Success with Small Fruits Part 15

"The New Roch.e.l.le or Lawton Blackberry has been despitefully spoken of by many; first, because the market fruit is generally bad, being plucked before it is fully ripened; and next, because, in rich, clayey grounds, the briers, unless severely cut back, grow into a tangled, unapproachable forest, with all the juices exhausted in wood. But upon a soil moderately rich, a little gravelly and warm, protected from winds, served with occasional top-dressings and good hoeings, the Lawton bears magnificent burdens. Even then, if you wish to enjoy the richness of the fruit, you must not be hasty to pluck it. When the children say, with a shout, 'The blackberries are ripe!' I know they are black only, and I can wait. When the children report, 'The birds are eating the berries!' I know I can wait. But when they say, 'The bees are on the berries!' I know they are at their ripest. Then, with baskets, we sally out; I taking the middle rank, and the children the outer spray of boughs. Even now we gather those only which drop at the touch; these, in a br.i.m.m.i.n.g saucer, with golden Alderney cream and a _soupcon_ of powdered sugar, are Olympian nectar; they melt before the tongue can measure their full soundness, and seem to be mere bloated bubbles of forest honey."

Notwithstanding this eloquent plea and truthful statement, the Lawton is decidedly on the wane. It is so liable to be winter-killed, even with best of care, and its fruit is go unpalatable, in its half-ripe condition, that it has given place to a more successful rival, the Kittatinny--discovered in Warren County, K. J., growing in a forest near the mountains, whose Indian name has become a household word from a.s.sociation with this most delicious fruit. Mr. Wolverton, in finding it, has done more for the world than if he had opened a gold mine.

Under good culture, the fruit is very large; sweet, rich, and melting, when fully ripe, but rather sour and hard when immature. It reaches its best condition if allowed to ripen fully on the vines; but the majority of pickers use their hands only, and no more think of making nice discriminations than of questioning nature according to the Baconian method. They gather all that are black, or nearly so; but if this half-ripe fruit is allowed to stand in some cool, dry place for about twelve hours, Kittatinny berries may be had possessing nearly all their luscious qualities. The plant is an upright and very vigorous grower, exceedingly productive if soil and culture are suitable. Its leaves are long-pointed, "finely and unevenly serrate." The season of fruiting is medium, continuing from four to six weeks, if moisture is maintained.

Both of these varieties are derived from the _Rubus villosus_ species.

In contrast is the next-best known sort, Wilson's Early--having many of the characteristics of the Dewberry, or running blackberry, and, therefore, representing the second species described, _R. Canadensis_.

Whether it is merely a sport from this species, or a hybrid between it and the first-named or high blackberry, cannot be accurately known, I imagine; for it also was found growing wild by Mr. John Wilson, of Burlington, N. J. Under high culture, and with increasing age, the plants become quite erect and stocky growers, but the ends of the cane are drooping. Frequently, they trail along the ground, and root at the tips, like the common Dewberry; and they rarely grow so stocky but that they can be bent over and covered with earth or litter, as is the case with the tender raspberries. It is well that this is possible, for it has so little power of resisting frost that a winter of ordinary severity kills the canes in the lat.i.tude of New York. I have always covered mine, and thus secured, at slight expense, a sure and abundant crop. The fruit is earlier than the Kittatinny, and tends to ripen altogether in about ten days. These advantages, with its large size and firmness, make it a valuable market berry in New Jersey, where hundreds of acres of it have been planted, and where it is still very popular.

Throughout the North and West, it has been found too tender for cultivation, unless protected. In flavor, it is inferior to the Kittatinny or Snyder.

For many years, the great desideratum has been a perfectly hardy blackberry, and this want has at last been met in part by the Snyder, a Western variety that seems able to endure, without the slightest injury, the extremes of temperature common in the Northwestern States.

From Nebraska eastward, I have followed its history, and have never heard of its being injured by frost. It originated on, or in the vicinity of, Mr. Snyder's farm, near La Porte, Ind., about 1851, and is an upright, exceedingly vigorous, and stocky grower, a true child of the _R. vittosus_. Its one fault is that it is not quite large enough to compete with those already described. On moist land, with judicious pruning, it could be made to approach them very nearly, however, while its earliness, hardiness, fine flavor, and ability to grow and yield abundantly almost anywhere, will lead to an increasing popularity. For home use, size is not so important as flavor and certainty of a crop.

It is also more nearly ripe when first black than any other kind that I have seen; its thorns are straight, and therefore less vicious. I find that it is growing steadily in favor; and where the Kittatinny is winter-killed, this hardy new variety leaves little cause for repining.

There are several kinds that are pa.s.sing out of cultivation, and not a few new candidates for favor; but the claims of superiority are as yet too doubtful to be recognized. Mr. James Wilson, of West Point, N. Y., found some magnificent wild berries growing on Crow Nest Mountain. The bush that bore them is now in my garden, and if it should produce fruit having a flavor equal to Rodman Drake's poem, Mr. Wilson has, then, found something more real than a "Culprit Fay." Occasionally, a thornless blackberry is heralded, and not a few have reason to recall the "Hoosac," which was generally found, I think, about as free from fruit as thorns. We have, also, the horticultural paradox of white blackberries, in the "Crystal," introduced by Mr. John B. Orange, of Albion, Illinois, and some others. They have little value, save as curiosities.

PROPAGATION, CULTURE, ETC.

In most instances I think more difficulty would be found in making a blackberry die than live. A plant set out in fall or early spring will thrive if given the ghost of a chance. Late spring planting, however, often fails if subjected to heat and drought while in the green, succulent condition of early growth. Like the raspberry, the blackberry should be set, if possible, while in a dormant condition. If planted late, shade should be given and moisture maintained until danger of wilting and shrivelling is past. I advise decidedly against late spring plantings on a large scale, but in early spring planting I have rarely lost a plant. Almost all that has been said concerning the planting and propagation of raspberries applies to this fruit. Set the plants two or three inches deeper than they were before. With the exception of the early Wilson, all speedily propagate themselves by suckers, and this variety can be increased readily by root cuttings. Indeed, better plants are usually obtained from all varieties by sowing slips of the root, as has already been explained in the paper on raspberries.

The treatment of the blackberry can best be indicated by merely noting wherein its requirements differ from the last-named and kindred fruit.

For instance, it does best on light soils and in sunny exposures. The partial shade, and moist, heavy land in which the raspberry luxuriates would produce a rank growth of canes that winter would generally find unripened, and unable to endure the frost. Warm, well-drained, but not dry land, therefore, is the best. On hard, dry ground, the fruit often never matures, but becomes mere collections of seeds. Therefore the need in the preparation of the soil of deep plowing, and the thorough loosening, if possible, of the subsoil with the lifting plow. Any one who has traced blackberry roots in light soils will seek to give them foraging-room. Neither does this fruit require the fertility needed in most instances by the raspberry. It inclines to grow too rankly at best, and demands mellowness rather than richness of soil.

More room should also be given to the blackberry than to the raspberry.

The rows should be six feet apart in the garden and eight feet in field culture, and the plants set three feet apart in the rows. At this distance, 1,815 are required for an acre, if one plant only is placed in a hill. Since these plants are usually cheap, if one is small or unprovided with good roots, it is well to plant two. If the ground is not very fertile, it is well to give the young plants a good start by scattering a liberal quant.i.ty of muck compost down the furrow in which they are planted. This ensures the most vigorous growth of young canes in the rows rather than in the intervening s.p.a.ces. As generally grown, they require support, and may be staked as raspberries. Very often, cheap post-and-wire trellises are employed, and answer excellently.

Under this system they can be grown in a continuous and bushy row, with care against over-crowding.

The ideal treatment of the blackberry is management rather than culture. More can be done with the thumb and finger at the right time than with the most savage pruning-shears after a year of neglect. In May and June the perennial roots send up vigorous shoots that grow with amazing rapidity, until from five to ten feet high. Very often, this summer growth is so brittle and heavy with foliage, that thunder-gusts break them off from the parent stem just beneath the ground, and the bearing cane of the coming year is lost. These and the following considerations show the need of summer pruning. Tall, overgrown canes are much more liable to be injured by frost. They need high and expensive supports. Such branchless canes are by no means so productive as those which are made to throw out low and lateral shoots. They can always be made to do this by a timely pinch that takes off the terminal bud of the cane. This stops its upward growth, and the buds beneath it, which otherwise might remain dormant, are immediately forced to become side branches near the ground, where the snow may cover them, and over which, in the garden, straw or other light litter may be thrown, on the approach of winter. It thus is seen that by early summer pinching the blackberry may be compelled to become as low and bushy a shrub as we desire, and is made stocky and self-supporting at the same time.

Usually it is not well to let the bushes grow over four feet high; and in regions where they winter-kill badly, I would keep them under three feet, so that the snow might be a protection. It should be remembered that the Kittatinny is so nearly hardy that in almost all instances a very slight covering saves it. The suckers that come up thickly between the rows can be cut away while small with the least possible trouble; but leave the patch or field to its own wild impulses for a year or so, and you may find a "slip of wilderness" in the midst of your garden that will require not a little strength and patience to subdue. By far the best weapon for such a battle, and the best implement also for cutting out the old wood, is a pair of long-handled shears.

CHAPTER XXV

CURRANTS--CHOICE OF SOIL, CULTIVATION, PRUNING, ETC.

They wore "curns" in our early boyhood, and "curns" they are still in the rural vernacular of many regions. In old English they were "corrans," because the people a.s.sociated them with the raisins of the small Zante grape, once imported so exclusively from Corinth as to acquire the name of that city.

Under the tribe _Grossulariae_ of the Saxifrage family we find the _Ribes_ containing many species of currants and gooseberries; but, in accordance with the scope of this book, we shall quote from Professor Gray (whose arrangement we follow) only those that furnish the currants of cultivation.

"_Ribes rubrum_, red currant, cultivated from Europe, also wild on our northern border, with straggling or reclining stems, somewhat heart-shaped, moderately three to five lobed leaves, the lobes roundish and drooping racemes from lateral buds distinct from the leaf buds; edible berries red, or a white variety."

This is the parent of our cultivated red and white varieties. Currants are comparatively new-comers in the garden. When the Greek and Roman writers were carefully noting and naming the fruits of their time, the _Ribes_ tribe was as wild as any of the hordes of the far North, in whose dim, cold, damp woods and bogs it then flourished, but, like other Northern tribes, it is making great improvement under the genial influences of civilization and culture.

Until within a century or two, gardeners who cultivated currants at all were content with wild specimens from the woods. The exceedingly small, acid fruit of these wildings was not calculated to inspire enthusiasm; but a people possessing the surer qualities of patience and perseverance determined to develop them, and, as a result, we have the old Bed and White Dutch varieties, as yet unsurpa.s.sed for the table. In the Victoria, Cherry, and White Grape, we have decided advances in size, but not in flavor.

CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF SOIL

The secret of success in the culture of currants is suggested by the fact that nature has planted nearly every species of the _Ribes_ in cold, damp, northern exposures. Throughout the woods and bogs of the Northern Hemisphere is found the scraggy, untamed, hurdy stock from which has been developed the superb White Grape. As with people, so with plants: development does not eradicate const.i.tutional traits and tendencies. Beneath all is the craving for the primeval conditions of life, and the best success with the currant and gooseberry will a.s.suredly be obtained by those who can give them a reasonable approach to the soil, climate, and culture suggested by their damp, cold, native haunts. As with the strawberry, then, the first requisite is, not wetness, but abundant and continuous moisture. Soils naturally deficient in this, and which cannot be made drought-resisting by deep plowing and cultivation, are not adapted to the currant. Because this fruit is found wild in bogs, it does not follow that it can be grown successfully in undrained swamps. It will do better in such places than on dry, gravelly knolls, or on thin, light soils; but our fine civilized varieties need civilized conditions. The well-drained swamp may become the very best of currant fields; and damp, heavy land, that is capable of deep, thorough cultivation, should be selected if possible. When such is not to be had, then, by deep plowing, subsoiling, by abundant mulch around the plants throughout the summer, and by occasional waterings in the garden, counteracting the effects of lightness and dryness of soil, skill can go far in making good nature's deficiencies.

Next to depth of soil and moisture, the currant requires fertility. It is justly called one of the "gross feeders," and is not particular as to the quality of its food, so that it is abundant. I would still suggest, however, that it be fed according to its nature with heavy composts, in which muck, leaf-mould, and the cleanings of the cow-stable are largely present. Wood-ashes and bone-meal are also most excellent. If stable or other light manures must be used, I would suggest that they be scattered liberally on the surface in the fall or early spring and gradually worked in by cultivation. Thus used, their light heating qualities will do no harm, and they will keep the surface mellow and, therefore, moist.

The shadowy, Northern haunts of the wild currant also suggest that it will falter and fail under the Southern sun; and this is true, As we pa.s.s down through the Middle States, we find it difficult to make thrive even the hardy White and Bed Dutch varieties, and a point is at last reached when the bushes lose their leaves in the hot season, and die. From the lat.i.tude of New York south, therefore, increasing effort should be made to supply the currants' const.i.tutional need, by giving partial shade among pear or widely set apple-trees, or, better still, by planting on the northern side of fences, buildings, etc. By giving a cool, half-shady exposure in moist land, the culture of the currant can be extended far to the south, especially in the high mountain regions.

Even well to the north it is unprofitable when grown on light, thin, poor land, unless given liberal, skilful culture.

PLANTING, CULTIVATION AND PRUNING

I regard autumn as the best season for planting currants, but have succeeded nearly as well in early spring. If kept moist, there is little danger of the plants dying at any time, but those set in the fall or early spring make, the first year, a much larger growth than those planted when the buds have developed into leaves. Since they start so early, they should be set in the spring as soon as the ground is dry enough to work, and in the autumn, any time after the leaves fall or the wood is ripe. The plants of commerce are one, two and three years old, though not very many of the last are sold. I would as soon have one-year plants, if well rooted, as any, since they are cheaper and more certain to make strong, vigorous bushes, if given generous treatment in the open field, than if left crowded too long in nursery rows. For the garden, where fruit is desired as soon as possible, two and three year old plants are preferable. After planting, cut the young bushes back one-half or two-thirds, so as to ensure new and vigorous growth.

In field culture, I recommend that the rows be five feet apart, and the plants four feet from each other in the row. In this case 2,178 plants are required for an acre. If it is designed to cultivate them both ways, let the plants be set at right angles five feet apart, an acre now requiring 1,742 plants. Sink them two or three inches deeper than they stood in the nursery rows, and although in preparation the ground was well enriched, a shovel of compost around the young plant gives it a fine send-off, and hastens the development of a profitable bush. In the field and for market, I would urge that currants be grown invariably in bush, rather than in tree form. English writers, and some here who follow them, recommend the latter method; but it is not adapted to our climate, and to such limited attention as we can afford to give. The borers, moreover, having but a single stem to work upon, would soon cause many vacancies in the rows.

Currants are grown for market with large and increasing profits; indeed, there is scarcely a fruit that now pays better.

Mr. John S. Collins, of Moorestown, N. J., by the following ingenious, yet simple, invention, is able to drive through his currant and raspberry fields without injuring the plants.

"An ordinary cart is changed by putting in an axle fifteen inches longer than usual, the wheels thus making a track six feet and eight inches wide. The shafts and body of the cart are put just as close to one wheel as possible, so that the horse and the wheel will pa.s.s as near together, and as near in a line, as practicable. The axle of the other wheel being long, and bowing up several inches higher than ordinary in the middle, it pa.s.ses over a row of bushes with little or no damage. Thus, fertilizers can be carried to all parts of the field."

Of course, it would not do to drive through bushes laden with fruit; but after they were picked, such a vehicle could cause but little injury.

In the garden and for home use there is the widest lat.i.tude. We may content ourselves, as many do, with a few old Red Dutch bushes that for a generation have struggled with gra.s.s and burdocks. We may do a little better, and set out plants in ordinary garden soil, but forget for years to give a particle of food to the starving bushes, remarking annually, with increasing emphasis, that they must be "running out."

Few plants of the garden need high feeding more, and no others are more generally starved. I will guarantee that there are successful farmers who no more think of manuring a currant bush than of feeding crows.

This fruit will live, no matter how we abuse it, but there are scarcely any that respond more quickly to generous treatment; and in the garden where it is not necessary to keep such a single eye to the margin of profit, many beautiful and interesting things can be done with the currant. The majority will be satisfied with large, vigorous bushes, well enriched, mulched and skilfully pruned. If we choose, however, we may train them into pretty little trees, umbrella, globe, or pyramid in shape, according to our fancy, and by watchfulness and the use of ashes, keep away the borers. In one instance I found a few vigorous shoots that had made a growth of nearly three feet in a single season.

With the exception of the terminal bud and three or four just below it, I disbudded these shoots carefully, imbedded the lower ends six inches in moist soil as one would an ordinary cutting, and they speedily took root and developed into little trees. Much taller and more ornamental currant and gooseberry trees can be obtained by grafting any variety we wish on the Missouri species (_Ribes aureum_). These can be made pretty and useful ornaments of the lawn, as well as of the garden. Instead, therefore, of weed-choked, sprawling, unsightly objects, currant bushes can be made things of beauty, as well as of sterling worth.

The cultivation of the currant is very simple. As early in the spring as the ground is dry enough, it should be thoroughly stirred by plow or cultivator, and all perennial weeds and gra.s.ses just around the bushes taken out with p.r.o.nged hoes or forks. If a liberal top-dressing of compost or some other fertilizer was not given in the autumn, which is the best time to apply it, let it be spread over the roots (not up against the stems) before the first spring cultivation. While the bushes are still young, they can be cultivated and kept clean, like any hoed crop; but after they come into bearing--say the third summer --a different course must be adopted. If the ground is kept mellow and bare under the bushes, the fruit will be so splashed with earth as to be unsalable, and washed fruit is scarcely fit for the table. We very properly wish it with just the bloom and coloring which Nature is a month or more in elaborating. Muddy or rinsed fruit suggests the sty, not a dining-room. A mulch of leaves, straw, evergreen boughs--anything that will keep the ground clean--applied immediately after the early spring culture, is the best and most obvious way of preserving the fruit; and this method also secures all the good results which have been shown to follow mulching. Where it is not convenient to mulch, I would suggest that the ground be left undisturbed after the first thorough culture, until the fruit is gathered. The weeds that grow in the interval may be mowed, and allowed to fall under the bushes. By the end of June, the soil will have become so fixed that, with a partial sod of weeds, the fruit may hang over, or even rest upon it, without being splashed by the heavy rains then prevalent. This course is not so neat as clean cultivation or mulching. Few fruit growers, however, can afford to make appearances the first consideration. I have heard of oats being sown among the bushes to keep the fruit clean, but their growth must check the best development of the fruit quite as much as the natural crop of weeds. It would be better to give clean culture, and grow rye, or any early maturing green crop, somewhere else, and when the fruit begins to turn, spread this material under the bushes.

On many places, the mowings of weedy, swampy places would be found sufficient for the purpose. After the fruit is gathered, start the cultivator and hoe at once, so as to secure vigorous foliage and healthful growth throughout the entire summer.

Pruning may be done any time after the leaves fall, and success depends upon its judicious and rigorous performance. The English gardeners have recognized this fact, and they have as minute and careful a system as we apply to the grape. These formal and rather arbitrary methods can scarcely be followed practically in our hurried American life. It seems to me that I can do no better than to lay down some sound and general principles and leave their working out to the judgment of the grower.

In most instances, I imagine, our best gardeners rarely trim two bushes exactly alike, but deal with each according to its vigor and natural tendencies; for a currant bush has not a little individuality.

A young bush needs cutting back like a young grapevine, and for the same reason. A grapevine left to itself would soon become a ma.s.s of tangled wood yielding but little fruit, and that of inferior quality.

In like manner nature, uncurbed, gives us a great, straggling bush that is choked and rendered barren by its own luxuriance. Air and light are essential, and the knife must make s.p.a.ces for them. Cutting back and shortening branches develops fruit buds. Otherwise, we have long, unproductive reaches of wood. This is especially true of the Cherry and other varieties resembling it. The judicious use of the knife, kept up from year to year, will almost double their productiveness. Again, too much very young and too much old wood are causes of unfruitfulness. The skilful culturist seeks to produce and preserve many points of branching and short spurs, for it is here that the little fruit buds cl.u.s.ter thickly. When a branch is becoming black and feeble from age, cut it back to the root, that s.p.a.ce may be given for younger growth.

From six to twelve bearing stems, from three to five feet high, with their shortened branches and fruit spurs, may be allowed to grow from the roots, according to the vigor of the plant and the s.p.a.ce allotted to it. Usually, too many suckers start in the spring. Unless the crop of young wood is valuable for propagation, all except such as are needed to renew the bush should be cut out as early as possible, before they have injured the forming crop. In England, great attention is paid to summer pruning, and here much might be accomplished by it if we had, or would take, the time.

CHAPTER XXVI

CURRANTS, CONTINUED--PROPAGATION, VARIETIES

Pruning naturally leads to the subject of propagation, for much of that which is cut away, so far from being useless, is often of great value to the nurseryman; and there are few who grow this fruit for market who could not turn many an honest penny if they would take the refuse young wood of the previous summer's growth and develop it into salable bushes. In most instances a market would be found in their own neighborhood. Nothing is easier than success in raising young currant bushes, except failure. If cuttings are treated in accordance with their demand for moisture and coolness, they grow with almost certainty; if subjected to heat and drought, they usually soon become dry sticks. The very best course is to make and plant our cuttings in September or very early in October--just as soon as the leaves fall or will rub off readily. As is true of a root-slip, so also the wood cutting must make a callus at its base before there can be growth. From this the roots start out. Therefore, the earlier in the fall that cuttings are made, the more time for the formation of this callus.

Often, autumn-planted cuttings are well rooted before winter, and have just that much start over those that must begin life in the spring. Six inches is the average length. See Figures A, B and C. Let the cuttings be sunk in deep, rich, moist, but thoroughly well-drained soil, so deeply as to leave but two or three buds above the ground. In the garden, where the design is to raise a few fine bushes for home use merely, let the rows be two feet apart and the cuttings six inches apart in the row. In raising them by the thousand for market, we must economize s.p.a.ce and labor; and therefore one of the best methods, after rendering the ground mellow and smooth, is to stretch a line across the plat or field; then, beginning on one side of the line, to strike a spade into the soil its full depth, press it forward and draw it out.

This leaves a slight opening, of the width and depth of the spade, and a boy following inserts in this three cuttings, one in the middle and one at each end. The man then steps back and drives the spade down again about four inches in the rear of the first opening, and, as he presses his spade forward to make a second, he closes up the first opening, pressing--indeed, almost pinching--the earth around the three slips that have just been thrust down, until but one or two buds are above the surface. We thus have a row of cuttings, three abreast, and about three inches apart, across the entire field. A s.p.a.ce of three feet is left for cultivation, and then we plant, as before, another triple row. These thick rows should be taken up the following fall, when the largest may be sold; or planted where they are to fruit, and the smaller ones replanted in nursery rows. When land is abundant the cuttings may be sunk in single rows, with sufficient s.p.a.ce between for horse cultivation, and allowed to mature into two-year-old plants without removal. If these are not planted or sold, they should be cut back rigorously before making the third year's growth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CURRANT CUTTINGS AND CALLUS]