St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-11-20
SMALL FRUITS,
40" Young Plants and Bushes Can b.
Wintered Most SuccessfulIy

Ao" Young Plants and Bushes Can b.
Wintered Most Successfully.
notice that the demand for small
fruits is constantly increasing. This is
especially the case in the West anG
North where the natural conditions are
not the most favorable to tree growth.
l am daily receiving orders from Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota
and Minnesota. Most of these orders
are for small, fruits, such as blackber-
rles' raspberries, gooseberries, currants,
grapes and the like.
The 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
ly filled by mail, by which medium it
costs no more to transpo, one thousand
miles than 1t 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 winterjno
young small fruit plants and bushes.
l do not find fall planting of fruit trees
successful as rule. Even supposinp
they ma Ike live of it, which is not at
all certain, l see no gain in the fail
painting. 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
l think, is all that can be said of the
fall planting. l like to have trees and
plants start early in the spring, and
never find any difficulty in starting
them. l find that many planters wait
until about complaining time that the
ground may be in good condition. Now
L am very much addicted to the practice
OF planting trees in the mud, oftentimes
In the first mud of spring, especially
with evergreens; l believe in having
them planted early.
TO do early spring planting, the trees
must be on hand. Small fruits that are
to 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.
I Dung trees and roots can be safely
kept III cellar 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 d. |
re tly from there. Both deciduous and |
evergreen varieties can be safely handled |
IL this way.
1t often happens that those who pur-1
chase OF agents in the winter, for spring
ot Al, -.
plants until the season is far advanced.
his is often fatal. Unless they can get
established before the dry, hot we Their
comes on, there is but little hope of car
wing them through the summer. The
lrst summer is more. to be dreaded than
he first winter. | find
All small fruits that are already
''anted should be laid down and COW
red for winter. Currants and goose
Ferries, perhaps, seld m need this.
blackberry and raspberry canes will
tten live through without, but to be
ate should be covered: not too early,
oWever. 1t is not the freez ne that
urts them. 1t is the long-contiuued
iternate thawlng and freezing that
lays the mischief. A good, hard freeze {
efore they are covered will do good
ather than damage. The mice will I
ave no chance to work about the ROOFS
the ground is well frozen before the {
overlngis laid on. 1t often happens l
lat the tops and stems are gnawed g
here the ground SO protected that it
an not freeze. The mice then have
nl'nited range and chance to burrow.
In bending over stems and canes il is {
good plan to put shovelful or two of L
1rth up at the foot before bending, q
lat they need not be sharply bent, but v
i'll have something to lay over A lit e
c earth should also be used to weigh b
le tops down. The balance of the C
'vering may be of partially-rotted f
azure. After strawberry have C
Oxen slightly they may be covered b
18th straW.-COr. american Garden. t
IL