Raspberries (North Alabama only): Turner, Cuth bert, Loudon, King.
Blackberries: Dallas, Mercereau.
Currants and Gooseberries: Not grown. Dewberries: Australian.
The grape.
The grape may be grown on a trellis, a fence, a stone wall or the sides of a building. The best trellis is made of stakes and No. 14 galvanized wire, as the vines cling to the wires and do not need much tying. For the best results, the vine should have a warm southern exposure and a thin, well-underdrained soil. The third, fourth and pos sibly the fifth year from planting the fruit may be good without pruning, but as the canes grow older they form many lateral branches, thus producing a large number of small bunches of fruit that never ripen or are so small as to be of little value, and which are specially liable to rot. The remedy is pruning.
The rule for pruning grape-vines, under all con ditions, is to cut away each year as much of the old wood as possible, saving enough strong new or year-old canes to replace those cut away. Each new cane must have an abundance of space so that the sun and air will surround the leaves and fruit and thus prevent rot and mildew. The number of new canes to be preserved depends on the strength of the vine, the space to be covered and the root space occupied.
A single vine may be made to cover a very large space if the feeding area in the soil is sufficient. An instance of this is the noted Mission vines in California, which sometimes cover thousands of square feet of surface and produce tons of fruit.
A very simple, yet very satisfactory method of training the vine, is shown in Fig. 387. By this system, all the pruning required is to cut away in the fall or winter the old fruiting canes and bring up the new canes to take their places. During the growing seasons, the laterals on the fruiting canes are kept pinched off just beyond the last bunch of fruit, and all laterals along the main vine and the new cane are kept from growing by pinching off as soon as they start. The pruning of vinifera grapes, grown in California, is quite different from this.
Varieties of grapes.—The most generally adapted varieties of grapes are as follows : Purple: Worden, Concord, Campbell.—Red: Dela ware, Brighton, Wyoming Red.—White : Winchell, Niagara, Diamond.
The following varieties are adapted for home use in the colder parts of Ontario and Quebec (W.
T. Macoun): Purple : Moore Early, Campbell Early, Rogers 17, Merrimac, Wilder.—Red : Moyer, Delaware, Brighton, Lindley.—White : Golden Drop, Moore Diamond.
For Iowa (A. T. Erwin): Purple : Worden, Moore Early, Concord.—Red : Delaware, Brighton.
For Colorado, eastern slope (W. Pad dock): Purple : Concord, Moore Early.—Red: Brighton, Delaware.—White : Niagara.
Colorado, western slope (W. Paddock): Worden, Purple Damascus, Cornichon, Brighton, Niagara, Sweet Water.
For Alabama (R. S. Macintosh): Moore Early, Concord, Delaware, Niagara. — Scuppernong, Eden, Memory.
The vegetable-garden.
It is a painful fact that very many farmers buy their vegetables from the market, where they are received from the metropolitan markets, other far mers having grown them. In many cases, to be sure, it is cheaper to buy, because it is difficult to secure labor to grow them ; but a different farming plan might enable one to raise vegetables with greater economy. The successful market-gardener endeav ors to keep his land occupied with growing crops all of the time, and makes his land very rich, that the crops may grow quickly and be tender and succu lent. Most farmers till too much land. In most cases, if the land were made richer, we might grow our garden crops on half of the area, or less, with more profit and much less labor. A small area, made rich and thoroughly tilled and cared for, would supply a large family. The entire area need not be planted at the beginning of the season. If such crops as radishes, lettuce and peas are put in very early they may be harvested in time for sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, late beets, cabbage, cauliflower, and the like ; after early beans, sweet corn, potatoes and others, we may plant celery, turnips, spinach, and the like. To secure a succession of such vegetables as sweet corn and peas, early, medium and late varieties are planted at one time, and some stan dard sort is put in at intervals of a week or ten days afterwards. It is well to provide means, as boxes and hotbeds, to start or force plants ahead of their season, if the most interest ing and useful re sults are to be secured. (See Figs. 388-390.) Success in growing vegetables depends on : (1) the condition of the soil; (2) good seed ; (3) plant ing ; and (4) the after care and cultivation.