little trees
+with tops shaped like an umbrella, or any other form we desire.
+For instance, I found, one autumn, a shoot about three feet long.
+I rubbed off all the buds except the terminal one and three or
+four just beneath it, then sunk the lower end of the shoot six
+inches into the soil, and tied the part above the ground to a
+short stake. The following spring the lower end took root, and the
+few buds at the top developed into a small bushy head. Clumps of
+miniature currant-trees would make as pretty an ornament for the
+garden border as one would wish to see. It should be remembered
+that there is a currant as well as an apple borer; but the pests
+are not very numerous or destructive, and such little trees may
+easily be grown by the hundred.
+
+Clean culture has one disadvantage which must be guarded against.
+If the ground under bushes is loose, heavy rains will sometimes so
+splash up the soil as to muddy the greater part of the fruit. I
+once suffered serious loss in this way, and deserved it; for a
+little grass mown from the lawn, or any other litter spread under
+and around the bushes just before the fruit ripened, would have
+prevented it. It will require but a very few minutes to insure a
+clean crop.
+
+I imagine that if these pages are ever read, and such advice as I
+can give is followed, it will be more often by the mistress than
+the master of the Home Acre. I address him, but quite as often I
+mean her; and just at this point I am able to give "the power
+behind the throne" a useful hint. Miss Alcott, in her immortal
+"Little Women," has given an instance of what dire results may
+follow if the "jelly won't jell." Let me hasten to insure domestic
+peace by telling my fair reader (who will also be, if the jelly
+turns out of the tumblers tremulous yet firm, a gentle reader)
+that if she will have the currants picked just as soon as they are
+fully ripe, and before they have been drenched by a heavy rain,
+she will find that the jelly will "jell." It is overripe, water-
+soaked currants that break up families and demolish household
+gods. Let me also add another fact, as true as it is strange, that
+white currants make red jelly; therefore give the pearly fruit
+ample space in the garden.
+
+In passing to the consideration of varieties, it is quite natural
+in this connection to mention the white sorts first. I know that
+people are not yet sufficiently educated to demand white currants
+of their grocers; but the home garden is as much beyond the
+grocer's stall as the home is better than a boarding-house. There
+is no reason why free people in the country should be slaves to
+conventionalities, prejudices, and traditions. If white currants
+ARE sweeter, more delicious and beautiful than the red, why, so
+they are. Therefore let us plant them abundantly.
+
+If there is to be a queen among the currants, the White Grape is
+entitled to the crown. When placed upon the table, the dish
+appears heaped with translucent pearls. The sharp acid of the red
+varieties is absent, and you feel that if you could live upon them
+for a time, your blood would grow pure, if not "blue."
+
+The bush producing this exquisite fruit is like an uncouth-looking
+poet who gives beauty from an inner life, but disappoints in
+externals. It is low-branching and unshapely, and must be forced
+into good form--the bush, not the poet--by the pruning-knife. If
+this is done judiciously, no other variety will bear more
+profusely or present a fairer object on a July day.
+
+The White Dutch has the well-known characteristics in growth of
+the common Red Dutch currant, and is inferior only to the White
+Grape in size. The fruit is equally transparent, beautiful, mild,
+and agreeable in flavor, while the bush is enormously productive,
+and shapely in form, if properly trained and fertilized.
+
+While the white currants are such favorites, I do not undervalue
+the red. Indeed, were I restricted to one variety, it should be
+the old Dutch Red of our fathers, or, more properly, of our
+grandmothers. For general house uses I do not think it has yet
+been surpassed. It is not so mild in flavor as the white
+varieties, but there is a richness and sprightliness in its acid
+that are grateful indeed on a sultry day. Mingled with the white
+berries, it makes a beautiful dish, while it has all the culinary
+qualities which the housekeeper can desire. If the bush is
+rigorously pruned and generously enriched, it is unsurpassed in
+productiveness, and the fruit approaches very nearly to the Cherry
+currant in size.
+
+I do not recommend the last-named kind for the home garden, unless
+large, showy fruit counts for more than flavor. The acid of the
+Cherry currant, unless very ripe, is harsh and watery. At best it
+never acquires an agreeable mildness, to my taste. The bushes also
+are not so certainly productive, and usually require skilful
+pruning and constant fertilizing to be profitable. For the market,
+which demands size above all things, the Cherry is the kind to
+grow; but in the home garden flavor and productiveness are the
+more important qualities. Fay's Prolific is a new sort that has
+been very highly praised.
+
+The Victoria is an excellent late variety, which, if planted in a
+sheltered place, prolongs the currant-season well into the autumn.
+Spurious kinds are sold under this name. The true Victoria
+produces a pale-red fruit with tapering clusters or racemes of
+berries. This variety, with the three others recommended, gives
+the family two red and two white kinds--all that are needed. Those
+who are fond of black currants can, at almost any nursery, procure
+the Black Naples and Lee's Prolific. Either variety will answer
+all practical purposes. I confess they are not at all to my taste.
+
+From the currant we pass on naturally to the gooseberry, for in
+origin and requirements it is very similar. Both belong to the
+Ribes family of plants, and they are to be cultivated on the same
+general principles. What I have written in regard to partial
+shade, cool, sheltered localities, rich, heavy soils, good
+culture, and especially rigorous pruning, applies with even
+greater force to this fruit, especially if we endeavor to raise
+the foreign varieties, in cultivating this fruit it is even more
+important than was true of raspberries that the reader should
+distinguish between the native and foreign species. The latter are
+so inclined to mildew in almost every locality that there is
+rarely any certainty of satisfactory fruit. The same evil pursues
+the seedling children of the foreign sorts, and I have never seen
+a hybrid or cross between the English and native species that was
+with any certainty free from a brown disfiguring rust wholly or
+partially enveloping the berries. Here and there the fruit in some
+gardens will escape year after year; again, on places not far
+away, the blighting mildew is sure to appear before the berries
+are fully grown. Nevertheless, the foreign varieties are so fine
+that it is well to give them a fair trial. The three kinds which
+appear best adapted to our climate are Crown Bob, Roaring Lion,
+and Whitesmith. A new large variety, named Industry, is now being
+introduced, and if half of what is claimed for it is true, it is
+worth a place in all gardens.
+
+In order to be certain of clean, fair gooseberries every year, we
+must turn to our native species, which has already given us
+several good varieties. The Downing is the largest and best, and
+the Houghton the hardiest, most productive and easily raised. When
+we remember the superb fruit which English gardeners have
+developed from wild kinds inferior to ours, we can well understand
+that the true American gooseberries are yet to be developed. In my
+work "Success with Small Fruits" those who are interested in this
+fruit will find much fuller treatment than is warranted in the
+present essay.
+
+Not only do currants and gooseberries require similar treatment
+and cultivation, but they also have a common enemy that must be
+vigilantly guarded against, or the bushes will be defoliated in
+many localities almost before its existence is known. After an
+absence of a few days I have found some of my bushes stripped of
+every leaf. When this happens, the fruit is comparatively
+worthless. Foliage is as necessary to a plant as are lungs to a
+man. It is not essential that I should go into the natural history
+of the currant worm and moth. Having once seen the yellowish-green
+caterpillars at their destructive work, the reader's thoughts will
+not revert to the science of entomology, but will at once become
+bloody and implacable. I hasten to suggest the means of rescue and
+vengeance. The moment these worms appear, be on your guard, for
+they usually spread like fire in stubble. Procure of your druggist
+white hellebore, scald and mix a tablespoonful in a bowl of hot
+water, and then pour it in a full watering-can. This gives you an
+infusion of about a tablespoonful to an ordinary pail of water at
+its ordinary summer temperature. Sprinkle the infected bushes with
+this as often as there is a worm to be seen. I have never failed
+in destroying the pests by this course. It should be remembered,
+however, that new eggs are often hatched out daily. You may kill
+every worm to-day, yet find plenty on the morrow. Vigilance,
+however, will soon so check the evil that your currants are safe;
+and if every one would fight the pests, they would eventually be
+almost exterminated. The trouble is that, while you do your duty,
+your next-door neighbor may grow nothing on his bushes but
+currant-worms. Thus the evil is continued, and even increased, in
+spite of all that you can do; but by a little vigilance and the
+use of hellebore you can always save YOUR currants. I have kept my
+bushes green, luxuriant, and loaded with fruit when, at a short
+distance, the patches of careless neighbors were rendered utterly
+worthless. Our laws but half protect the birds, the best
+insecticides, and there is no law to prevent a man from allowing
+his acres to be the breeding-place of every pest prevailing.
+
+There are three species of the currant-borer, and their presence
+is indicated by yellow foliage and shrivelling fruit. The only
+remedy is to cut out and burn the affected stems. These pests are
+not often sufficiently numerous to do much harm.
+
+I earnestly urge that virulent poisons like Paris green, London
+purple, etc., never be used on fruit or edible vegetables. There
+cannot be safety in this course. I never heard of any one that was
+injured by white hellebore, used as I have directed; and I have
+found that if the worms were kept off until the fruit began to
+ripen, the danger was practically over. If I had to use hellebore
+after the fruit was fit to use, I should first kill the worms, and
+then cleanse the bushes thoroughly by spraying them with clean
+water.
+
+In treating the two remaining small fruits, blackberries and
+strawberries, we pass wholly out of the shade and away from trees.
+Sunshine and open ground are now required. Another important
+difference can also be mentioned, reversing former experience.
+America is the home of these fruits. The wild species of the
+blackberry abroad has never, as far as I can learn, been developed
+into varieties worthy of cultivation; and before importations from
+North and South America began, the only strawberry of Europe was
+the Alpine, with its slight variations, and the musky Hautbois.
+
+I do not know whether any of our fine varieties of blackberries
+are cultivated abroad, but I am perfectly certain that they are
+worthy of the slight attention required to raise them in
+perfection here.
+
+Like the blackcaps, all our best varieties are the spontaneous
+products of Nature, first discovered growing wild, and transferred
+to the garden. The blackberry is a fruit that takes kindly to
+cultivation, and improves under it.
+
+The proper treatment is management rather than cultivation and
+stimulation. It requires a sunny exposure and a light, warm soil,
+yet not so dry as to prevent the fruit from maturing into juicy
+berries. If possible, set the blackberries off by themselves, for
+it is hard to prevent the strong roots from travelling all over
+the garden. The blackberry likes a rich, moist, mellow soil, and,
+finding it, some varieties will give you canes sixteen feet high.
+You do not want rank, thorny brambles, however, but berries.
+Therefore the blackberry should be put where it can do no harm,
+and, by a little judicious repression, a great deal of good. A
+gravelly or sandy knoll, with a chance to mow all round the patch,
+is the best place. The blackberry needs a deep, loose soil rather
+than a rich one. Then the roots will luxuriate to unknown depths,
+the wood ripen thoroughly, and the fruit be correspondingly
+abundant.
+
+Let the rows be six feet apart; set out the plants in the fall, if
+possible, or EARLY spring; put two plants in the hills, which may
+be four feet apart. If the ground is very poor, give the young
+plants a shovelful of old compost, decayed leaves, etc. Any
+fertilizer will answer, so that it is spread just over the roots
+to give the plants a good send-off.
+
+As a rule, complete success in blackberry culture consists in a
+little judicious work performed in May, June, and July. The
+plants, having been set out as I have advised in the case of
+raspberries, throw up the first season strong green shoots. When
+these shoots are three feet high, pinch off the top, so as to stop
+upward growth. The result of this is that branches start on every
+side, and the plant forms a low, stocky, self-supporting bush,
+which will be loaded with fruit the following season.
+
+The second year the plants in the hill will send up stronger
+canes, and there will be plenty of sprouts or suckers in the
+intervening spaces. When very young, these useless sprouts can be
+pulled out with the least possible trouble. Left to mature, they
+make a thorny wilderness which will cause bleeding hands and faces
+when attacked, and add largely to the family mending. That which a
+child could do as play when the suckers were just coming through
+the ground, is now a formidable task for any man. In early summer
+you can with the utmost ease keep every useless blackberry sprout
+from growing. More canes, also, will usually start from the hill
+than are needed. Leave but three strong shoots, and this year
+pinch them back as soon as they are four feet high, thus producing
+three stocky, well-branched bushes, which in sheltered places will
+be self-supporting. Should there be the slightest danger of their
+breaking down with their load of fruit, tie them to stakes by all
+means. I do not believe in that kind of economy which tries to
+save a penny at the risk of a dollar.
+
+I believe that better and larger fruit is always secured by
+shortening in the side branches one-third of their length in
+spring. Fine varieties like the Kittatinny are not entirely hardy
+in all localities. The snow will protect the lower branches, and
+the upper ones can usually be kept uninjured by throwing over them
+some very light litter, like old pea or bean vines, etc.--nothing
+heavy enough to break them down. As soon as the old canes are
+through bearing, they should be cut out. If the blackberry patch
+has been left to its own wild will, there is nothing left for us
+but to attack it, well-gloved, in April, with the pruning-shears,
+and cut out everything except three or four young canes in the
+hill. These will probably be tall, slender, and branchless,
+therefore comparatively unproductive. In order to have any fruit
+at all, we must shorten them one-third, and tie them to stakes. It
+thus may be clearly seen that with blackberries "a stitch in time"
+saves almost ninety-nine. Keep out coarse weeds and grass, and
+give fertilizers only when the plants show signs of feebleness and
+lack of nutrition.
+
+A rust similar to that which attacks the black-cap is almost the
+only disease we have to contend with. The remedy is the same--
+extirpation of the plant, root and branch.
+
+After testing a great many kinds, I recommend the three following
+varieties, ripening in succession for the family--the Early
+Harvest, Snyder, and Kittatinny. These all produce rich, high-
+flavored berries, and, under the treatment suggested, will prove
+hardy in nearly all localities. This fruit is not ripe as soon as
+it is black, and it is rarely left on the bushes until the hard
+core in the centre is mellowed by complete maturity. I have found
+that berries picked in the evening and stood in a cool place were
+in excellent condition for breakfast. To have them in perfection,
+however, they must be so ripe as to drop into the basket at the
+slightest touch; then, as Donald Mitchell says, they are "bloated
+bubbles of forest honey."
+
+I fancy the reader is as impatient to reach the strawberry as I am
+myself. "Doubtless God could have made a better berry"--but I
+forbear. This saying has been quoted by the greater part of the
+human race, and attributed to nearly every prominent man, from
+Adam to Mr. Beecher. There are said to be unfortunates whom the
+strawberry poisons. The majority of us feel as if we could attain
+Methuselah's age if we had nothing worse to contend with. Praising
+the strawberry is like "painting the lily;" therefore let us give
+our attention at once to the essential details of its successful
+culture.
+
+As we have intimated before, this fruit as we find it in our
+gardens, even though we raise foreign kinds, came originally from
+America. The two great species, Fragaria chilensis, found on the
+Pacific slope from Oregon to Chili, and Fragaria virginiana,
+growing wild in all parts of North America east of the Rocky
+Mountains, are the sources of all the fine varieties that have
+been named and cultivated. The Alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca),
+which grows wild throughout the northern hemisphere, does not
+appear capable of much variation and development under
+cultivation. Its seeds, sown under all possible conditions,
+reproduce the parent plant. Foreign gardeners eventually learned,
+however, that seeds of the Chili and Virginia strawberry produced
+new varieties which were often much better than their parents. As
+time passed, and more attention was drawn to this subject, superb
+varieties were originated abroad, many of them acquiring a wide
+celebrity. In this case, as has been true of nearly all other
+fruits, our nursery-men and fruit-growers first looked to Europe
+for improved varieties. Horticulturists were slow to learn that in
+our own native species were the possibilities of the best success.
+The Chili strawberry, brought directly from the Pacific coast to
+the East, is not at home in our climate, and is still more
+unfitted to contend with it after generations of culture in
+Europe. Even our hardier Virginia strawberry, coming back to us
+from England after many years of high stimulation in a moist, mild
+climate, is unequal to the harsher conditions of life here. They
+are like native Americans who have lived and been pampered abroad
+so long that they find this country "quite too rude, you know--
+beastly climate." Therefore, in the choice varieties, and in
+developing new ones, the nearer we can keep to vigorous strains of
+our own hardy Virginia species the better. From it have proceeded
+and will continue to come the finest kinds that can be grown east
+of the Rockies. Nevertheless, what was said of foreign raspberries
+is almost equally true of European strawberries like the Triomphe
+de Gand and Jucunda, and hybrids like the Wilder. In localities
+where they can be grown, their beauty and fine flavor repay for
+the high culture and careful winter protection required. But they
+can scarcely be made to thrive on light soils or very far to the
+south.
+
+So many varieties are offered for sale that the question of choice
+is a bewildering one. I have therefore sought to meet it, as
+before, by giving the advice of those whose opinions are well
+entitled to respect.
+
+Dr. Hexamer, who has had great and varied experience, writes as
+follows: "A neighbor of mine who has for years bought nearly every
+new strawberry when first introduced, has settled on the Duchess
+and Cumberland as the only varieties he will grow in the future,
+and thinks it not worth while to seek for something better.
+Confined to two varieties, a more satisfactory selection could
+scarcely be made. But you want six or seven, either being, I
+think, about the right number for the home garden. I will give
+them in the order of desirability according to my judgment--
+Cumberland, Charles Downing, Duchess, Mount Vernon, Warren,
+Sharpless, Jewell."
+
+The selection which places the Cumberland Triumph at the head of
+the list is but another proof how kinds differ under varied
+conditions. On my place this highly praised sort is but moderately
+productive and not high-flavored, although the fruit is very large
+and handsome. I regard the list, however, as a most excellent one
+for most localities.
+
+The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder's choice for the latitude of
+Massachusetts: "Charles Downing, Wilder, Hervey Davis, Sharpless,
+Cumberland, Kentucky. Jewell is very promising." A. S. Fuller, for
+latitude of New York: "Charles Downing, Sharpless, Miner's
+Prolific, Wilson's Albany, Champion." P. C. Berckmans, for the
+latitude of Georgia: "Wilson, Sharpless, Charles Downing, Triomphe
+de Gand, Glendale." The Hon. Norman J. Colman's choice for
+Missouri and the West: "Crescent, Captain Jack, Cumberland,
+Champion, Hart's Minnesota, Cornelia."
+
+If I gave a hundred other lists, no two of them probably would
+agree in all respects. Mr. Downing often said to me, "Soil,
+climate, and locality make greater differences with the strawberry
+than with any other fruit." This is far more true of some
+varieties than others. I believe that the excellent kind named
+after Mr. Downing, if given proper treatment, will do well almost
+anywhere on the continent. It will be noted that it is on all the
+lists except one. I should place it at the head of garden
+strawberries. It is a kind that will endure much neglect, and it
+responds splendidly to generous, sensible treatment. Its delicious
+flavor is its chief recommendation, as it should be that of every
+berry for the home garden.
+
+I have tested many hundreds of kinds, and have grown scores and
+scores that were so praised when first sent out that the novice
+might be tempted to dig up and throw away everything except the
+wonderful novelty pressed upon his attention. There is one quiet,
+effective way of meeting all this heralding and laudation, and
+that is to make trial beds. For instance, I have put out as many
+as seventy kinds at nearly the same time, and grown them under
+precisely the same conditions. Some of the much-vaunted new-comers
+were found to be old varieties re-named; others, although sold at
+high prices and asserted to be prodigies, were seen to be
+comparatively worthless when growing by the side of good old
+standard sorts; the majority never rose above mediocrity under
+ordinary treatment; but now and then one, like the Sharpless,
+fulfilled the promises made for it.
+
+In my next chapter I shall venture to recommend those varieties
+which my own experience and observation have shown to be best
+adapted to various soils and localities, and shall also seek to
+prove that proper cultivation has more to do with success than
+even the selection of favored kinds.
+
+Nor would I seek to dissuade the proprietor of the Home Acre from
+testing the many novelties offered. He will be sure to get a fair
+return in strawberries, and to his interest in his garden will add
+the pleasure and anticipation which accompany uncertain
+experiment. In brief, he has found an innocent form of gambling,
+which will injure neither pocket nor morals. In slow-maturing
+fruits we cannot afford to make mistakes; in strawberries, one
+prize out of a dozen blanks repays for everything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+STRAWBERRIES
+
+
+There is a very general impression that light, dry, sandy soils
+are the best for the strawberry. Just the reverse of this is true.
+In its desire for moisture it is almost an aquatic plant.
+Experienced horticulturists have learned to recognize this truth,
+which the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder has suggested in the following
+piquant manner: "In the first place, the strawberry's chief need
+is a great deal of water. In the second place, it needs more
+water. In the third place, I think I should give it a great deal
+more water."
+
+While emphasizing this truth the reader should at the same time be
+warned against land whereon water stands above the surface in
+winter and spring, or stagnates beneath the surface at any time.
+Moisture is essential to the best results; good drainage is
+equally so. The marvellous crops of strawberries raised in
+California under well-directed systems of irrigation should teach
+us useful lessons. The plants, instead of producing a partially
+developed crop within a few brief days, continue in bearing
+through weeks and months. It may often be possible to supply
+abundantly on the Home Acre this vital requirement of moisture,
+and I shall refer to this point further on.
+
+My first advice in regard to strawberries is to set them out
+immediately almost anywhere except upon land so recently in grass
+that the sod is still undecayed. This course is better than not to
+have the fruit at all, or to wait for it A year without
+strawberries is a lost year in one serious respect. While there is
+a wide difference between what plants can do under unfavorable
+conditions and what they can be made to do when their needs are
+fully met, they will probably in any event yield a fair supply of
+delicious fruit. Secure this as soon as possible. At the same time
+remember that a plant of a good variety is a genius capable of
+wonderful development. In ordinary circumstances it is like the
+"mute, inglorious" poets whose enforced limitations were lamented
+by the poet Gray; but when its innate powers and gifts are fully
+nourished it expands into surprising proportions, sends up
+hundreds of flowers, which are followed by ruby gems of fruit
+whose exquisite flavor is only surpassed by its beauty. No such
+concentrated ambrosia ever graced the feasts of the Olympian gods,
+for they were restricted to the humble Fragaria vesca, or Alpine
+species. In discovering the New World, Columbus also discovered
+the true strawberry, and died without the knowledge of this result
+of his achievement.
+
+I can imagine the expression on the faces of those who buy the
+"sour, crude, half-ripe Wilsons," against which the poet Bryant
+inveighed so justly. The market is flooded with this fruit because
+it bears transportation about as well as would marbles. Yes, they
+are strawberries; choke-pears and Seckels belong to the same
+species. There is truth enough in my exaggeration to warrant the
+assertion that if we would enjoy the possible strawberry, we must
+raise it ourselves, and pick it when fully matured--ready for the
+table, and not for market. Then any man's garden can furnish
+something better than was found in Eden.
+
+Having started a strawberry-patch without loss of time wherever it
+is handiest, we can now give our attention to the formation of an
+ideal bed. In this instance we must shun the shade of trees above,
+and their roots beneath. The land should be open to the sky, and
+the sun free to practice his alchemy on the fruit the greater part
+of the day. The most favorable soil is a sandy loam, verging
+toward clay; and it should have been under cultivation
+sufficiently long to destroy all roots of grass and perennial
+weeds. Put on the fertilizer with a free hand. If it is barnyard
+manure, the rate of sixty tons to the acre is not in excess. A
+strawberry plant has a large appetite and excellent digestion. It
+prefers decidedly manure from the cow-stable, though that from the
+horse-stable answers very well; but it is not advisable to
+incorporate it with the soil in its raw, unfermented state, and
+then to plant immediately. The ground can scarcely be too rich for
+strawberries, but it may easily be overheated and stimulated. In
+fertilizing, ever keep in mind the two great requisites--moisture
+and coolness. Manure from the horse-stable, therefore, is almost
+doubled in value as well as bulk if composted with leaves, muck,
+or sods, and allowed to decay before being used.
+
+Next to enriching the soil, the most important step is to deepen
+it. If a plow is used, sink it to the beam, and run it twice in a
+furrow. If a lifting subsoil-plow can follow, all the better.
+Strawberry roots have been traced two feet below the surface.
+
+If the situation of the plot does not admit the use of a plow, let
+the gardener begin at one side and trench the area to at least the
+depth of eighteen inches, taking pains to mix the surface,
+subsoil, and fertilizer evenly and thoroughly. A small plot thus
+treated will yield as much as one three or four times as large.
+One of the chief advantages of thus deepening the soil is that the
+plants are insured against their worst enemy--drought. How often I
+have seen beds in early June languishing for moisture, the fruit
+trusses lying on the ground, fainting under their burden, and the
+berries ripening prematurely into little more than diminutive
+collections of seeds! When ground has been deepened as I have
+said, the drought must be almost unparalleled to arrest the
+development of the fruit. Even in the most favorable seasons,
+hard, shallow soils give but a brief period of strawberries, the
+fruit ripens all at once, and although the first berries may be of
+good size, the later ones dwindle until they are scarcely larger
+than peas. Be sure to have a deep, mellow soil beneath the plants.
+
+Such a bed can be made in either spring or fall--indeed, at any
+time when the soil is free from frost, and neither too wet nor
+dry. I do not believe in preparing and fertilizing ground during a
+period of drought.
+
+We will suppose the work has been done in the spring, as early as
+the earth was dry enough to crumble freely, and that the surface
+of the bed is smooth, mellow, and ready for the plants. Stretch a
+garden line down the length of the plot two feet from the outer
+edge, and set the plants along the line one foot apart from each
+other. Let the roots be spread out, not buried in a mat, the earth
+pressed FIRMLY against them, and the crown of the plant be exactly
+even with the surface of the soil, which should also be pressed
+closely around it with the fingers. This may seem minute detail,
+yet much dismal experience proves it to be essential. I have
+employed scores of men, and the great majority at first would
+either bury the crowns out of sight, or else leave part of the
+roots exposed, and the remainder so loose in the soil that a sharp
+gale would blow the plants away. There is no one so economical of
+time as the hired man whose time is paid for. He is ever bent on
+saving a minute or half-minute in this kind of work. On one
+occasion I had to reset a good part of an acre on which my men had
+saved time in planting. If I had asked them to save the plants in
+the year of '86, they might have "struck."
+
+The first row having been set out, I advise that the line be moved
+forward three feet. This would make the rows three feet apart--not
+too far in ground prepared as described, and in view of the
+subsequent method of cultivation. The bed may therefore be filled
+up in this ratio, the plants one foot apart in the row, and the
+rows three feet apart. The next point in my system, for the kind
+of soil named (for light, sandy soils another plan will be
+indicated), is to regard each plant as an individual that is to be
+developed to the utmost. Of course only young plants of the
+previous season's growth should be used. If a plant has old,
+woody, black roots, throw it away. Plants set out in April will
+begin to blossom in May. These buds and blossoms should be picked
+off ruthlessly as soon as they appear. Never does avarice
+overreach itself more completely than when plants are permitted to
+bear the same season in which they are set out. The young, half-
+established plant is drained of its vitality in producing a little
+imperfect fruit; yet this is permitted even by farmers who would
+hold up their hands at the idea of harnessing a colt to a plow.
+
+The plants do not know anything about our purpose in regard to
+them. They merely seek to follow the law of Nature to propagate
+themselves, first by seeds which, strictly speaking, are the
+fruit, and then by runners. These slender, tendril-like growths
+begin to appear early in summer, and if left unchecked will mat
+the ground about the parent with young plants by late autumn. If
+we wish plants, let them grow by all means; but if fruit is our
+object, why should we let them grow? "Because nearly every one
+seems to do it," would be, perhaps, the most rational answer. This
+is a mistake, for many are beginning to take just the opposite
+course even when growing strawberries by the acre.
+
+Let us fix our attention on a single plant. It has a certain
+amount of root pasturage and space in which to grow. Since it is
+not permitted to produce an indefinite number of young plants, it
+begins to develop itself. The soil is rich, the roots are busy,
+and there must be an outlet. The original plant cannot form
+others, and therefore begins to produce fruit-crowns for the
+coming year. All the sap, all the increasing power of root and
+foliage, are directed to preparation for fruit. In brief, we have
+got the plant in traces; it is pulling in the direction we wish,
+it will eventually deliver a load of berries which would surprise
+those who trust simply to Nature unguided.
+
+Some one may object that this is a troublesome and expensive way
+of growing strawberries. Do not the facts in the case prove the
+reverse? A plant restricted to a single root can be hoed and
+worked around like a hill of corn or a currant-bush. With
+comparatively little trouble the ground between the rows can be
+kept clean and mellow. Under the common system, which allows the
+runners to interlace and mat the ground, you soon have an almost
+endless amount of hand-weeding to do, and even this fails if white
+clover, sorrel, and certain grasses once get a start. The system I
+advocate forbids neglect; the runners must be clipped off as fast
+as they appear, and they continue to grow from June till frost;
+but the actual labor of the year is reduced to a minimum. A little
+boy or girl could keep a large bed clipped by the occasional use
+of a shears or knife before breakfast; and if the ground between
+the plants is free of runners, it can be hoed over in an hour.
+Considering, therefore, merely the trouble and expense, the
+single-plant system has the facts in its favor. But our object is
+not to grow strawberry plants with the least trouble, but to have
+strawberries of the largest and finest quality.
+
+In addition to ease and thoroughness of cultivation, there are
+other important advantages. The single narrow row of plants is
+more easily protected against winter's frosts. Light, strawy
+manure from the horse-stable serves well for this purpose; but it
+should be light and free from heat. I have seen beds destroyed by
+too heavy a covering of chunky, rank manure. It is not our purpose
+to keep the beds and plants from freezing, but from alternately
+freezing and thawing. If snow fell on the bed in December and
+lasted till April, no other protection would be needed. Nature in
+this latitude has no sympathy for the careless man. During the
+winter of 1885, in January, and again in February and March, the
+ground was bare, unprotected plants were badly frozen, and in many
+instances lifted partly out of the ground by midday thawing and
+night freezing. The only safe course is to cover the rows
+thoroughly, but not heavily, early in December. If then light
+stable-manure is not at hand, leaves, old bean-vines, or any dry
+refuse from the garden not containing injurious seeds will answer.
+Do not employ asparagus-tops, which contain seed. Of course we
+want this vegetable, but not in the strawberry bed. Like some
+persons out of their proper sphere, asparagus may easily become a
+nuisance; and it will dispossess other growths of their rights and
+places as serenely as a Knight of Labor. The proper balance must
+be kept in the garden as well as in society; and therefore it is
+important to cover our plants with something that will not
+speedily become a usurper. Let it be a settled point, then, that
+the narrow rows must be covered thoroughly out of sight with some
+light material which will not rest with smothering weight on the
+plants or leave among them injurious seeds. Light stable-manure is
+often objected to for the reason that employing it is like sowing
+the ground with grass-seed. If the plants had been allowed to grow
+in matted beds, I would not use this material for a winter
+covering, unless it had been allowed to heat sufficiently to
+destroy the grass and clover seed contained in it. I have seen
+matted beds protected with stable-manure that were fit to mow by
+June, the plants and fruit having been over run with grass. No
+such result need follow if the plants are cultivated in a single
+line, for then the manure can be raked off in early spring--first
+of April in our latitude--and the ground cultivated. There is a
+great advantage in employing light manure if the system I advocate
+is followed, for the melting snows and rains carry the richness of
+the fertilizer to the roots, and winter protection serves a double
+purpose.
+
+We will now consider the proper management for the second year,
+when a full crop should be yielded. I know that many authorities
+frown upon cultivation during the second spring, before plants
+bear their fruit. I can not agree with this view, except in regard
+to very light soils, and look upon it as a relic of the old theory
+that sandy land was the best for strawberries. Take the soil under
+consideration, a sandy loam, for instance. After the frost is out,
+the earth settled, and the winter covering raked off, the soil
+under the spring sun grows hard, and by June is almost as solid as
+a roadbed. Every one knows that land in such condition suffers
+tenfold more severely from drought than if it were light and
+mellow from cultivation. Perennial weeds that sprouted late in the
+fall or early spring get a start, and by fruiting-time are
+rampant. I do advocate EARLY spring cultivation, and by it I
+almost double my crop, while at the same time maintaining a
+mastery over the weeds.
+
+As soon as the severe frosts are over, in April, I rake the
+coarsest of the stable-manure from the plants, leaving the finer
+and decayed portions as a fertilizer. Then, when the ground is dry
+enough to work, I have a man weed out the rows, and if there are
+vacant spaces, fill in the rows with young plants. The man then
+forks the ground lightly between the rows, and stirs the surface
+merely among the plants. Thus all the hard, sodden surface is
+loosened or scarified, and opened to the reception of air and
+light, dew and rain. The man is charged emphatically that in this
+cultivation he must not lift the plants or disturb the roots to
+any extent. If I find a plant with its hold upon the ground
+loosened, I know there has been careless work. Before digging
+along the row the fork is sunk beside the plants to prevent the
+soil from lifting in cakes, and the plants with them. In brief,
+pains are taken that the plants should be just as firm in the soil
+after cultivation as before. Let the reader carefully observe that
+this work is done EARLY in April, while the plants are
+comparatively DORMANT. Most emphatically it should not be done in
+May, after the blossoms begin to appear. If the bed has been
+neglected till that time, the SURFACE MERELY can be cultivated
+with a hoe. When the plants have approached so near to the
+fruiting, the roots must not be disturbed at all. EARLY
+cultivation gives time for new roots to grow, and stimulates such
+growth. Where the rows are sufficiently long, and the ground
+permits it, this early loosening of the soil is accomplished with
+a horse-cultivator better than with a fork, the hoe following and
+levelling the soil and taking out all weeds.
+
+My next step during the second season is to mulch the plants, in
+order to keep the fruit clean. Without this mulch the fruit is
+usually unfit for the table. A dashing shower splashes the berries
+with mud and grit, and the fruit must be washed before it is
+eaten; and strawberries with their sun-bestowed beauty and flavor
+washed away are as ridiculous as is mere noise from musical
+instruments. To be content with such fruit is like valuing
+pictures by the number of square inches of canvas! In perfecting a
+strawberry, Nature gives some of her finest touches, and it is not
+well to obliterate them with either mud or water. Any light clean
+material will keep the fruit clean. I have found spring rakings of
+the lawn--mingled dead grass and leaves--one of the best. Leaves
+from a grove would answer, were it not for their blowing about in
+an untidy way. Of course there is nothing better than straw for
+the strawberry; but this often costs as much as hay. Any clean
+litter that will lie close to the ground and can be pushed up
+under the plants will answer. Nor should it be merely under the
+plants. A man once mulched my rows in such a way that the fruit
+hung over the litter on the soil beyond. A little common-sense
+will meet the requirement of keeping the berries well away from
+the loose soil, while at the same time preserving a neat aspect to
+the bed. Pine-needles and salt-hay are used where these materials
+are abundant.
+
+Make it a rule to mulch as soon as possible after the plants begin
+to blossom, and also after a good soaking rain. In this case the
+litter keeps the ground moist. If the soil immediately about the
+plants is covered when dry, the mulch may keep it dry--to the
+great detriment of the forming berries. It is usually best to put
+on the mulch as soon as the early cultivation is over in April,
+and then the bed may be left till the fruit is picked. Of course
+it may be necessary to pull out some rank-growing weeds from time
+to time. If the hired man is left to do the mulching very late in
+the season, he will probably cover much of the green fruit and
+blossoms as well as the ground.
+
+After the berries have been picked, the remaining treatment of the
+year is very simple. Rake out the mulch, cultivate the soil, and
+keep the plants free of weeds and runners as during the previous
+year. Before hard freezing weather, protect again as before, and
+give the plants similar treatment the following spring and summer.
+Under this system the same plants may be kept in bearing three,
+four, and five years, according to the variety. Some kinds
+maintain their vigor longer than others. After the first year the
+disposition to run declines, and with the third year, in most
+instances, deterioration in the plant itself begins. I would
+therefore advise that under this system a new bed be made, as
+described, every third year; for, it should be remembered, the new
+bed is unproductive the first year. This should never be forgotten
+if one would maintain a continuous supply of berries, otherwise he
+will be like those born on the 29th of February, and have only
+occasional birthdays.
+
+If the old bed is just where you wish, and has been prepared in
+the thorough manner described, it can be renewed in the following
+manner: When the old plants begin to decline in vigor--say the
+third or fourth spring--a line of well-decayed compost and manure
+from the cow-stable a foot wide may be spread thickly down between
+the rows, dug under deeply, and young plants set out just over the
+fertilizer. The old plants can be treated as has already been
+described, and as soon as they are through bearing, dug under.
+This would leave the young plants in full possession of the
+ground, and the cultivation and management for three or more years
+would go on as already directed. This course involves no loss of
+time or change of ground for a long periods. If, however, a new
+bed can be made somewhere else, the plants will thrive better upon
+it. Unless there are serious objections, a change of ground is
+always advantageous; for no matter how lavishly the plot is
+enriched, the strawberry appears to exhaust certain required
+constituents in the soil. Continued vigor is better maintained by
+wood-ashes perhaps than by any other fertilizer, after the soil is
+once deepened and enriched, and it may be regarded as one of the
+very best tonics for the strawberry plant. Bone-meal is almost
+equally good. Guano and kindred fertilizers are too stimulating,
+and have not the staying qualities required.
+
+As has been intimated before, the strawberry bed may often be so
+located on the Home Acre as to permit of irrigation. This does not
+mean sprinkling and splattering with water, but the continuous
+maintenance of abundant moisture during the critical period from
+the time the fruit begins to form until it ripens. Partial
+watering during a drought is very injurious; so also would be too
+frequent watering. If the ground could be soaked twice a week in
+the evening, and then left to the hardening and maturing influence
+of the sun and wind, the finest results would be secured. I am
+satisfied that in most localities the size of the berries and the
+number of quarts produced might be doubled by judicious
+irrigation.
+
+The system given above applies not only to sandy loam, but also to
+all varieties of clay, even the most stubborn. In the latter
+instance it would be well to employ stable-manure in the initial
+enriching, for this would tend to lighten and warm the soil. Care
+must also be exercised in not working clay when it is too wet or
+too dry. Mulch also plays an important part on heavy clay, for it
+prevents the soil from baking and cracking. One of the best
+methods of preventing this is to top-dress the ground with stable-
+manure, and hoe it in from time to time when fighting the weeds.
+This keeps the surface open and mellow--a vital necessity for
+vigorous growth. Few plants will thrive when the surface is hard
+and baked. Nevertheless, if I had to choose between heavy clay and
+light sand for strawberries, I should much prefer the clay. On the
+last-named soil an abundant winter protection is absolutely
+necessary, or else the plants will freeze entirely out of the
+ground.
+
+The native strain of cultivated strawberries has so much vigor and
+power of adaptation that plenty of excellent varieties can be
+grown on the lightest soil. In this instance, however, we would
+suggest important modifications in preparation and culture. The
+soil, as has been already shown, must be treated like a
+spendthrift. Deep plowing or spading should be avoided, as the
+subsoil is too loose and leachy already. The initial enriching of
+the bed should be generous, but not lavish. You cannot deposit
+fertilizers for long-continued use. I should prefer to harrow or
+rake in the manure, leaving it near the surface. The rains will
+carry it down fast enough. One of the very best methods is to open
+furrows, three feet apart, with a light corn-plow, half fill them
+with decayed compost, again run the plow through to mix the
+fertilizer with the soil, then level the ground, and set out the
+plants immediately over the manure. They thus get the benefit of
+it before it can leach away. The accomplished horticulturist Mr.
+P. T. Quinn, of Newark, N. J., has achieved remarkable success by
+this plan.
+
+It is a well-known fact that on light land strawberry plants are
+not so long-lived and do not develop, or "stool out," as it is
+termed, as on heavier land. In order to secure the largest and
+best possible crop, therefore, I should not advise a single line
+of plants, but rather a narrow bed of plants, say eighteen inches
+wide, leaving eighteen inches for a walk. I would not allow this
+bed to be matted with an indefinite number of little plants
+crowding each other into feeble life, but would leave only those
+runners which had taken root early, and destroy the rest. A plant
+which forms in June and the first weeks in July has time to mature
+good-sized fruit-buds before winter, especially if given space in
+which to develop. This, however, would be impossible if the
+runners were allowed to sod the ground thickly. In principle I
+would carry out the first system, and give each plant space in
+which to grow upon its own root as large as it naturally would in
+a light soil, and I would have a sufficient number of plants to
+supply the deficiency in growth. On good, loamy soil, the foliage
+of single lines of plants, three feet apart, will grow so large as
+to touch across the spaces; but this could scarcely be expected on
+light soil unless irrigation were combined with great fertility.
+Nevertheless, a bed with plants standing not too thickly upon it
+will give an abundance of superb fruit.
+
+Strawberries grown in beds may not require so much spring mulching
+to keep the fruit clean, but should carefully receive all that is
+needed. Winter protection also is not so indispensable as on
+heavier soils, but it always well repays. A thick bed of plants
+should never be protected by any kind of litter which would leave
+seeds of various kinds, for under this system of culture weeds
+must be taken out by hand; and this is always slow, back-aching
+work.
+
+When plants are grown in beds it does not pay to continue them
+after fruiting the third year. For instance, they are set out in
+spring, and during the first season they are permitted to make a
+limited number of runners, and prepare to fruit the following
+year. After the berries are picked the third year, dig the plants
+under, and occupy the ground with something else. On light soils,
+and where the plants are grown in beds instead of narrow rows, new
+beds should be set out every alternate year.
+
+In order to have an abundant supply of young plants it is only
+necessary to let one end of a row or a small portion of a bed run
+at will. Then new plants can be set out as desired.
+
+While more strawberries are planted in spring than at any other
+time, certain advantages are secured by summer and fall setting.
+This is especially true of gardens wherein early crops are
+maturing, leaving the ground vacant. For instance, there are areas
+from which early peas, beans, or potatoes have been gathered.
+Suppose such a plot is ready for something else in July or August,
+the earlier the better. Unless the ground is very dry, a bed can
+be prepared as has been described. If the soil is in good
+condition, rich and deep, it can be dug thoroughly, and the plants
+set out at once in the cool of the evening, or just before a
+shower. During the hot season a great advantage is secured if the
+plants are set immediately after the ground is prepared, and while
+the surface is still moist. It is unfortunate if ground is made
+ready and then permitted to dry out before planting takes place,
+for watering, no matter how thorough, has not so good an influence
+in starting new growth as the natural moisture of the soil. It
+would be better, therefore, to dig the ground late in the
+afternoon, and set out the plants the same evening. Watering,
+however, should never be dispensed with during warm weather,
+unless there is a certainty of rain; and even then it does no
+harm.
+
+Suppose one wishes to set a new bed in July. If he has
+strawberries growing on his place, his course would be to let some
+of his favorite varieties make new runners as early as possible.
+These should be well-rooted young plants by the middle of the
+month. After the new ground is prepared, these can be taken up,
+with a ball of earth attached to their roots, and carried
+carefully to their new starting-place. If they are removed so
+gently as not to shake off the earth from the roots, they will not
+know that they have been moved, but continue to thrive without
+wilting a leaf. If such transplanting is done immediately after a
+soaking rain, the soil will cling to the roots so tenaciously as
+to ensure a transfer that will not cause any check of growth. But
+it is not necessary to wait for rain. At five in the afternoon
+soak with water the ground in which the young plants are standing,
+and by six o'clock you can take up the plants with their roots
+incased in clinging earth, just as successfully as after a rain.
+Plants thus transferred, and watered after being set out, will not
+wilt, although the thermometer is in the nineties the following
+day. If young plants are scarce, take up the strongest and best-
+rooted ones, and leave the runner attached; set out such plants
+with their balls of earth four feet apart in the row, and with a
+lump of earth fasten down the runners along the line. Within a
+month these runners will fill up the new rows as closely as
+desirable. Then all propagation in the new bed should be checked,
+and the plants compelled to develop for fruiting in the coming
+season. In this latitude a plant thus transferred in July or
+August will bear a very good crop the following June, and the
+berries will probably be larger than in the following years. This
+tendency to produce very large fruit is characteristic of young
+plants set out in summer. It thus may be seen that plants set in
+spring can not produce a good crop of fruit under about fourteen
+months, while others, set in summer, will yield in nine or ten
+months. I have set out many acres in summer and early autumn with
+the most satisfactory results. Thereafter the plants were treated
+in precisely the same manner as those set in spring.
+
+If the plants must be bought and transported from a distance
+during hot weather, I should not advise the purchase of any except
+those grown in pots. Nurserymen have made us familiar with pot-
+grown plants, for we fill our flowerbeds with them. In like manner
+strawberry plants are grown and sold. Little pots, three inches
+across at the top, are sunk in the earth along a strawberry row,
+and the runners so fastened down that they take root in these
+pots. In about two weeks the young plant will fill a pot with
+roots. It may then be severed from the parent, and transported
+almost any distance, like a verbena. Usually the ball of earth and
+roots is separated from the pot, and is then wrapped in paper
+before being packed in the shallow box employed for shipping
+purposes. A nurseryman once distributed in a summer throughout the
+country a hundred thousand plants of one variety grown in this
+manner. The earth encasing the roots sustained the plants during
+transportation and after setting sufficiently to prevent any loss
+worth mentioning. This method of the plant-grower can easily be
+employed on the Home Acre. Pots filled with earth may be sunk
+along the strawberry rows in the garden, the runners made to root
+in them, and from them transferred to any part of the garden
+wherein we propose to make a new bed. It is only a neater and more
+certain way of removing young plants with a ball of earth from the
+open bed.
+
+Some have adopted this system in raising strawberries for market.
+They prepare very rich beds, fill them with pot-grown plants in
+June or July, take from these plants one crop the following June,
+then plow them under. As a rule, however, such plants cannot be
+bought in quantities before August or September.
+
+As we go south, September, October, or November, according to
+lowness of latitude, are the favorite months for planting. I have
+had excellent success on the Hudson in late autumn planting. My
+method has been to cover the young plants, just before the ground
+froze, with two or three inches of clean earth, and then to rake
+it off again early in April. The roots of such plants become
+thoroughly established during the winter, and start with double
+vigor. Plants set out in LATE autumn do best on light, dry soils.
+On heavy soils they will be frozen out unless well covered. They
+should not be allowed to bear the following season. A late-set
+plant cannot before winter in our climate become strong and sturdy
+enough to produce much fruit the following season. I make it a
+rule not to permit plants set out after the first of October to
+bear fruit until a year from the following June.
+
+In setting out plants, the principle of sex should be remembered.
+The majority of our favorite varieties are bisexual; that is, the
+blossoms are furnished with both stamens and pistils. A variety
+with this organization, as the Sharpless, for instance, will bear
+alone with no other kind near it. But if one set out a bed of
+Champions--another fine variety--well apart from any staminate
+kind, it would blossom profusely, but produce no fruit. When I was
+a boy, Hovey's Seedling was the great strawberry of the day, and
+marvellous stories were told of the productiveness of the plants
+and the size of the berries. How well I remember the
+disappointment and wrath of people who bought the plants at a high
+price, and set them out with no staminate varieties near to
+fertilize the pistillate blossoms. Expectations were raised to the
+highest pitch by profuse blossoming in May, but not a berry could
+be found the ensuing June. The vigorous plants were only a
+mockery, and the people who sold them were berated as humbugs. To-
+day the most highly praised strawberry is the Jewell. The
+originator, Mr. P. M. Augur, writes me that "plants set two feet
+by eighteen inches apart, August 1, 1884, in June, 1885,
+completely covered the ground, touching both ways, and averaged
+little over a quart to the plant for the centre patch." All
+runners were kept off, in accordance with the system advocated in
+this paper. "At Boston a silver medal was awarded to this variety
+as the best new strawberry introduced within five years." People
+reading such laudation--well deserved, I believe--might conclude
+the best is good enough for us, and send for enough Jewell plants
+to set out a bed. If they set no others near it, their experience
+would be similar to that which I witnessed in the case of Hovey's
+Seedling thirty odd years ago. The blossom of the Jewell contains
+pistils only, and will produce no fruit unless a staminate variety
+is planted near. I have never considered this an objection against
+a variety; for why should any one wish to raise only one variety
+of strawberry? All danger of barrenness in pistillate kinds is
+removed absolutely by planting staminate sorts in the same bed. In
+nurserymen's catalogues pistillate varieties are marked "P.," and
+the purchaser has merely to set out the plants within a few feet
+of some perfect flowering kind to secure abundant fruit.
+
+As a result of much experience, I will now make some suggestions
+as to varieties. In a former paper I have given, the opinions of
+others upon this important subject, and one can follow the advice
+of such eminent authorities without misgiving. The earliest
+strawberry that I have ever raised, and one of the best flavored,
+is the Crystal City. It is evidently a wild variety domesticated,
+and it has the exquisite flavor and perfume of the field-berry. It
+rarely fails to give us fruit in May, and my children, with the
+unerring taste of connoisseurs, follow it up until the last berry
+is picked. It would run all over the garden unchecked; and this
+propensity must be severely curbed to render a bed productive.
+Keeping earliness and high flavor in view, I would next recommend
+the Black Defiance. It is not remarkably productive on many soils,
+but the fruit is so delicious that it well deserves a place. The
+Duchess and Bidwell follow in the order of ripening. On my grounds
+they have always made enormous plants, and yielded an abundance of
+good-flavored berries. The Downing is early to medium in the
+season of ripening, and should be in every collection. The Indiana
+is said to resemble this kind, and to be an improvement upon it.
+Miner's Prolific is another kindred berry, and a most excellent
+one. Among the latest berries I recommend the Sharpless Champion,
+or Windsor Chief, and Parry. If one wishes to raise a very large,
+late, showy berry, let him try the Longfellow. The Cornelia is
+said to grow very large and ripen late, but I have not yet fruited
+it. As I said fifteen or twenty years ago, if I were restricted to
+but one variety, I should choose the Triomphe de Gand, a foreign
+kind, but well adapted to rich, heavy soils. The berries begin to
+ripen early, and last very late. The Memphis Late has always been
+the last to mature on my grounds, and, like the Crystal City, is
+either a wild variety, or else but slightly removed. The Wilson is
+the great berry of commerce. It is not ripe when it is red, and
+therefore is rarely eaten in perfection. Let it get almost black
+in its ripeness, and it is one of the richest berries in
+existence. With a liberal allowance of sugar and cream, it makes a
+dish much too good for an average king. It is also the best
+variety for preserving.
+
+It should be remembered that all strawberries, unlike pears,
+should be allowed to mature fully before being picked. Many a
+variety is condemned because the fruit is eaten prematurely. There
+is no richer berry in existence than the Windsor Chief, yet the
+fruit, when merely red, is decidedly disagreeable.
+
+The reader can now make a selection of kinds which should give him
+six weeks of strawberries. At the same time he must be warned that
+plants growing in a hard, dry, poor soil, and in matted beds,
+yield their fruit almost together, no matter how many varieties
+may have been set out. Under such conditions the strawberry season
+is brief indeed.
+
+While I was writing this paper the chief enemy of the strawberry
+came blundering and bumping about my lamp--the May beetle. The
+larva of this insect, the well-known white grub, has an insatiable
+appetite for strawberry roots, and in some localities and seasons
+is very destructive. One year I lost at least one hundred thousand
+plants by this pest. This beetle does not often lay its egg in
+well-cultivated ground, and we may reasonably hope to escape its
+ravages in a garden. If, when preparing for a bed, many white
+grubs are found in the soil, I should certainly advise that
+another locality be chosen. The only remedy is to dig out the
+larvae and kill them. If you find a plant wilting without apparent
+cause, you may be sure that a grub is feeding on the roots. The
+strawberry plant is comparatively free from insect enemies and
+disease, and rarely disappoints any one who gives it a tithe of
+the attention it deserves.
+
+There are many points in connection with this fruit which, in a
+small treatise like this, must be merely touched upon or omitted
+altogether. I may refer those who wish to study the subject more
+thoroughly to my work, "Success with Small Fruits."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE KITCHEN-GARDEN
+
+
+The garden should be open to the sky, and as far as possible
+unshaded by adjacent trees from the morning and afternoon sun. It
+is even more essential that the trees be not so near that their
+voracious roots can make their way to the rich loam of the garden.
+
+Now for the soil. We should naturally suppose that that of Eden
+was a deep sandy loam, with not too porous a subsoil. As we have
+already seen again and again, such a soil appears to be the
+laboratory in which we can assist Nature to develop her best
+products. But Nature has a profound respect for skill, and when
+she recognizes it, "lends a hand" in securing excellent crops from
+almost drifting sand or stubborn clay. She has even assisted the
+Hollander in wresting from the ocean one of the gardens of the
+world.
+
+We must again dwell on the principles already emphasized, that
+soils must be treated according to their nature. If too damp, they
+must be drained; if of the fortunate quality of a sandy loam
+resting on a clay subsoil, they can be abundantly deepened and
+enriched from the start, if of a heavy clay, inclined to be cold
+and wet in spring, and to bake and crack in summer, skill should
+aim to lighten it and remove its inertia; finally, as we have
+shown, a light, porous soil should be treated like a spendthrift.
+All soils, except the last-named, are much the better for being
+enriched and deeply plowed or forked in October or November. This
+exposes the mould to the sweetening and mechanical action of
+frost, and the fertilizers incorporated with it are gradually
+transformed into just that condition of plant food which the
+rootlets take up with the greatest ease and rapidity. A light
+soil, on the contrary, should not be worked in autumn, but be left
+intact after the crops are taken from it.
+
+In one respect a light soil and a stiff, heavy one should be
+treated in the same way, but for different reasons. In the first
+instance, fertilizers should be applied in moderation to the
+surface, and rains and the cultivation of the growing crops
+depended upon to carry the richness downward to the roots. The
+porous nature of the earth must ever be borne in mind; fertilizers
+pass through it and disappear, and therefore are applied to the
+surface, to delay this process and enable the roots to obtain as
+much nutriment as possible during the passage. Equal and even
+greater advantages are secured by a top-dressing of barnyard
+manures and composts to the heaviest of clay. The surface of such
+soils, left to Nature, becomes in hot, dry weather like pottery,
+baking and cracking, shielding from dew and shower, and preventing
+all circulation of air about the roots. A top-dressing prevents
+all this, keeps the surface open and mellow, and supplies not only
+fertility, but the mechanical conditions that are essential.
+
+If we are now ready to begin, let us begin right. I have not much
+sympathy with finical, fussy gardening. One of the chief
+fascinations of gardening is the endless field it affords for
+skilful sleight of hand, short-cuts, unconventional methods, and
+experiments. The true gardener soon ceases to be a man of rules,
+and becomes one of strategy, of expedients. He is prompt to act at
+the right moment. Like the artist, he is ever seeking and acting
+upon hints from Nature. The man of rules says the first of July is
+the time to set out winter cabbage; and out the plants go, though
+the sky be brazen, and the mercury in the nineties. The gardener
+has his plants ready, and for a few days watches the sky. At last
+he perceives that rain is coming; then he sets out his plants, and
+Nature's watering starts them, unwilted, on their new growth.
+
+At the same time I protest against careless, slovenly gardening--
+ground imperfectly prepared, crooked rows, seed half covered, or
+covered so deeply that the germs are discouraged long before they
+reach light. One of the best aids to success is a small compost-
+heap composed equally of manure from the horse-stable, the cow-
+stable, and of leaves. This should be allowed to stand so long,
+and be cut down and turned so often, that it becomes like a fine
+black powder, and is much the better for being kept under shelter
+from sun and rain.
+
+All who hope to have a permanent garden will naturally think first
+of asparagus--one of the vegetables that have bee a longest in
+cultivation, and one which is justly among the most valued. It was
+cultivated hundreds of years before the Christian era, and is to-
+day growing in popular esteem among civilized peoples.
+
+In the matter of preparation I shall take issue with many of the
+authorities. I have read and known of instances wherein
+extraordinary expense and pains have been bestowed upon the
+asparagus-bed. The soil has been dug out to the depth of two or
+more feet, the bottom paved, and the homely, hardy roots,
+accustomed to roughing it the world over, set out and tended with
+a care which, if given to a potato, would make it open its eyes.
+There are few more hardy or widely distributed species of
+vegetables than asparagus. It is "a native of the sea-coasts of
+various countries of Europe and Asia." According to Loudon, it is
+abundant on the sandy steppes in the interior of Russia. In
+Southern Russia and Poland the horses and cows feed upon it. It
+grows freely in the fens of Lincolnshire, and is indigenous to
+Cornwall. On the borders of the Euphrates the shoots are so
+extraordinarily large and vigorous that Thompson thinks it would
+be to the advantage of gardeners to import roots from that region.
+These facts may indicate that too much stress may have been laid
+on its character as a marine plant. Yet it is true that it grows
+naturally on the coast of Holland, in the sandy valleys and on the
+downs, while off Lizard Point it flourishes naturally on an island
+where, in gales, the sea breaks over the roots. In this country
+also it has escaped cultivation, and is establishing itself along
+our coasts, The truth is that it is a plant endowed with a
+remarkable power of adaptation to all soils and climates, and does
+not need the extravagant petting often given it. On different
+portions of my place chance seeds have fallen, and annually
+produce almost as fine heads as are cut from the garden. Nature
+therefore teaches what experience verifies--that asparagus is one
+of the most easily grown and inexpensive vegetables of the garden.
+From two small beds we have raised during the past eight years
+twice as much as we could use, and at the cost of very little
+trouble either in planting or cultivation.
+
+In my effort to show, from the hardy nature of the asparagus
+plant, that extravagant preparation is unnecessary, let no one
+conclude that I am opposed to a good, thorough preparation that
+accords with common-sense. It is not for one year's crop that you
+are preparing, but for a vegetable that should be productive on
+the same ground thirty or forty years. What I said of strawberries
+applies here. A fair yield of fruit may be expected from plants
+set out on ordinary corn-ground, but more than double the crop
+would be secured from ground generously prepared.
+
+When I first came to Cornwall, about twelve years ago, I
+determined to have an asparagus bed as soon as possible. I
+selected a plot eighty feet long by thirty wide, of sandy loam,
+sloping to the southwest. It had been used as a garden before, but
+was greatly impoverished. I gave it a good top-dressing of
+barnyard manure in the autumn, and plowed it deeply; another top-
+dressing of fine yard manure and a deep forking in the early
+spring. Then, raking the surface smooth, I set a line along its
+length on one side. A man took a spade, sunk its length in the
+soil, and pushed it forward strongly. This action made an almost
+perpendicular wedge-shaped aperture just back of the spade. The
+asparagus plant, with its roots spread out fan-shape, was sunk in
+this opening to a depth that left the crown of the plant between
+three and four inches below the surface. Then the spade was drawn
+out, and the soil left to fall over the crown of the plant.
+Rapidly repeating this simple process, the whole plot was soon set
+out. The entire bed was then raked smooth. The rows were three
+feet apart, and plants one foot apart in the row. A similar plot
+could scarcely have been planted with potatoes more quickly or at
+less expense, and a good crop of potatoes could not have been
+raised on that poor land with less preparation. A few years later
+I made another and smaller bed in the same way. The results have
+been entirely satisfactory. I secured my object, and had plenty of
+asparagus at slight cost, and have also sold and given away large
+quantities. A bit of experience is often worth much more than
+theory.
+
+At the same time it is proper that some suggestions should follow
+this brief record. The asparagus bed should be in well-drained
+soil; for while the plant will grow on wet land, it will start
+late, and our aim is to have it early.
+
+Again, with asparagus as with nearly everything else, the deeper
+and richer the soil, the larger and more luxuriant the crop.
+Listen to Thompson, the great English gardener: "If the ground has
+been drained, trenched, or made good to the depth of THREE feet,
+as directed for the kitchen-garden generally [!], that depth will
+suffice for the growth of asparagus." We should think so; yet I am
+fast reaching the conclusion that under most circumstances it
+would in the end repay us to secure that depth of rich soil
+throughout our gardens, not only for asparagus, but for everything
+else. Few of the hasty, slipshod gardeners of America have any
+idea of the results secured by extending root pasturage to the
+depth of three feet instead of six or seven inches; soil thus
+prepared would defy flood and drought, and everything planted
+therein would attain almost perfection, asparagus included. But
+who has not seen little gardens by the roadside in which all the
+esculents seemed growing together much as they would be blended in
+the pot thereafter? Yet from such patches, half snatched from
+barrenness, many a hearty, wholesome dinner results. Let us have a
+garden at once, then improve it indefinitely.
+
+I will give in brief just what is essential to secure a good and
+lasting asparagus bed. We can if we choose grow our own plants,
+and thus be sure of good ones. The seed can be sown in late
+October or EARLY spring on light, rich soil in rows eighteen
+inches apart. An ounce of seed will sow fifty feet of drill. If
+the soil is light, cover the seed one inch deep; if heavy, half an
+inch; pack the ground lightly, and cover the drill with a good
+dusting of that fine compost we spoke of, or any fine manure. This
+gives the young plants a good send-off. By the use of the hoe and
+hand-weeding keep them scrupulously clean during the growing
+season, and when the tops are killed by frost mow them off. I
+should advise sowing two or three seeds to the inch, and then when
+the plants are three inches high, thinning them out so that they
+stand four inches apart. You thus insure almost the certainty of
+good strong plants by autumn; for plants raised as directed are
+ready to be set out after one season's growth, and by most
+gardeners are preferred.
+
+In most instances good plants can be bought for a small sum from
+nurserymen, who usually offer for sale those that are two years
+old. Strong one-year-olds are just as good, but under ordinary
+culture are rarely large enough until two years of age. I would
+not set out three-year-old plants, for they are apt to be stunted
+and enfeebled. You can easily calculate how many plants you
+require by remembering that the rows are to be three feet apart,
+and the plants one foot apart in the row.
+
+Now, whether you have raised the plants yourself, or have bought
+them, you are ready to put them where they will grow, and yield to
+the end of your life probably. Again I substantiate my position by
+quoting from the well-known gardener and writer, Mr. Joseph
+Harris: "The old directions for planting an asparagus bed were
+well calculated to deter any one from making the attempt. I can
+recollect the first I made. The labor and manure must have cost at
+the rate of a thousand dollars an acre, and, after all was done,
+no better results were obtained than we now secure at one-tenth of
+the expense."
+
+If the ground selected for the bed is a well-drained sandy loam,
+is clean, free from sod, roots, stones, etc., I would give it a
+top-dressing of six inches of good barnyard manure, which by
+trenching or plowing I would thoroughly mix with the soil to the
+depth of at least two feet. If the ground is not free from stones,
+roots, and sod, I should put on the manure, as directed, in the
+autumn, and begin on one side of the prospective bed and trench it
+all over, mingling the fertilizer through the soil. The trencher
+can throw out on the surface back of him every stone, root, and
+weed, so that by the time he is through there is a sufficient
+space of ground amply prepared.
+
+On all soils except a wet, heavy clay I prefer autumn planting.
+During the latter part of October or early November put in the
+plants as explained above, or else make a straight trench that
+will give room for the spreading of the roots, and leave the
+crowns between three and four inches below the surface. Then level
+the ground, and cover the row with a light mulch of stable-manure
+as you would strawberries. If more convenient to set out the
+plants in spring, do so as soon as the ground is dry enough to
+crumble freely when worked. In the spring rake off the mulch, and
+as early as possible fork the ground over lightly, taking pains
+not to touch or wound the crowns of the plants. The young, slender
+shoots will soon appear, and slender enough they will be at first.
+Keep them free of weeds and let them grow uncut all through the
+first year; mow off the tops in late October, and cover the entire
+bed with three or four inches of coarse barnyard manure. In spring
+rake off the coarsest of this mulch, from which the rains and
+melting snows have been carrying down richness, dig the bed over
+lightly once (never wounding the roots or crowns of the plants),
+and then sow salt over the bed till it is barely white. Let the
+tops grow naturally and uncut the second year, and merely keep
+clean. Take precisely the same action again in the autumn and the
+following spring. During the latter part of April and May a few of
+the strongest shoots may be cut for the table. This should be done
+with a sharp knife a little below the surface, so that the soil
+may heal the wound, and carefully, lest other heads just beneath
+the surface be clipped prematurely. Cut from the bed very
+sparingly, however, the third year, and let vigorous foliage form
+corresponding root-power. In the autumn of the third and the
+spring of the fourth year the treatment is precisely the same. In
+the fourth season, however, the shoots may be used freely to, say,
+about June 20, after which the plants should be permitted to grow
+unchecked till fall, in order to maintain and increase the root-
+power. Every year thereafter there should be an abundant top-
+dressing of manure in the fall, and a careful digging of the
+ground in the early spring. Light, sandy soil, clear of stones, is
+well adapted to asparagus, but should be treated on the principles
+already indicated in this work. There should be no attempt, by
+trenching, to render a porous subsoil more leaky. It is useless to
+give the bed a thorough initial enriching. Put on a generous top-
+dressing every autumn and leave the rains to do their work, and
+good crops will result.
+
+If, on the contrary, a cold, heavy clay must be dealt with, every
+effort should be made to ameliorate it. Work in a large quantity
+of sand at first, if possible; employ manures from the horse-
+stable, or other light and exciting fertilizers, and there will be
+no failure.
+
+In regard to the use of salt, Mr. Harris writes: "It is a popular
+notion that common salt is exceedingly beneficial to asparagus. I
+do not know that there is any positive proof of this, but, at any
+rate, salt will do no harm, even if applied thick enough to kill
+many of our common weeds. Salt is usually sown broadcast, at the
+rate of ten bushels to the acre."
+
+Until recently I have grown asparagus without salt. Hereafter I
+shall employ it in sufficient degree to kill all weeds except the
+strongest. I shall sow it every spring after the bed is dug until
+the ground is as white as if a flurry of snow had passed over it.
+I think salt is a good manure for asparagus, and many other
+things. At any rate, we secure a great advantage in keeping our
+beds free of weeds.
+
+I have written thus fully of asparagus because when a man makes a
+bed as directed he makes it for a lifetime. He can scarcely find
+another investment that will yield a larger return. We have
+asparagus on our table every day, from the middle of April to July
+1; and the annual care of the crop is far less than that of a
+cabbage-patch. I do not advise severe cutting, however, after the
+middle of June, for this reason: it is well known that the most
+pestiferous perennial weed can be killed utterly if never allowed
+to make foliage. As foliage depends upon the root, so the root
+depends on foliage. The roots of asparagus may therefore be
+greatly enfeebled by too severe and long-continued cutting.
+Avarice always overreaches itself.
+
+In some localities the asparagus beetle destroys whole
+plantations. Thompson, the English authority, says: "The larvae,
+beetles, and eggs are found from June to the end of September.
+Picking off the larvae and beetles, or shaking them into
+receptacles, appears to be the only remedy."
+
+Peter Henderson, in his valuable book, "Gardening for Profit,"
+figures this insect and its larvae accurately, and says: "Whenever
+the eggs or larvae appear, cut and burn the plants as long as any
+traces of the insect are seen. This must be done if it destroys
+every vestige of vegetation." He and other authorities speak of
+the advantage of cooping a hen and chickens in the bed. Most
+emphatically would I recommend this latter course, for I have
+tried it with various vegetables. Active broods of little chickens
+here and there in the garden are the best of insecticides, and pay
+for themselves twice over in this service alone.
+
+We will next speak of the ONION, because it is so hardy that the
+earlier it is planted in spring the better. Indeed, I have often,
+with great advantage, sown the seed on light soils the first of
+September, and wintered over the young plants in the open ground.
+Nature evidently intended the onion for humanity in general, for
+she has endowed the plant with the power to flourish from the
+tropics to the coldest limit of the temperate zone.
+
+While onions are grown in all sorts of careless ways, like other
+vegetables, it is by far the best plan to select a space for an
+annual and permanent bed, just as we do for asparagus. Unlike most
+other crops, the onion does not require change of ground, but
+usually does better on the same soil for an indefinite number of
+years. Therefore I would advise that upon the Home Acre the onion,
+like the asparagus bed, should be made with a view to permanence.
+
+Not much success can be hoped for on rough, poor land. The onion,
+like the asparagus bed, should be made and maintained with some
+care. If possible, select a light, well-drained, but not dry plot.
+Make the soil rich, deep, mellow, to the depth of twenty inches,
+taking out all stones, roots, etc.; cover the land with at least
+six inches of good strong barnyard manure. This should be done in
+the autumn. Sow the ground white with salt, as in the case of
+asparagus, and then mingle these fertilizers thoroughly with the
+soil, by forking or plowing it at once, leaving the surface as
+rough as possible, so that the frost can penetrate deeply. Just as
+soon as the ground is dry enough to work in the spring, fork or
+plow again, breaking every lump and raking all smooth, so that the
+surface is as fine as the soil in a hot-bed. You cannot hope for
+much in heavy, lumpy ground. Sow at least three seeds to the inch
+in a shallow drill one inch deep, and spat the earth firmly over
+the seed with the back of a spade or with your hand. In subsequent
+culture little more is required than keeping the MERE SURFACE
+stirred with a hoe, and the rows clean of weeds. Onions are not
+benefited by deep stirring of the soil, but the surface, from the
+start, should be kept clean and scarified an inch or two deep
+between the rows during the growing season. I prefer to have my
+onions growing at the rate of one or two to every inch of row, for
+I do not like large bulbs. I think that moderate-sized onions are
+better for the table. Those who value largeness should thin out
+the plants to three or four inches apart; but even in the market
+there is less demand for large, coarse onions. When the tops begin
+to fall over from their own weight, in August or September, leave
+them to mature and ripen naturally. When the tops begin to dry up,
+pull them from the soil, let them dry thoroughly in the sun, and
+then spread them thinly in a dry loft till there is danger of
+their freezing. Even there they will keep better, if covered
+deeply with straw, hay, etc., than in a damp cellar. Wherever the
+air is damp and a little too warm, onions will speedily start to
+grow again, and soon become worthless. After the crop has been
+taken, the ground should be treated as at first--thoroughly
+enriched and pulverized late in autumn, and left to lie in a rough
+state during the winter, then prepared for planting as early as
+possible. I prefer March sowing of the seed to April, and April,
+by far, to May. In England they try to plant in February. Indeed,
+as I have said, I have had excellent success by sowing the seed
+early in September on light soils, and letting the plants grow
+during all the mild days of fall, winter, and early spring. By
+this course we have onions fit for the table and market the
+following May. In this latitude they need the protection of a
+little coarse litter from December 1 to about the middle of March.
+Only the very severest frost injures them. Most of us have seen
+onions, overlooked in the fall gathering, growing vigorously as
+soon as the thaws began in spring. This fact contains all the hint
+we need in wintering over the vegetable in the open ground. If the
+seed is sown late in September, the plants do not usually acquire
+sufficient strength in this latitude to resist the frost. It is
+necessary, therefore, to secure our main crop by very early spring
+sowings, and it may be said here that after the second thorough
+pulverization of the soil in spring, the ground will be in such
+good condition that, if well enriched and stirred late in autumn,
+it will only need levelling down and smoothing off before the
+spring sowing. Onions appear to do best on a compact soil, if
+rich, deep, and clean. It is the SURFACE merely that needs to be
+stirred lightly and frequently.
+
+If young green onions with thin, succulent tops are desired very
+early in spring, it will be an interesting experiment to sow the
+seed the latter part of August or early in September. Another
+method is to leave a row of onions in the garden where they
+ripened. When the autumn rains begin, they will start to grow
+again. The winter will not harm them, and even in April there will
+be a strong growth of green tops. The seed stalk should be picked
+off as soon as it appears in spring, or else the whole strength
+will speedily go to the formation of seed.
+
+It should be remembered that good onions can not be produced very
+far to the south by sowing the small gunpowder-like seed. In our
+own and especially in warmer climates a great advantage is secured
+by employing what are known as "onion sets." These are produced by
+sowing the ordinary black seed very thickly on light poor land.
+Being much crowded, and not having much nutriment, the seed
+develop into little onions from the size of a pea to that of a
+walnut, the smaller the better, if they are solid and plump.
+These, pressed or sunk, about three inches apart, into rich garden
+soil about an inch deep, just as soon as the frost is out, make
+fine bulbs by the middle of June. For instance, we had in our
+garden plenty of onions three inches in diameter from these little
+sets, while the seed, sown at the same time, will not yield good
+bulbs before August. There is but little need of raising these
+sets, for it is rather difficult to keep them in good condition
+over the winter. Any seedsman will furnish them, and they are
+usually on sale at country stores. Three or four quarts, if in
+good condition, will supply a family abundantly, and leave many to
+be used dry during the autumn. Insist on plump little bulbs. If
+you plant them early, as you should, you will be more apt to get
+good sets. Many neglect the planting till the sets are half dried
+up, or so badly sprouted as to be wellnigh worthless. They usually
+come in the form of white and yellow sets, and I plant an equal
+number of each.
+
+The chief insect enemies are onion maggots, the larvae of the
+onion fly. These bore through the outer leaf and down into the
+bulb, which they soon destroy. I know of no remedy but to pull up
+the yellow and sickly plants, and burn them and the pests
+together. The free use of salt in the fall, and a light top-
+dressing of wood-ashes at the time of planting, tend to subdue
+these insects; but the best course is prevention by deeply
+cultivating and thoroughly enriching in the fall, leaving the
+ground rough and uneven for the deep action of frost, and by
+sowing the seed VERY early in spring. I have found that the insect
+usually attacks late-sown and feeble plants. If the maggot were in
+my garden, I should use the little sets only.
+
+Some special manures have been employed in attaining the greatest
+success with this vegetable. In England, pigeon-dung and the
+cleanings of the pigsty are extensively employed. In this country
+the sweepings of the hen-roost are generally recommended. It
+should be remembered that all these are strong agents, and if
+brought in contact with the roots of any vegetable while in a
+crude, undiluted state, burn like fire, especially in our climate.
+What can be done in safety in England will not answer under our
+vivid sun and in our frequent droughts. These strong fertilizers
+could be doubled in value as well as bulk by being composted with
+sods, leaves, etc., and then, after having been mixed, allowed to
+decay thoroughly. Then the compost can be used with great
+advantage as a top-dressing directly over the drills when either
+sets or seeds are planted. The spring rains will carry the
+richness from the surface to the roots, and insure a very vigorous
+growth. When the compost named in the early part of this paper is
+used, I sow it thickly IN the drill, draw a pointed hoe through
+once more, to mingle the fertilizer with the soil, and then
+forthwith sow the seeds or put in the sets one inch deep; and the
+result is immediate and vigorous growth. Wood-ashes and bone-dust
+are excellent fertilizers, and should be sown on the surface on
+the row as soon as planted, and gradually worked in by weeding and
+cultivation during the growing season. Manure from the pigsty,
+wherein weeds, litter, sods, muck, etc., have been thrown freely
+during the summer, may be spread broadcast over the onion bed in
+the autumn, and worked in deeply, like the product of the
+barnyard. The onion bed can scarcely be made too rich as long as
+the manure is not applied in its crude, unfermented state at the
+time of planting. Then, if the seed is put in very early, it grows
+too strongly and quickly for insects to do much damage.
+
+Varieties.--Thompson in his English work names nineteen varieties
+with many synonyms; Henderson offers the seed of thirteen
+varieties; Gregory, of seventeen kinds. There is no need of our
+being confused by this latitude of choice. We find it in the great
+majority of fruits and vegetables offered by nurserymen and
+seedsmen. Each of the old varieties that have survived the test of
+years has certain good qualities which make it valuable,
+especially in certain localities. Many of the novelties in
+vegetables, as among fruits, will soon disappear; a few will take
+their place among the standard sorts. In the case of the kitchen,
+as well as in the fruit, garden, I shall give the opinion of men
+who have a celebrity as wide as the continent for actual
+experience, and modestly add occasionally some views of my own
+which are the result of observation.
+
+As a choice for the home-garden, Mr. Henderson recommends the
+following varieties of onions: Extra Early Red, Yellow Globe
+Danvers, White Portugal or Silver Skin, and Southport Yellow
+Globe. Mr. Joseph Harris, the well-known and practical author:
+Yellow Danvers, Extra Early Large Bed, and White Globe. Mr. J. J.
+H. Gregory: New Queen, Early Yellow Acker, Yellow Danvers, Early
+Red Globe Danvers, Large Red Wethersfield. They all recommend
+onion sets. The Queen onion is quite distinct. For the home table,
+where earliness, as well as quality, size and quantity is desired,
+I think the Queen deserves a place. It is admirably fitted for
+pickling. I have tried all the varieties named, with good success,
+and grown some of the largest kinds to six inches in diameter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE KITCHEN-GARDEN (concluded)
+
+
+In the last chapter I dwelt somewhat at length on two vegetables
+for which thorough and enduring preparation is profitable. There
+is one other very early garden product which requires our
+attention during the first warm days of spring--rhubarb; sold in
+some instances under the name of "wine-plant." Wine is made from
+the juicy stalks, but it is an unwholesome beverage. The people
+call rhubarb "pie-plant;" and this term suggests its best and most
+common use, although when cooked as if it were a fruit, it is very
+grateful at a season when we begin to crave the subacid in our
+food.
+
+Its cultivation is very simple. Those who propose to produce it
+largely for market will find it to their advantage to raise this
+plant from the seed; but for the Home Acre enough plants can be
+procured, at a moderate cost, from almost any nurseryman. In this
+instance, also, thorough preparation of the soil is essential, for
+the rhubarb bed, under good care, will last eight or ten years. A
+rich, deep, clean, warm soil is the chief essential. It belongs to
+that class of vegetables known as "gross feeders." During the
+first year, however, I would apply the fertiliser directly to the
+hills or plants. These are obtained by dividing the old roots,
+which may be cut to pieces downward so as to leave a single bud or
+"eye" surmounting a long tapering portion of root. Each division
+will make a new, vigorous plant, which should be set out so that
+the bud or crown is three inches below the surface in light soils,
+and two inches in heavy soils. The plants should be four feet
+apart each way, and two or three shovelfuls of rich compost worked
+into the soil where the plant is to stand. You cannot make the
+ground too rich; only remember that in this, as in all other
+instances, light, fermenting manures should not be brought into
+immediate contact with the roots. Plant in either autumn or
+spring. In this latitude and southward I should prefer autumn;
+northward, perhaps spring is the best season. Keep the intervening
+ground clean and mellow, and pull no stalks the first year, unless
+it be in the autumn if the plants have become very strong. In the
+fall, when the foliage has died down, cover the crowns with two or
+three shovelfuls of rich manure--any kind will do in this
+instance--and work in a heavy top-dressing all over the ground
+early in spring. Unless seed is required, always cut down the
+seed-stalks as soon as they appear. The best early variety is the
+Linnaeus. The Victoria is a little later, but much larger, and is
+the kind that I have usually grown.
+
+Radish-seed may be sown one inch deep as soon as the ground is dry
+enough in spring, and if the vegetable is a favorite, the sowing
+may be repeated every two weeks. A common error is to sow the seed
+too thickly. A warm, RICH soil is all that is necessary to secure
+a crop.
+
+What has been said about radishes applies equally to early
+turnips, with the exception that the plants when three inches high
+should be thinned so as to stand four inches apart. The ground for
+these vegetables should be very rich, so as to secure a very rapid
+growth; for otherwise they are attacked by a little white worm
+which soon renders them unfit for use. Mr. Harris recommends the
+following varieties of early radishes, and his selection coincides
+with my own experience: Bound Scarlet Turnip, French Breakfast,
+Rose (olive-shaped), Long Scarlet Short-top. Winter radishes:
+California Mammoth White, and Chinese Rose. For spring sowing of
+turnips, Mr. Henderson recommends Red-top Strap-leaf, and Early
+Flat Dutch. The earlier they are sown the better.
+
+Beets--a much more valuable vegetable--require similar treatment.
+The ground should be clean, well pulverized, and very rich. I
+prefer to sow the seed the first week in April, unless the soil is
+frozen, or very cold and wet. The seed may be sown, however, at
+any time to the first of July; but earliness is usually our chief
+aim. I sow two inches deep and thickly, pressing the soil firmly
+over the seed. Let the rows be about fifteen inches apart.
+Referring to the manure which had been left to decay in a
+sheltered place until it became like fine dry powder, let me say
+here that I have always found it of greater advantage to sow it
+with the beet-seed and kindred vegetables. My method is to open
+the drill along the garden-line with a sharp-pointed hoe, and
+scatter the fertilizer in the drill until the soil is quite
+blackened by it; then draw the pointed hoe through once more, to
+mingle the powdery manure with the soil and to make the drill of
+an even depth; then sow the seed at once. This thoroughly decayed
+stable-manure has become the best of plant-food; it warms the
+ground, and carries the germinating seed and young plants with
+vigor through the first cold, wet weeks.
+
+In the home garden there are several reasons for sowing beet-seed
+thickly. Unfavorable weather and insects will be less apt to cause
+a thin, broken stand of plants. In order to produce good roots,
+however, the plants should be thinned out so as to stand
+eventually three or four inches apart I do not advise very large,
+coarse roots for the table. For home use I think only three
+varieties are essential. The Egyptian Turnip Beet is the best very
+early variety, and can be planted closely, as it has a small top;
+the Bassano is next in earliness, and requires more room; the
+Early Blood Turnip is the best for a general crop and winter use.
+The beet is a root which deteriorates rapidly from age; I
+therefore advise that the seed of the winter supply be sown the
+last of June or first of July in our latitude.
+
+Parsnips should be sown at the same time with early beets and in
+the same way, with the exception that the seed should be covered
+only an inch deep. I doubt whether there are any marked
+distinctions in variety, and would advise that only the Long
+Smooth or Hollow-crowned be sown.
+
+The carrot is not quite so hardy as the parsnip, and the seed may
+be sown a week or two later, or indeed at any time up to the
+middle of June. Its culture and treatment are precisely like those
+of the parsnip; but the roots should be gathered and stored before
+a severe frost occurs. For home use a short row of the Early Horn
+will answer; for the general crop, sow the Long Orange.
+
+Vegetable-oyster, or salsify, is another root-crop which may be
+treated precisely like the parsnip, and the seed sown at the same
+time. The seed should be sown in a deep, rich, mellow soil, which
+is all the better for being prepared in autumn. Plant, as early in
+April as possible, in the same manner as described for beets, thin
+out to four inches apart, and keep the soil clean and mellow
+throughout the entire season; for this vegetable grows until the
+ground freezes. There is only one variety.
+
+The pea is another crop which may be put into the ground as soon
+as the frost is out--the earlier the better, if the smooth, hardy
+varieties are sown. There are so many varieties that the novice
+to-day may well be excused for perplexity in choice. Thompson, the
+English authority, gives forty kinds, and one hundred and forty-
+eight synonyms. Mr. Gregory recommends the American Wonder,
+Bliss's Abundance, Bliss's Ever-bearing, McLean's Advancer,
+Yorkshire Hero, Stratagem, and Champion of England. Mr.
+Henderson's list includes Henderson's First of All, American
+Wonder, Bliss's Abundance, Champion of England, and Pride of the
+Market. Mr. Harris in his catalogue marks first and best, American
+Wonder, and also says, "For the main crop there is nothing better
+than the Champion of England." My own experience would lead me to
+plant the Tom Thumb either just before the ground froze in the
+fall, or as early in March as possible. It is almost perfectly
+hardy, and gives me the earliest picking. I should also plant
+Henderson's First of All as soon as the frost was out, on a warm,
+well-drained soil. For second crops, American Wonder and Premium
+Gem; and for the main and most satisfactory crop of all, Champion
+of England. The Champion requires brush as a support, for it grows
+from four to six feet high; but it is well worth the trouble. I
+plant the other kinds named because they are much earlier, and so
+dwarf as to need no brush; they are also productive, and excellent
+in quality if not left to grow too old. For the dwarf kinds the
+soil cannot be too rich, and the warmer the ground and exposure,
+the earlier the crop. For the tall late sorts the soil may easily
+be made too fertile; they should also be planted in cooler,
+moister, and heavier ground. In the case of the dwarfs I put a
+fertilizer in with the seed as I have already explained. Cover the
+dwarfs about two and a half inches deep, and the tall late sorts
+from three to four inches according to the nature of the soil.
+Plant the Champion of England every ten days until the middle of
+June, and thus secure a succession of the best of all.
+
+We all know how numerous have been the varieties of potato
+introduced into this country of late years--many kinds sent out at
+first at the rate of one or more dollars per pound. I amuse myself
+by trying several of these novelties (after they become cheap)
+every year, and one season raised very early crops of excellent
+potatoes from the Vanguard and Pearl of Savoy. The Early Rose and
+Early Vermont have long been favorites. They resemble each other
+very closely. I have had excellent success with the Beauty of
+Hebron. It is a good plan to learn what varieties succeed well in
+our own neighborhood, and then to plant chiefly of such kinds; we
+may then add to our zest by trying a few novelties.
+
+Not only much reading on the subject, but also my own observation,
+and the general law that "like produces like," lead me to indorse
+the practice of planting large tubers cut into sets containing one
+or more eyes, or buds. The eye of a potato is a bud from which the
+plant grows; and the stronger backing it has, the stronger and
+more able is the plant to evolve new fine tubers through the
+action of its roots and foliage. A small potato has many immature
+buds, which as a rule produce feeble plants.
+
+The potato will grow on almost any soil; but a dry, rich, sandy
+loam gives the best, if not the largest, yield. I do not think the
+potato can be planted too early after the ground is fit to work.
+One spring I was able to get in several rows the 15th of March,
+and I never had a finer yield. I observe that Mr. Harris strongly
+indorses this plan.
+
+Nearly every one has his system of planting. There is no necessity
+for explaining these methods. I will briefly give mine, for what
+it is worth. I prefer warm, well-drained soils. Plow deeply in
+autumn, also in spring; harrow and pulverize the ground as
+completely as possible; then open the furrows with the same heavy
+plow, sinking it to the beam, and going twice in the furrow. This,
+of course, would make too deep a trench in which to place the
+sets, but the soil has been deepened and pulverized at least
+fourteen inches. A man next goes along with a cart or barrow of
+well-decayed compost (not very raw manure), which is scattered
+freely in the deep furrows; then through these a corn-plow is run,
+to mingle the fertilizer with the soil. By this course the furrows
+are partially filled with loose, friable soil and manure, and they
+average four or five inches in depth. The sets are planted at once
+eight inches apart, the eye turned upward, and the cut part down.
+The sets are then covered with three or four inches of fine soil,
+not with sods and stones. When the plants are two or three inches
+high, they receive their first hoeing, which merely levels the
+ground evenly. The next cultivation is performed by both corn-plow
+and hoe. In the final working I do not permit a sharp-slanting
+slope from the plants downward, so that the rain is kept from
+reaching the roots. There is a broad hilling up, so as to have a
+slope inward toward the plants, as well as away from them. This
+method, with the deep, loosened soil beneath the plants, secures
+against drought, while the decayed fertilizers give a strong and
+immediate growth.
+
+Of course we have to fight the potato, or Colorado, beetle during
+the growing season. This we do with Paris green applied in liquid
+form, a heaping teaspoonful to a pail of water.
+
+In taking up and storing potatoes a very common error is fallen
+into. Sometimes even growing tubers are so exposed to sun and
+light that they become green. In this condition they are not only
+worthless, but poisonous. If long exposed to light after being
+dug, the solanine principle, which exists chiefly in the stems and
+leaves, is developed in the tubers. The more they are in the
+light, the less value they possess, until they become worse than
+worthless. They should be dug, if possible, on a dry day, picked
+up promptly and carried to a dry, cool, DARK cellar. If stored on
+floors of outbuldings, the light should be excluded. Potatoes that
+are long exposed to light before the shops of dealers are injured.
+Barrels, etc., containing them should be covered; if spread on the
+barn-floor, or in places which can not be darkened, throw straw or
+some other litter over them.
+
+There is no occasion to say much about lettuce. It is a vegetable
+which any one can raise who will sow the seed a quarter of an inch
+deep. I have sowed the seed in September, wintered the plants over
+in cold-frames, and by giving a little heat, I had an abundance of
+heads to sell in February and March. For ordinary home uses it is
+necessary only to sow the seed on a warm, rich spot as soon as the
+frost is out, and you will quickly have plenty of tender foliage.
+This we may begin to thin out as soon as the plants are three or
+four inches high, until a foot of space is left between the
+plants, which, if of a cabbage variety, will speedily make a
+large, crisp head. To maintain a supply, sowings can be made every
+two weeks till the middle of August. Hardy plants, which may be
+set out like cabbages, are to be obtained in March and April from
+nurserymen. Henderson recommends the following varieties:
+Henderson's New York, Black-seeded Simpson, Salamander, and All
+the Year Round. I would also add the Black-seeded Butter Lettuce.
+
+We have now, as far as our space permits, treated of those
+vegetables which should be planted in the home garden as early in
+spring as possible. It is true the reader will think of other
+sorts, as cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, etc. To the professional
+gardener these are all-the-year-round vegetables. If the amateur
+becomes so interested in his garden as to have cold-frames and
+hot-beds, he will learn from more extended works how to manage
+these. He will winter over the cabbage and kindred vegetables for
+his earliest supply, having first sown the seed in September. I do
+not take the trouble to do this, and others need not, unless it is
+a source of enjoyment to them. As soon as the ground is fit to
+work in spring, I merely write to some trust-worthy dealer in
+plants and obtain twenty-five very early cabbage, and twenty-five
+second early, also a hundred early cauliflower. They cost little,
+and are set out in half an hour as soon as the ground is fit to
+work in spring. I usually purchase my tomato, late cabbage, and
+cauliflower, celery and egg-plants, from the same sources.
+Cabbages and cauliflowers should be set out in RICH warm soils,
+free from shade, as soon as the frost is out. After that they need
+only frequent and clean culture and vigilant watchfulness, or else
+many will fall victims to a dirty brown worm which usually cuts
+the stem, and leaves the plant lying on the ground. The worm can
+easily be found near the surface the moment it begins its ravages,
+and the only remedy I know is to catch and kill it at once. In
+this latitude winter cabbage is set out about the fourth of July.
+I pinch off half the leaves before setting. Good seed, deep
+plowing or spading, rich soil, and clean culture are usually the
+only requisites for success. Experience and consultation of the
+books and catalogues enable me to recommend the Jersey Wakefield
+for first early, and Henderson's Summer Cabbage and Winningstadt
+as second early. As a late root I ask for nothing better than
+Premium Flat Dutch. The Savoy is the best flavored of the cabbage
+tribe. Henderson recommends the Netted Savoy, which may be treated
+like other late cabbage.
+
+The cauliflower is ranked among the chief delicacies of the
+garden, and requires and repays far more attention than cabbage.
+Even the early sorts should have a richer, moister soil than is
+required for very early cabbage. I advise two plantings in spring,
+of first and second early; I also advise that late varieties be
+set out on RICH ground the last of June. As with cabbage, set out
+the plants from two and a half to three feet apart, according to
+the size of the variety, from trial I recommend Early Snowball,
+Half-early Paris, and Large Late Algiers.
+
+Spinach thrives in a very rich, well-drained, fine, mellow soil. I
+prefer a sunny slope; but this is not necessary. Sow the seed from
+the first to the fifteenth of September, so as to give the plants
+time to become half grown by winter. Cover the seeds--three to an
+inch--two inches deep, and pack the ground well over them; let the
+rows be three inches apart. When the plants are three inches high,
+thin out to three inches apart, and keep the soil clean and mellow
+about them. Just before hard freezing weather, scatter about three
+inches of straw, old pea-vines, or some light litter over the
+whole bed. As soon as the days begin to grow warm in spring, and
+hard frost ceases, rake this off. The hardy vegetable begins to
+grow at once, and should be cut for use so as to leave the plants
+finally six inches apart, for as fast as space is given, the
+plants fill it up. By those who are fond of spinach it may be sown
+in spring as soon as the frost is out. It quickly runs to seed in
+hot weather, and thinnings of young beets may take its place where
+space is limited. The Round or Summer is good for fall or spring
+planting.
+
+Those who need much instruction in regard to bush-beans should
+remain in the city and raise cats in their paved back yards. We
+shall only warn against planting too early--not before the last of
+April in our region. It does not take much frost to destroy the
+plants, and if the soil is cold and wet, the beans decay instead
+of coming up. If one has a warm, sheltered slope, he may begin
+planting the middle of April. As a rule, however, bush-beans may
+be planted from the first of May till the middle of July, in order
+to keep up a succession. Cover the first seed planted one inch
+deep; later plantings two inches deep. I think that earliest Red
+Valentine, Black Wax or Butter, Golden Wax, and the late Refugee
+are all the varieties needed for the garden.
+
+The delicious pale Lima bean requires and deserves more attention.
+I have always succeeded with it, and this has been my method: I
+take a warm, rich, but not dry piece of ground, work it deeply
+early in spring, again the first of May, so that the sun's rays
+may penetrate and sweeten the ground. About the tenth of May I set
+the poles firmly in the ground. Rough cedar-poles, with the stubs
+of the branches extending a little, are the best. If smooth poles
+are used, I take a hatchet, and beginning at the butt, I make
+shallow, slanting cuts downward, so as to raise the bark a little.
+These slight raisings of the bark or wood serve as supports to the
+clambering vines. After the poles are in the ground I make a
+broad, flat hill of loose soil and a little of the black powdery
+fertilizer. I then allow the sun to warm and dry the hill a few
+days, and if the weather is fine and warm, I plant the seed about
+the fifteenth, merely pressing the eye of the bean downward one
+inch. If planted lower than this depth, they usually decay. If it
+is warm and early, the seed may be planted by the fifth of May.
+After planting, examine the seed often. If the beans are decaying
+instead of coming up, plant over again, and repeat this process
+until there are three or four strong plants within three or four
+inches of each pole. Let the hills be five feet apart each way,
+hoe often, and do not tolerate a weed. The Long White Lima and
+Dreer's Improved Lima are the only sorts needed.
+
+The Indians in their succotash taught us long ago to associate
+corn with beans, and they hit upon a dish not surpassed by modern
+invention. This delicious vegetable is as easily raised as its
+"hail-fellow well met," the bean. We have only to plant it at the
+same time in hills from three to four feet apart, and cover the
+seed two inches deep. I have used the powdery fertilizers and
+wood-ashes in the hill to great advantage, first mingling these
+ingredients well with the soil. We make it a point to have sweet-
+corn for the table from July 1 until the stalks are killed by
+frost in October. This is easily managed by planting different
+varieties, and continuing to plant till well into June. Mr.
+Gregory writes: "For a succession of corn for family use, to be
+planted at the same time, I would recommend Marblehead Early,
+Pratt's, Crosley's, Moore's, Stowell's Evergreen, and Egyptian
+Sweet." Mr. Harris names with praise the Minnesota as the best
+earliest, and Hickox Improved as an exceedingly large and late
+variety. Mr. Henderson's list is Henderson Sugar, Hickox Improved,
+Egyptian, and Stowell's Evergreen. Let me add Burr's Mammoth and
+Squantum Sugar--a variety in great favor with the Squantum Club,
+and used by them in their famous clam-bakes.
+
+The cucumber, if grown in the home garden and used fresh, is not
+in league with the undertaker. The seed may be planted early in
+May, and there are many ways of forcing and hastening the yield. I
+have had cucumbers very early in an ordinary hotbed. Outdoors, I
+make hills in warm soil the first of May, mixing a little of my
+favorite fertilizer with the soil. After leaving the hill for a
+day or two to become warm in the sun, I sow the seed in a straight
+line for fifteen inches, so that the hoe can approach them
+closely. The seed is covered an inch deep, and the soil patted
+down firmly. It is possible that a cold storm or that insects may
+make partial planting over necessary; if so, this is done
+promptly. I put twenty seeds in the hill, to insure against loss.
+For a succession or long-continued crop, plant a few hills in rich
+moist land about the last of May. The young plants always run a
+gauntlet of insects, and a little striped bug is usually their
+most deadly enemy. These bugs often appear to come suddenly in
+swarms, and devour everything before you are aware of their
+presence. With great vigilance they may be kept off by hand, for
+their stay is brief. I would advise one trial of a solution of
+white hellebore, a tablespoonful to a pail of water. Paris green--
+in solution, of course--kills them; but unless it is very weak, it
+will kill or stunt the plants also. My musk and watermelons were
+watered by too strong a solution of Paris green this year, and
+they never recovered from it. Perhaps the best preventive is to
+plant so much seed, and to plant over so often, that although the
+insects do their worst, plenty of good plants survive. This has
+usually been my method. When the striped bug disappears, and the
+plants are four or five inches high, I thin out to four plants in
+the hill. When they come into bearing, pick off all the fruit fit
+for use, whether you want it or not. If many are allowed to become
+yellow and go to seed, the growth and productiveness of the vines
+are checked. The Early White Spine and Extra Long White Spine are
+all the varieties needed for the table. For pickling purposes
+plant the Green Prolific on moist rich land. The other varieties
+answer quite as well, if picked before they are too large.
+
+The cultivation of the squash is substantially the same as that of
+the cucumber, and it has nearly the same enemies to contend with.
+Let the hills of the bush sorts be four feet apart each way, and
+eight feet for the running varieties. The seed is cheap, so use
+plenty, and plant over from the first to the twenty-fifth of May,
+until you have three good strong plants to the hill. Three are
+plenty, so thin out the plants, when six or seven inches high, to
+this number, and keep the ground clean and mellow. I usually raise
+my running squashes among the corn, giving up one hill to them
+completely every seven or eight feet each way. Early bush sorts:
+White Bush Scalloped, Yellow Bush Scalloped. The Perfect Gem is
+good for both summer and winter, and should be planted on rich
+soil, six feet apart each way. The Boston Marrow is one of the
+best fall sorts; the Hubbard and Marblehead are the best winter
+varieties.
+
+When we come to plant musk-melons we must keep them well away from
+the two above-named vegetables, or else their pollen will mix,
+producing very disagreeable hybrids. A squash is very good in its
+way, and a melon is much better; but if you grow them so near each
+other that they become "'alf and 'alf," you may perhaps find pigs
+that will eat them. The more completely the melon-patch is by
+itself, the better, and the nearer the house the better; for while
+it is liable to all the insects and diseases which attack the
+cucumber, it encounters, when the fruit is mature, a more fatal
+enemy in the predatory small boy. Choose rich, warm, but not dry
+ground for musk-melons, make the hills six feet apart each way,
+and treat them like cucumbers, employing an abundance of seed. As
+soon as the plants are ready to run, thin out so as to leave only
+four to fruit. Henderson recommends Montreal Market, Hackensack,
+and Netted Gem. Gregory: Netted Gem, Boston Pet, Bay View, Sill's
+Hybrid, Casaba, and Ward's Nectar. He also advocates a remarkable
+novelty known as the "Banana." Harris: Early Christiana and
+Montreal Market.
+
+Water-melons should be planted eight feet apart; but if one has
+not a warm, sandy soil, I do not advise their culture. The time of
+planting and management do not vary materially from those of the
+musk variety. The following kinds will scarcely fail to give
+satisfaction where they can be grown: Phinney's Early, Black
+Spanish, Mammoth Ironclad, Mountain Sprout, Scaly Bark, and Cuban
+Queen.
+
+The tomato has a curious history. Native of South America like the
+potato, it is said to have been introduced into England as early
+as 1596. Many years elapsed before it was used as food, and the
+botanical name given to it was significant of the estimation in
+which it was held by our forefathers. It was called Lycopersicum--
+a compound term meaning wolf and peach; indicating that,
+notwithstanding its beauty, it was regarded as a sort of "Dead Sea
+fruit." The Italians first dared to use it freely; the French
+followed; and after eying it askance as a novelty for unknown
+years, John Bull ventured to taste, and having survived, began to
+eat with increasing gusto. To our grandmothers in this land the
+ruby fruit was given as "love-apples," which, adorning quaint old
+bureaus, were devoured by dreamy eyes long before canning
+factories were within the ken of even a Yankee's vision. Now,
+tomatoes vie with the potato as a general article of food, and one
+can scarcely visit a quarter of the globe so remote but he will
+find that the tomato-can has been there before him. Culture of the
+tomato is so easy that one year I had bushels of the finest fruit
+from plants that grew here and there by chance. Skill is required
+only in producing an early crop; and to secure this end the
+earlier the plants are started in spring, the better. Those who
+have glass will experience no difficulty whatever. The seed may be
+sown in a greenhouse as early as January, and the plants potted
+when three inches high, transferred to larger pots from time to
+time as they grow, and by the middle of May put into the open
+ground full of blossoms and immature fruit. Indeed, plants started
+early in the fall will give in a greenhouse a good supply all
+winter. Tomatoes also grow readily in hot-beds, cold-frames, or
+sunny windows. We can usually buy well-forwarded plants from those
+who raise them for sale. If these are set out early in May on a
+sunny slope, they mature rapidly, and give an early yield. The
+tomato is very sensitive to frost, and should not be in the open
+ground before danger from it is over. Throughout May we may find
+plants for sale everywhere. If we desire to try distinct kinds
+with the least trouble, we can sow the seed about May 1, and in
+our climate enjoy an abundant yield in September, or before. In
+the cool, humid climate of England the tomato is usually grown en
+espalier, like the peach, along sunny walls and fences, receiving
+as careful a summer pruning as the grape-vine. With us it is
+usually left to sprawl over the ground at will. By training the
+vines over various kinds of supports, however, they may be made as
+ornamental as they are useful. The ground on which they grow
+should be only moderately fertile, or else there is too great a
+growth of vine at the expense of fruit. This is especially true if
+we desire an early yield, and in this case the warmest, driest
+soil is necessary.
+
+But comparatively a few years ago the tomato consisted of little
+more than a rind, with seeds in the hollow centre. Now, the only
+varieties worth raising cut as solid as a mellow pear. The
+following is Gregory's list of varieties: Livingston's Beauty,
+Alpha, Acme, Canada Victor, Arlington, General Grant. I will add
+Trophy and Mikado. If a yellow variety is desired, try Golden
+Trophy.
+
+If the tomato needs warm weather in which to thrive, the egg-plant
+requires that both days and nights should be hot. It is an East
+Indiaman, and demands curry in the way of temperature before it
+loses its feeble yellow aspect and takes on the dark green of
+vigorous health. My method is simply this: I purchase strong
+potted plants between the twentieth of May and the first of June,
+and set them out in a rich, warm soil. A dozen well-grown plants
+will supply a large family with egg-fruit. Of course one can start
+the young plants themselves, as in the case of tomatoes; but it
+should be remembered that they are much more tender and difficult
+to raise than is the tomato. Plants from seed sown in the open
+ground would not mature in our latitude, as a rule. The best plan
+is to have the number you need grown for you by those who make it
+their business. Eggplants are choice morsels for the potato-
+beetle, and they must be watched vigilantly if we would save them.
+There is no better variety than the New York Improved.
+
+The pepper is another hot-blooded vegetable that shivers at the
+suggestion of frost. It is fitting that it should be a native of
+India. Its treatment is usually the same as that of the egg-plant.
+It matures more rapidly, however, and the seed can be sown about
+the middle of May, half an inch deep, in rows fifteen inches
+apart. The soil should be rich and warm. When the plants are well
+up, they should be thinned so that they will stand a foot apart in
+the row. The usual course, however, is to set out plants which
+have been started under glass, after all danger from frost is
+over. Henderson recommends New Sweet Spanish and Golden Dawn, The
+Large Bell is a popular sort, and Cherry Red very ornamental.
+
+From the okra is made the famous gumbo soup, which ever calls to
+vision a colored aunty presiding over the mysteries of a Southern
+dinner. If Aunt Dinah, so well known to us from the pages of
+"Uncle Tom's Cabin," could have left her receipt for this
+compound, her fame might have lasted as long as that of Mrs.
+Stowe. The vegetable furnishing this glutinous, nutritious, and
+wholesome ingredient is as easily raised as any product of the
+garden. We have only to sow the seed, from the first to the tenth
+of May, two inches deep, and let the plants stand from two to
+three feet apart each way, in order to have an abundant supply.
+The new Dwarf Prolific is about the best variety.
+
+Fall turnips are so easily grown that they require but few words.
+They are valuable vegetables for utilizing space in the garden
+after early crops, as peas, beans, potatoes, etc., are removed.
+The seed of ruta-baga, or Swedish turnips, should be planted
+earliest--from the twentieth of June to the tenth of July in our
+latitude. This turnip should be sown in drills two feet apart, and
+the plants thinned to eight inches from one another. It is very
+hardy, and the roots are close-grained, solid, and equally good
+for the table and the family cow. The Yellow Aberdeen is another
+excellent variety, which may be sown EARLY in July, and treated
+much the same as the foregoing. The Yellow Stone can be sown on
+good ground until the fifteenth of July in any good garden soil,
+and the plants thinned to six inches apart. It is perhaps the most
+satisfactory of all the turnip tribe both for table use and stock.
+The Bed-top Strap-leaf may be sown anywhere until the tenth of
+August. It is a general custom, in the middle of July, to scatter
+some seed of this hardy variety among the corn: hoe it in lightly,
+and there is usually a good crop. Every vacant spot may be
+utilized by incurring only the slight cost of the seed and the
+sowing. It may be well, perhaps, to remember the advice of the old
+farmer to his son. He said, "Stub your toe and spill half the seed
+before sowing it; for scattered broadcast it is usually much too
+thick." If this proves true, thin out the plants rigorously. This
+turnip is good for table and stock as long as it is solid and
+crisp; but it grows pithy toward spring. There are other kinds
+well worth a trial.
+
+Perhaps no vegetable is more generally appreciated than celery.
+Like asparagus, it was once, and is still by some, regarded as a
+luxury requiring too much skill and labor for the ordinary
+gardener. This is a mistake. Few vegetables in my garden repay so
+amply the cost of production. One can raise turnips as a fall crop
+much easier, it is true; but turnips are not celery, any more than
+brass is gold. Think of enjoying this delicious vegetable daily
+from October till April! When cooked, and served on toast with
+drawn butter sauce, it is quite ambrosial. In every garden evolved
+beyond the cabbage and potato phase a goodly space of the best
+soil should be reserved for celery, since it can be set out from
+the first to the twentieth of July in our latitude; it can be
+grown as the most valuable of the second crops, reoccupying space
+made vacant by early crops. I find it much easier to buy my
+plants, when ready for them, than to raise them. In every town
+there are those who grow them in very large quantities, and, if
+properly packed, quickly transported, and promptly set out in the
+evening following their reception, and watered abundantly, they
+rarely fail.
+
+There are decided advantages, however, in raising our own plants,
+especially if midsummer should prove dry and hot, or the plants
+must be long in transit. When they are growing in our own garden,
+they can be moved with very slight check to their growth. In
+starting the seed there is no necessity for hot-bed or cold-frame.
+It may be put in the ground the first week of April, and the best
+plants are thus secured. Much is gained by preparing a warm but
+not dry plot of ground in autumn, making it very rich with short,
+half-decayed stable-manure. This preparation should be begun as
+soon as possible after the soaking September rains. Having
+thoroughly incorporated and mixed evenly in the soil an abundance
+of the manure described, leave the ground untouched for three
+weeks. The warm fertilizer will cause great numbers of weed-seeds
+to germinate. When these thrifty pests are a few inches high, dig
+them under and bring up the bottom soil. The warmth and light will
+immediately start a new and vigorous growth of weeds, which in
+turn should be dug under. If the celery seed bed be made early
+enough, this process can be repeated several times before winter--
+the oftener the better; for by it the great majority of weed-seeds
+will be made to germinate, and thus are destroyed. The ground also
+becomes exceedingly rich, mellow, and fine--an essential condition
+for celery seed, which is very small, and germinates slowly. This
+thorough preparation does not involve much labor, for the seed-bed
+is small, and nothing more is required in spring but to rake the
+ground smooth and fine as soon as the frost is out. The soil has
+already been made mellow, and certainly nothing is gained by
+turning up the cold earth in the bottom of the bed. Sow the seed
+at once on the sunwarmed surface. The rows should be nine inches
+apart, and about twelve seeds sown to every inch of row. The
+drills should be scarcely an eighth of an inch deep. Indeed, a
+firm patting with the back of a spade would give covering enough.
+Since celery germinates so slowly, it is well to drop a lettuce-
+seed every few inches, to indicate clearly just where the rows
+are. Then the ground between the rows can be hoed lightly as soon
+as the weeds start, also after heavy rains, so as to admit the
+vivifying sun-rays and air. Of course when the celery plants are
+clearly outlined, the lettuce should be pulled out.
+
+If the bed is made in spring, perform the work as early as
+possible, making the bed very rich, mellow, and fine. Coarse
+manures, cold, poor, lumpy soil, leave scarcely a ghost of a
+chance for success. The plants should be thinned to two inches
+from one another, and when five inches high, shear them back to
+three inches. When they have made another good growth, shear them
+back again. The plants are thus made stocky. In our latitude I try
+to set out celery, whether raised or bought, between the twenty-
+fifth of June and the fifteenth of July. This latitude enables us
+to avoid a spell of hot, dry weather.
+
+There are two distinct classes of celery--the tall-growing sorts,
+and the dwarf varieties. A few years ago the former class was
+grown generally; trenches were dug, and their bottoms well
+enriched to receive the plants. Now the dwarf kinds are proving
+their superiority, by yielding a larger amount of crisp, tender
+heart than is found between long coarse stalks of the tall sorts.
+Dwarf celery requires less labor also, for it can be set on the
+surface and much closer together, the rows three feet apart, and
+the plants six inches in the row. Dig all the ground thoroughly,
+then, beginning on one side of the plot, stretch a line along it,
+and fork under a foot-wide strip of three or four inches of
+compost, not raw manure. By this course the soil where the row is
+to be is made very rich and mellow. Set out the plants at once
+while the ground is fresh and moist. If the row is ten feet long,
+you will want twenty plants; if fifteen, thirty plants; or two
+plants to every foot of row. Having set out one row, move the line
+forward three feet, and prepare and set out another row in
+precisely the same manner. Continue this process until the plot
+selected is occupied. If the plants have been grown in your own
+garden, much is gained by SOAKING the ground round them in the
+evening, and removing them to the rows in the cool of the morning.
+This abundant moisture will cause the soil to cling to the roots
+if handled gently, and the plants will scarcely know that they
+have been moved. When setting I usually trim off the greater part
+of the foliage. When all the leaves are left, the roots, not
+established, cannot keep pace with the evaporation. Always keep
+the roots moist and unshrivelled, and the heart intact, and the
+plants are safe. If no rain follows setting immediately, water the
+plants thoroughly--don't be satisfied with a mere sprinkling of
+the surface--and shade from the hot sun until the plants start to
+grow. One of the chief requisites in putting out a celery plant,
+and indeed almost any plant, is to press the soil FIRMLY ROUND,
+AGAINST, AND OVER THE ROOTS. This excludes the air, and the new
+rootlets form rapidly. Neither bury the heart nor leave any part
+of the root exposed.
+
+Do not be discouraged at the rather slow growth during the hot
+days of July and early August. You have only to keep the ground
+clean and mellow by frequent hoeings until the nights grow cooler
+and longer, and rains thoroughly moisten the soil. About the
+middle of August the plants should be thrifty and spreading, and
+now require the first operation, which will make them crisp and
+white or golden for the table. Gather up the stalks and foliage of
+each plant closely in the left hand, and with the right draw up
+the earth round it. Let no soil tumble in on the heart to soil or
+cause decay. Press the soil firmly, so as to keep all the leaves
+in an upright position. Then with a hoe draw up more soil, until
+the banking process is begun. During September and October the
+plants will grow rapidly, and in order to blanch them they must be
+earthed up from time to time, always keeping the stalks close and
+compact, with no soil falling in on the developing part. By the
+end of October the growth is practically made, and only the deep
+green leaves rest on the high embankments. The celery now should
+be fit for use, and time for winter storing is near. In our region
+it is not safe to leave celery unprotected after the tenth of
+November, for although it is a very hardy plant, it will not
+endure a frost which produces a strong crust of frozen soil. I
+once lost a fine crop early in November. The frost in one night
+penetrated the soil deeply, and when it thawed out, the celery
+never revived. NEVER HANDLE CELERY WHEN IT IS FROZEN. My method of
+preserving this vegetable for winter use is simply this. During
+some mild, clear day in early November I have a trench ten inches
+wide dug nearly as deep as the celery is tall. This trench is dug
+on a warm dry slope, so that by no possibility can water gather in
+it. Then the plants are taken up carefully and stored in the
+trench, the roots on the bottom, the plants upright as they grew,
+and pressed closely together so as to occupy all the space in the
+excavation. The foliage rises a little above the surface, which is
+earthed up about four inches, so that water will be shed on either
+side. Still enough of the leaves are left in the light to permit
+all the breathing necessary; for plants breathe as truly as we do.
+As long as the weather keeps mild, this is all that is needed; but
+there is no certainty now. A hard black frost may come any night.
+I advise that an abundance of leaves or straw be gathered near.
+When a bleak November day promises a black frost at night, scatter
+the leaves, etc., thickly over the trenched celery, and do not
+take them off until the mercury rises above freezing-point. If a
+warm spell sets in, expose the foliage to the air again. But watch
+your treasure vigilantly. Winter is near, and soon you must have
+enough covering over your trench to keep out the frost--a foot or
+more of leaves, straw, or some clean litter. There is nothing
+better than leaves, which cost only the gathering. From now till
+April, when you want a head or more of celery, open the trench at
+the lower end, and take out the crisp white or golden heads, and
+thank the kindly Providence that planted a garden as the best
+place in which to put man, and woman also.
+
+GARNISHING AND POT HERBS
+
+"There's fennel for you; there's rue for you." Strange and
+involuntary is the law of association! I can never see the
+garnishing and seasoning herbs of the garden without thinking of
+the mad words of distraught Ophelia. I fancy, however, that we are
+all practical enough to remember the savory soups and dishes
+rendered far more appetizing than they could otherwise have been
+by these aromatic and pungent flavors. I will mention only a few
+of the popular sorts.
+
+The seeds of fennel may be sown in April about three-quarters of
+an inch deep, and the plants thinned to fifteen inches apart. Cut
+off the seed-stalks to increase the growth of foliage.
+
+Parsley, like celery seed, germinates slowly, and is sometimes
+about a month in making its appearance. The soil should therefore
+be made very rich and fine, and the seed sown half an inch deep,
+as early in spring as possible. When the plants are three inches
+high, thin them to eight inches apart.
+
+Sweet-basil may be sown in early May, and the plants thinned to
+one foot apart. The seeds of sweet-marjoram are very minute, and
+must be covered very thinly with soil finely pulverized; sow in
+April or May, when the ground is in the best condition. Sage is
+easily raised from seeds gown an inch deep the latter part of
+April; let the soil be warm and rich; let the plants stand about
+one foot apart in the row. Thyme and summer-savory require about
+the same treatment as sage. I find that some of the mountain mints
+growing wild are quite as aromatic and appetizing as many of these
+garden herbs.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Home Acre, by E. P. Roe
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