Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1862-05-09
A Fruit Garden for the
Family.

| EVERY family should have fruit gac4
Iden. Fruit is not only great luxury
it is essential to health. A fsw dollars
expended in setting out plants and trees
Twill save many dollar from being paid
to the family physician.
| First-Y ou should have small pieoo
Of ground, say from onc-eighth of an acre
to an acre for fruit gard n. This should
be deeply plowed once or twice and thor
toughly narrowed. Or it may be worked
with spade instead of the pillow. Now
iprocure from two hundred to five hundred
strassberry plants, and set them out in rows
three feet apart, and two feet apart in the
row. The only culture they need is to
keep out the weeds, and work the grousd
occasionally with the hoe. The following
season you may rely upon a crop of berries
| that it will do your eyes good to behold.
More bushels of strawberries can be pro-
iuced from the same ground then potatoes.
A few dozen plants of gooseberres
should be set out in rows five feet apart
each way. The Houghton Seeding is the
only variety we have found to succeed we'll
in this climate.
Currants must not be forgotten. They
are so Indispensable to every family. In
their green state what delicious tarts and
fine pics they make in early summer time,
before we can obtain other fruit. When
ripe, and served up with sugar on the tea
table, they are liked by nearly every one.
And what delicious jelly can be made from
them to cat with roast turkey, or wild
ducks, or other meats. How can the good
wife get along without few dozen current
bushes? The thing is impossible, and es.
pecially to get along well. The Large Red
Dutch is the best variety. Plant in
rows about five feet apart, and be sure to
cover all the ground in which they arc
planted five or six inches deep with old
straw, hay, littery manure. or something
of the kind, so as to keep the soil moist
and cool. With this treatment, they will
make double the growth they otherwise
would !; their leaves will not drop in Au-
gust, as they DO when not mulched in this
climate, and they will yield ten times as
much fruit. Bear this in mind if you
would have a-large crop of currants.
The luscious raspberry must also como
in--for it is one of the finest of fruits when
in perfection. Put up in cans or bottles,
like strawberries and peaches, it far sur
passes either. The fruit is not as watery
as the strawberry, and is better on this
account for canning purposes. Wealways
lay in a good supply, and have never found
any one who did not relish them.
The New Rochelle or Lawton blackberry,
where land can be had in abundance, and
especially where wild blackberries are not
abundant, should be planted 1t will take
two or three years to produce much of
crop; but then it will be found very pro-
life, and if the fruit is left on until per-
feetly ripe, it is excellent. All ackuowl-
edge that the blackberry is one of our most
healthful berries A hundred plants will
be abundant for a family. They should
be put in the rows about eight feet apart,
and six feet apart in the row. 1t is bet
ter to mulch the plants, as is also the case
with all the plants we have mentioned.
They will grow better and be more pro-
dnctiye.-Valzey Farmer.