Success With Small Fruits | Page 6

they help. A man may write a treatise
admirably adapted to his own farm; but if one living a thousand, a
hundred, or even one mile away, followed the same method, he might
almost utterly fail. While certain general and foundation principles
apply to the cultivation of each genus of fruit, important modifications
and, in some instances, almost radical changes of method must be made
in view of the varied conditions in which it is grown.
It is even more important to know what varieties are best adapted to
different localities and soils. While no experienced and candid
authority will speak confidently and precisely on this point, much very
useful information and suggestion may be given by one who, instead of
theorizing, observes, questions, and records facts as they are. The most
profitable strawberry of the far South will produce scarcely any fruit in
the North, although the plant grows well; and some of our best
raspberries cannot even exist in a hot climate or upon very light soils.
In the preparation of this book it has been my aim to study these
conditions, that I might give advice useful in Florida and Canada, New
York and California, as well as at Cornwall. I have maintained an
extensive correspondence with practical fruit growers in all sections,
and have read with care contributions to the horticultural press from
widely separated localities. Not content with this, I have visited in
person the great fruit-growing centres of New Jersey, Norfolk and
Richmond, Va.; Charleston, S. C.; Augusta and Savannah, Ga,; and
several points in Florida. Thus, from actual observation and full, free
conversation, I have familiarized myself with both the Northern and
Southern aspects of this industry, while my correspondence from the
far West, Southwest, and California will, I hope, enable me to aid the
novice in those regions also.
I know in advance that my book will contain many and varied faults,
but I intend that it shall be an expression of honest opinion. I do not
like "foxy grapes" nor foxy words about them.
CHAPTER II
THE FRUIT GARDEN

_Raison d'etre_
Small fruits, to people who live in the country, are like heaven-- objects
of universal desire and very general neglect. Indeed, in a land so
peculiarly adapted to their cultivation, it is difficult to account for this
neglect if you admit the premise that Americans are civilized and
intellectual. It is the trait of a savage and inferior race to devour .with
immense gusto a delicious morsel, and then trust to luck for another.
People who would turn away from a dish of "Monarch" strawberries,
with their plump pink cheeks powdered with sugar, or from a plate of
melting raspberries and cream, would be regarded as so eccentric as to
suggest an asylum; but the number of professedly intelligent and moral
folk who ignore the simple means of enjoying the ambrosial viands
daily, for weeks together, is so large as to shake one's confidence in
human nature. A well-maintained fruit garden is a comparatively rare
adjunct of even stylish and pretentious homes. In June, of all months, in
sultry July and August, there arises from innumerable country breakfast
tables the pungent odor of a meat into which the devils went but out of
which there is no proof they ever came. From the garden under the
windows might have been gathered fruits whose aroma would have
tempted spirits of the air. The cabbage- patch may be seen afar, but too
often the strawberry-bed even if it exists is hidden by weeds, and the
later small fruits struggle for bare life in some neglected corner. Indeed,
an excursion into certain parts of Hew England might suggest that
many of its thrifty citizens would not have been content in Eden until
they had put its best land into onions and tobacco. Through the superb
scenery of Vermont there flows a river whose name, one might think,
would secure an unfailing tide from the eyes of the inhabitants. The
Alpine strawberry grows wild in all that region, but the puritan
smacked his lips over another gift of nature and named the romantic
stream in its honor. To account for certain tastes or tendencies,
mankind must certainly have fallen a little way, or, if Mr. Darwin's
view is correct, and we are on a slight up-grade, a dreadful hitch and
tendency to backslide has been apparent at a certain point ever since the
Hebrews sighed for the "leeks and onions of Egypt."
Of course, there is little hope for the rural soul that "loathes" the light

manna of small fruits. We must leave it to evolution for another cycle
or two. But, as already indicated, we believe that humanity in the main
has reached a point where its internal organs highly approve of the
delicious group