Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-22
SMALL FRUITS.
why Farmers Should Make q Speciality of
Their Cultivation.

Their Cultivation.
Many farmers spend their lives with
out the comfort that is derived from
fruit, because their homes are situated
where the climate does not admit of
the production of apples, pears,
peaches and the best varieties of grapes
at least without considerable protec-
ton. They do not make the best Of
their situation. They do not exercise
the same judgment in relation to fruits
that they do in regard to ordinary field
crops, ard plant what will grow and
what is adapted to the climate and soil
where they are situated, They com.
plain that they are not in a land of
cider and apples. They long for the
pear orchards of Central New York, for
the great peach trees of Maryland, and
the vineyards of Ohio. They dislike to
live where fruit can notb be produced in
abundance. They talk of the apple
bees they attended in boyhood. They
sing of the old cider mill. They praise
the apple butter made by their good
grandmothers. They wish that they
were back on the old worn-out farm
among the hills in the East or South,
where fruit can be raised on trees and
where grape-vines grow year after year
without protection. They are weary
of living without fruit.
1t does not seem to occur to many of
these persons that they can produce
excellent fruit where they are, and that
they can have their tables abundantly
supplied with it during the year. Such,
however, is the case. Many of the
small fruits do best in places where APP
pies, pears, and peaches can not be
raised. The finest of all fruits pro-
duced in any climate is the strawberry.
1t will grow anywhere within tho boun-
daries OF the country, but is produced
with the least trouble and expense in
regions where snow affords protection
to the vines during the winter. The
strawberry will flourish anywhere that
grass does, and a soil and climate that
are suited to grass are also adapted to
the strawberry. This most desirable
Of all the fruits can be raised as easily
as any of the common field crops.
With very few exceptions, every year
is a clearing year" for the strawberry
plant. 1t is necessary to wait but a
single season to obtain a full crop from
plants. Vines set out this spring will
be in their prime next summer, and
they will produce in addition to a CROP
of fine fruit a sufficient number OF
young plants to occupy the area OF
land originally set out. The cost OF
obtaining plants for the first start is
very small.
Raspberries and blackberries are
raised almost as easily as Strawberries
and new plants are propogated very
readily. They will afford fresh fruit
from the time Strawberries commence
to fail till September. 1t is very easy
to secure and keep in proper condition
a plantation Of g%ooseberries and of red,
white and black currants. All these
bushes will live as long as peach trees
do, even in favored localities, and will
produce good crops every year. All
varieties Of currants and ~gooseberries
do best in regions where the climate is
quite cool and the atmosphere tolerably
moist. They are admirably adapted tc
places where the apple, pear, peach
and the best varieties of grapes can not
be produced. A half acre of land APP
propriated to these bushes will produce
not only sufficient fruit to supply the
wants of a large family during the
period they can be used in their fresh
state, but enough for use during the
entire winter and spring. They car
be converted into preserves, jam and
jelly, or preserved in cans OF glass jars
t so that they will retain almost all the
excellent qualities Of ripe fruit recently
picked from the stem. The small fruits
! are by nature very p%erishable, but
} science and art have contrived ways to
preserve them in excellent condition
for years.
The production Of small fruits has
one great advantage over the produc'
ton of large fruit. 1T requires but q
very short time to bring the vines and
bushes fhto a condition for bearing,
Many years are required to raise an
!, orchard of pear, apple and peach trees.
t Several seasons will pass before the
; first blossom makes it's appearance. In
l the case of vines and bushes producing
berries, we have to wait but a short
t time for blossoms and fruit. Some Of
them will produce a full crop the veal
after they are set out.-Gicago Times
} New P%oIonaises.
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