The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-11-13
SMALL FRUITS.
HoW Young Plants and Bushes Can be
Wintered Most Successfully.


Wintered Most Successfully.
notice that the demand for small
fruits is constantly increasing. This is
especially the case in the West and
North where the natural conditions are
not the most favorable to tree growth.
am daily receiving orders from Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota
and Minnesota. Most of these orders
are for small. fruits, such as blackber-
ries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants,
grapes and the like.
Fhe freight or express charges on
such small stock being very light, the
distance enters but little into consider
alton. Many small orders can be safe
y filled by mail, by which medium it
costs no more to transpo t one thousand
miles than it does ten. BY the use of
damp moss and oiled paper, small or
ders can be handled very cheaply and
safely by mail
But what wished to speak of par
ticularly IS the method of wintering
young small fruit plants and bushes.
] do not find fall planting of fruit trees
successful as a rule. Even supposing
they make live of it, which is not at
al certain, see no gain in the fail
Pdutng. The plants can do no more
than to sustain themselves through the
winter. They are in the ground ready
Tor the earliest spring growth, and that
] think, is all that can be said of the
fall planting. | like to have trees and
plants start early in the spring, and |
never find any difficulty in starting
them. find that many planters wat
until about complaining time that the
ground may be in good condition. Now
! am very much addicted to the practice
of planting trees in the mud, oftentmes
in the first mud of spring, especially
with evergrecns; | believe in having
them planted early.
To do early spring planting, the trees
must be on hand. Small fruits that are
30 be planted next spring should be pur-
chased this fall, and buried or stored in
cellar over winter, that they may be on
hand for the earliest spring planting.
Young trees and roots can be safely
kept in a ce lar by burying the roots in
sand or moss. Most nurSerymen now
practice this method largely in carrying
over stock that will be wanted for
southern. trade, before their nurseries
are thawed out sufficiently to take di.
rectly from there Both deciduous and
evergreen varieties can be safely handled
in this ~ y.
Is often happens that those who pur.
chase of agents in the winter, for spr g
delivery, do not get their trees anC
plants until the season is far advance J.
This is often fatal Unless they can gel
established before the dry, hot we ther
comes on, there is but little hope of car.
rying them through the summer. The
lirst summer is more to be dreaded than
the first winter. find.
All small fruits that are already
planted should be laid down and COW
cred for winter. Currants and goose.
berries, perhaps, seld IN need this.
Blackberry and raspberry canes will
often live through without, but 10 be
safe should be covered; not too early,
however. 1t is not the freez NC that
hurts them. 1t is the long continued
alternate thawrng and freezing thai
plays the mischief A good, hard freez
before they are covered will do gooC
rather than damage. The mice will
have 10 chance to work about the roo
if the ground S well frozen before the
covering is laid on. 1t often happen:
that the tops and stems are gnaweC
-"hcro the ground so protected that il
can not freeze. The mice then have
unlimited range and chance to burrow
In bending over stems and canes it j,
q good plan to put a shoveful or two o
earth up at the foot before bend ng
that they need not be sharply bent, bu
will have something to lay over. A t
de earth should also be used to weigh
the tops down, The balance of thu
covering may be of partially-rotteC
manure. After strawberry-b havt
frozen slightly they may be covered
with straw,-COr, american Garden.