Part 42

An elaborate and efficient delivery service must be maintained by the grocers, and many small deliveries are made each day at an actual loss to the dealer. A large proportion of the grocery-store patrons buy on credit and pay when it becomes convenient. Many of these accounts are never paid. Hence it becomes apparent that the good customer who pays his bill regularly each week, or who pays cash, must suffer for the shortcomings of others. However, there can be little doubt that reducing prices would materially increase consumption and in the end result in equally good profits for the dealers. Reduced prices and better business practice should prove to be very beneficial to grower, dealer and consumer.

The profits derived from the sale of cheaper grades of apples to the poorer class of consumers are not so large. It was learned that those catering to such trade operated on a margin of 75 to 100 per cent. of the purchase price.

Raspberries.

F. C. ERKEL, FRUIT GROWER, ROCKFORD.

Raspberries are so easily grown it is surprising we do not find more farmers and back lot gardeners in the city giving them attention. I believe more people would raise raspberries if they could be made to realize what great returns they would receive for a little work and care. As a commercial proposition raspberries are the poor man's friend, yielding large returns with very small investment and requiring but little land.

I will attempt to give a few essentials in raspberry culture without going into detail, with the hopes that at least a few more patches of raspberries may be planted as a result of my effort. With the main points of raspberry culture given, there is no reason why any one with ordinary intelligence can not solve the details and meet with success.

Raspberries have a little advantage over strawberries with the man who is not greatly enthused over small fruit culture. When once established the plantings do not have to be renewed annually but with ordinary care will last several years, in fact they will stand more Junegrass sod and weeds and general neglect and still produce results than anything else I know of unless it is apple trees.

Another point in favor of raspberries over strawberries is that it is not quite so hard on the back to pick them, and when large quantities are grown it is easier to get pickers.

Red raspberries will succeed on most any kind of soil so long as it is kept reasonably well fertilized and supplied with humus. They prefer a moist loam, and a northern slope is preferable to a southern slope because not so quickly affected by drought. Good drainage is necessary, and if planted on low ground where water is liable to stand at any time the ground should be tiled or otherwise drained.

Raspberries may be planted either in the fall or spring, or the plants may be dug in the fall, heeled in outside, covered with mulch, or they may be stored in the cellar and planted in spring.

Plants bought from a nursery in the spring should be unpacked immediately on arrival, the roots dipped in thin mud, then heeled in until permanently planted, even if the delay is but a day or two.

The tops of the plants should be cut, leaving but a few inches, and if any blossoms appear the first season it would be better to remove them to prevent fruiting. It would be expecting too much of a newly transplanted plant to make much of any growth and produce fruit the same season. If allowed to fruit the first season but little fruit could be expected at best, and it would leave the plant dwarfed if indeed it were not killed outright.

The suckers that come up the first season will produce the next season's crop, after which they die down and should be removed, other suckers taking their places annually. Not over two or three suckers should be allowed to each plant the first year; after the first year leave five to eight in each hill, depending on the kind of soil, fertility, etc.

When plants are cheap and plentiful it is customary to use two in each hill to insure a good stand the first year, but it is reasonable to expect, however, where there are two root systems in each hill instead of one that in after years there would be more troublesome suckers to remove than if there was but one root in each hill, and this is no small matter with some varieties.

To obtain planting stock large clusters of roots may be divided to propagate from, but these usually have but few fibrous roots and are not as good as first year's growth suckers, springing from roots near the parent plant. Red raspberries may also be propagated from root cuttings or even from seeds, the latter not coming true to variety, however.

Plantings should preferably be made on ground plowed the fall previous, but spring plowed ground will answer if thoroughly disced, harrowed and planked and then repeated, to make the ground firm.

If the ground is poor add a liberal dressing of well decayed barnyard dressing before plowing, or if not well decayed wait until after planting to apply the manure. Future cultivations will mix the dressing with the surface soil where the roots will be able to reach it, since raspberry plants are close surface feeders, and for this reason all cultivations should be shallow after the root system has formed.

When the matted row system of planting is adopted, the late Prof. Green advised using a heavy mulch for two feet on each side of the rows to preserve moisture and discourage weed growth close to the plants, cultivating only a strip through the middle.

Raspberries may be planted in rows five or six feet apart to allow cultivation both ways, or in rows seven feet apart with plants two or three feet apart in the rows with the idea of allowing a matted row and cultivating but one way after the first season.

The matted row is hardly to be recommended unless one is willing to use a hoe rather freely to keep the plants free from weeds where the cultivator can not reach them, or unless he can provide a good, deep mulch to discourage weed growth.

Rows should preferably run north and south, so the fruit will be shaded during the middle of the day, but this is not absolutely necessary.

In setting the plants place them just a little deeper than they grew originally, carry them to the field in pails of water or thin mud, avoiding exposure of the roots to the air unprotected, but do not use water in the holes unless the ground is extremely dry. Firm the ground well close to the plant, and cultivate between rows all summer to preserve moisture, whether weeds are troublesome or not, up to September 1st and be sure to cultivate shallow after the roots begin to occupy the ground.

Hills that grow exceedingly tall and rank may be cut back to about two and a half feet in height in the spring, or if one is willing to take the trouble to pinch off the end of the plants at this height during the growing season they will get bushy plants better able to hold up a load of fruit--besides cutting back has a tendency to produce larger fruit.

We only grow two varieties of red raspberries, both of which are perfectly hardy without winter covering, so we have no suggestions to make or experiences to relate regarding winter protection. I am afraid I would be tempted to quit the business if I had to cover our raspberry bushes for winter protection. I think it would be as big a task as all the rest of the work combined except picking, and I let some one else do that part.

For a home garden it is even more desirable to select a variety that is hardy without winter covering than when grown in a commercial way, for this is one of the tasks that is liable to be neglected unless one makes a business of it.

In choosing a variety the other qualities to look for besides hardiness without winter covering are size, color, flavor, prolificacy and good shipping qualities.

We are located only twenty-five miles northwest of Minneapolis, and one would naturally suppose we would market our berries there, but we get better prices in towns along the Soo railroad in western Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Although our berries are a variety that crumble unless left on the bushes until ripe they do not spoil readily, which is probably due to the fact they are quite acid, and we ship to points in North Dakota nearly as far west as Chicago is east of us with very little loss. Wherever our berries have been introduced they have made friends, and there is hardly ever a time that we do not have standing orders for two or three times as many berries as we can furnish.

We usually ship in flat cases, two boxes deep, twenty-four pints to a crate, which brought us $2.00, $2.25 and $2.50 per crate net, f.o.b. shipping point.

There is but one other berry grower near us, so we do not have much difficulty in getting pickers. The first year we built a couple of small cottages to accommodate people from the city who might care to combine berry picking with a few days' outing, and it was surprising what a good class this proposition appealed to, but we now have enough local pickers to care for our crop.

The profits in raspberry culture vary all the way from little or nothing above cost of production up to several hundred dollars per acre, depending on the season and how well cared for.

Whether raspberry culture is a money making proposition or not in a commercial way, there certainly is no good reason why every farm or city garden should not have at least a few hills of raspberries for home use. Even leaving the matter of cost out of the question, there is a difference between fruit just off the bushes and that which has stood around in hot, dusty places several hours or longer waiting for a purchaser. Try it and be convinced!

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TO INOCULATE SEED.--Coating the seed of legumes with inoculated soil before planting is a simple method of insuring soil inoculation at slight cost. County agents in Illinois have found ordinary furniture glue effective in holding particles of inoculated soil to the seeds. This method gives each individual seed some of the particles of inoculated soil, which it carries with it when it is planted. The scheme requires but a small amount of inoculated soil and costs but a few cents an acre. The method is described in Farmers' Bulletin 704 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dissolve two handfuls of furniture glue for every gallon of boiling water and allow the solution to cool. Put the seed in a washtub and then sprinkle enough of the solution on the seed to moisten but not to wet it (one quart per bushel is sufficient) and stir the mixture thoroughly until all the seed are moistened.

Secure the inoculated soil from a place where the same kind of plants as the seed are growing, making sure that the roots have a vigorous development of nodules. Dry the soil in the shade, preferably in the barn or basement, and pulverize it thoroughly into a dust. Scatter this dust over the moistened seed, using from one half to one gallon of dirt for each bushel of seed, mixing thoroughly until the seed no longer stick together. The seed are then ready to sow.

The Flower Garden.

(AN EXERCISE LED BY G. C. HAWKINS, FLORIST, MINNEAPOLIS, AT THE 1915 ANNUAL MEETING.)

Mr. Hawkins: We have a question box and I would be glad to have any one use it or rise and state their question. I will answer, giving my experience.

The first question I will read is--"What would you advise about covering in the garden in a season like this?" There are now two questions to be answered. First, what kind of covering? Second, how much?

The first question can be answered this way. Every garden is benefited by a good covering of well decayed manure. Second. Any light covering of straw or horse manure with plenty of straw in it is very good. Leaves make a good covering if they can be kept dry, but leaves when not covered get wet, pack down over a plant and too often do more damage than good. The advantage of covering, or mulching, is to prevent thawing and freezing. To keep plants frozen from fall until spring would be ideal. The ideal winter is one when the snow falls early and stays on during the winter. We should cover lightly the plants that need protection, and when the snow falls, as a warm blanket, the plants will come through the winter in perfect shape.

Mr. Hawkins: We have a question box and would be glad to have any one use it, or rise and ask your question, and we will endeavor to answer it and give our experience along that line.

Mr. Horton: What would you advise for plants that are infected with aphis?

Mr. Hawkins: Spraying is one of the best things and for that we use a weak tobacco solution, so as to moisten the plants, a light mist will do the work. I want to tell a little experience in growing peonies. Last year I tried the experiment of using ground bone around them, which is one of the best fertilizers we have. It contains nearly all the elements of a perfect fertilizer. Just as soon as the little joints come out of the ground, dig a trench about three inches from the main bush, about two inches deep and fill with ground bone and watch the result. I carried this plan out with wonderful success, getting 350 perfect blossoms on twenty-five bushes. It takes bone about thirty days to commence to dissolve. The day of the automobile has brought need for a new fertilizer, and we must carefully select the best that can be had. We must turn back again to the green crops and the artificial fertilizers. This also works well with roses.

Mr. Reckstrom: Would bone do that was bought for the chickens?

Mr. Hawkins: Yes. You understand the finer the particles the quicker it commences to dissolve.

A Member: Where can ground bone be obtained?

Mr. Hawkins: All first class seedsmen have it from small packages of ten pounds to 100 pound sacks.

Mr. Bell: I tried hardwood ashes, and that seemed to be the best thing I struck. There were some shrub lilacs that didn't blossom. One winter I just put the ashes right on, probably a bushel around the one large bush. After that I had plenty of blossoms. On peonies and roses the result seems to be very good.

Mr. Hawkins: No question but what ashes are very fine, for the simple reason the potash in hardwood ashes is a very good fertilizer. I would like to ask some one to give his experience in regard to rust on the tiger lily and the phlox. The perennial phlox is one of the most beautiful flowers we have, and there has been considerable trouble this year with a rust which takes all the leaves off the stalk and is injurious to the blossoms. I did not find any successful remedy for it, and I would be very glad if some member would give his experience.

Mrs. Sawyer: I think you will find bordeaux mixture is good as anything for the rust on phlox. There is another mixture given for use in the English gardens, but their conditions are not the same as ours. It seems that changing the location of the phlox may do it good. Phlox is a plant that wants free circulation of air. Sometimes they get crowded in the garden, and a combination of heat and moisture produces the rust. By changing them to some other ground sometimes it entirely disappears.

Mr. Hawkins: Mrs. Sawyer thinks this would be a remedy, as they require a circulation of fresh air and keep down moisture. We know this, phlox should be divided every third year. If you lift some you will find in the middle a woody dry substance absolutely detrimental to a large, healthy growing phlox. If you take off the little plants that come at the outside of this and replant them you will find your flowers will be much larger the next year. If we leave bunches of phlox in the same place successive years they become small. If you separate them it will add vigor to your plant, and the flowers will do better. I would like to ask what success you have had with growing tritoma, the flame flower? Have you had any difficulty in raising them?

Mrs. Tillotson: I have one blossom that seemed to take such a long time to get above the ground I wondered what was the matter with it.

Mr. Hawkins: Mrs. Gould, can you give us any enlightenment?

Mrs. Gould: I never raised them, I got some bulbs this year. I know you have to take them up in the winter and store them like gladiolus, and they do not require very heavy soil.

Mrs. Countryman: Will yucca filamentosa ever blossom in a garden in St. Paul?

Mrs. Sawyer: It will, but it doesn't always. It does blossom in Minnesota, but I know that people have a great deal of difficulty getting blossoms.

Mrs. Countryman: I have five plants growing four years and have never seen a blossom yet.

Mr. Hawkins: I have had two growing three years, and I never have seen the color of a blossom yet.

A Member: What kind is that?

Mr. Hawkins: It is the yucca filamentosa. It is an evergreen. It should throw up a tall stalk with large branches and plenty of white flowers, I think hundreds of flowers--that is the description. It is a beautiful thing in the garden anyway.

Mrs. Countryman: I have seen them in blossom in California.

Mr. Richardson: I have seen them blossom many times in Winnebago.

Mrs. Countryman: Give us the culture instructions.

Mr. Richardson: I grew in nursery rows some odd stuff, had the same culture that the nursery had. But when it blossomed one year I have been told on good authority it would be five years before that stalk would blossom again, only blossoms once in five years, but by having many stalks they don't all blossom at the same time. I have had them two or three years in succession but not on the same stalk.

Mrs. Countryman: Do you cover them winters?

Mr. Richardson: Never.

Mr. Hawkins: I think the only reason why the yucca filamentosa doesn't do well is because it is a plant of the southwest and grows in a warmer climate.

Mrs. Sawyer: I had a varied experience in growing those plants, and I took a great deal of pains to learn all I could from different sources and different people, and I believe our trouble is our late frosts, I think that is conceded by people who have really gone into the question thoroughly. Our late frosts injure them more than anything else. A little protection in the spring is what they need more than protection in winter, and we know that they don't want a wet place.

Mr. Hawkins: I want to recommend a flower that should be very popular. It is perfectly hardy, blossoms for years, the hardy pyrethrum. It is a daisy-like flower, absolutely free from insects and a sure bloomer. We have plants in the garden that have bloomed six years. It comes in many shades, from white to deep crimson, blooms from the 15th of May to the 1st of July and makes a beautiful showing. In regard to iris, did any one have any trouble with their iris coming a little ahead of time last year and being frozen?

Mrs. Sawyer: I guess they all froze off. I don't think it was because they were ahead of time; it was because of the frost.

Mr. Hawkins: What would you recommend?

Mrs. Sawyer: I don't think there is anything to do in weather like last spring, you can't cover anything away from a hard black frost like that was.

Mr. Hawkins: We have several hundred plants on a southern slope, and I thought perhaps the sun beating against the southern slope is what started them earlier.

Mrs. Sawyer: Ours weren't on a southern slope, pretty near level, rather north than anything else, and they got frozen.

A Member: What causes the rot in the iris?

Mr. Hawkins: That depends upon the kind of iris. With the bulbous rooted iris, the bulb is filled full of water during the heavy rains, and if you add more water to it it simply decays. The Siberian and many of the fibrous rooted iris will stand a great deal of water.

A Member: Does the German?

Mr. Hawkins: The German is a bulbous root. As I said, it takes all the moisture it needs. That is one reason why iris never wilts down in a dry spell. It always looks fresh and green.

A Member: I would like to say it is well not to plant the iris deep. The natural iris will lie almost on top of the ground, and they like to have the sun beat down on them. The iris likes to bask in the sun.

Mr. Hawkins: This would prove to you that the bulb takes enough water to support it and doesn't need any more because it rests on the top and basks in the sun. Has any one tried anything new in the garden that will stand our climate?

Mrs. Norton: I would suggest that hardy alum-root, or heuchera. It is a perfectly hardy perennial, can stand our worst winters without any covering, and it grows about so high from the ground (indicating two or three feet), with its geranium-like leaves, and the flower grows about three feet high, all covered with pink bells on the stems. It is a very decorative plant and perfectly hardy. I think it has been much neglected in the Northwest because it is so perfectly hardy and it increases very rapidly. I have over one hundred.

Mr. Hawkins: I would like Mrs. Gibbs to say a word.

Mrs. Gibbs: The only thing I can say is that I enjoy being around among other people's gardens. I think that is one of the best places to find out things that we want; so many times we buy something that sounds well, but when we have it planted it doesn't look as well. I think one of the best ways is to visit gardens and especially those that use labels.

A Member: I would like to ask about the trollius.

Mr. Hawkins: Has any one had experience in raising trollius?

Mrs. Gould: I have had experience in not raising them. I planted three years, and after getting the seeds from all the seedsmen I discovered in a book on plants that the seed would have to be in the ground two years in order to germinate. I didn't know that and left them in only a few months. I think the only way is to buy the plants. It is a very beautiful plant, yellow and shaped like golden glow, belongs to the same family as the buttercup.

A Member: I would like to ask about the hollyhocks. I saw such beautiful hollyhocks around Lake Minnetonka and I have never been able to make them winter. I would like to ask about that.

Mr. Hawkins: We have three plants, hollyhocks, digitalis and canterbury bells, and nearly all have the same trouble with them. If we mulch them we are liable to have the center decay and the plants practically useless. It is a question of mulching them too much or not mulching them. I would like to have you speak up and tell us your experience. I have in mind a gentleman who raises splendid hollyhocks in the neighborhood of the lakes. Takes no care of them, and yet he had one this year seventeen feet high, which took care of itself and had any amount of blossoms. I tried that experiment several years myself of mulching them, and the crown rotted. These are three of the best flowers of the garden, and we ought to have some certain way of keeping them.

A Member: Have you ever tried mulching them with corn stalks?

Mr. Hawkins: Yes, I have tried it but lost them.

A Member: I had very good luck with them that way.

A Member: It is more a question of drainage than of mulching.

Mr. Hawkins: That might be.

Mrs. Gould: I wish simply to say that the trouble with winter grown hollyhocks and canterbury bells is that they will head so tall and must be kept dry. I always cover the hollyhocks and if I had the others I think I would cover them. I uncover mine early in the spring, and if it gets cold put on a little more straw. You are almost sure to uncover them the wrong time. With foxgloves I think it is almost unnecessary to cover them.