KHAKI CAMBELL DUCKS & COMPOST HEAPS IN ENGLAND
(Page 2 of 3)
May/June 1971
By Rod Pidgeon
Any bird will lay in the spring, but we need eggs when we can get a good price . . . in December and January. It stands to reason that a bird which lays at this time of year must be a good one. Likewise, it's a good drake that has the energy to mate when the temperature is below freezing. So we raise our clutch of replacements only from eggs fertilised and laid in December and January. It's a very simple selective breeding technique.
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To change the subject to small fruits . . . In order to get the best crop of the finest quality, it's necessary to prune the bushes. For example, the finest blackberries and loganberries grow on the highest spurs of one year old wood. So, to keep the bushes at a size from which the fruit can be picked easily—and to get a crop of larger, more luscious, berries—we use a very simple procedure:
If a blackberry bush is cut back hard, new canes will grow from the roots. These give the best fruit the next year so, after cutting, we run three horizontal wires above the roots . . . the bottom wire one foot above the ground and the top one at 3-4 feet. We then train the new canes to grow into a fan shape on the wires. After the old canes have fruited, we cut them off and retrain the new growth nearer the ground . . . leaving a central gap in the fan for the next season's c anes.
Blackberries are easy to propagate and are very good for making what I call a "fedge" (a cross between afence and a hedge). Instead of cutting out an old cane, make a sloping upward cut half-way through it about six inches from the end, and put in a sliver of wood to keep the cut open. Bend the cane over, bury it a couple of inches deep in the soil and hold it down with wire or a stone weight. Next year, there will be a new plant ready to move to another location.
Black currants are a very good crop rich in Vitamin C . . . but they're messy to pick in any quantity. The answer is to prune and pick all at the same time. The currants grow on last year's wood, and new wood grows from the root. So cut off all the fruited woods—instead of picking—and stand them in water. In the evening you can sit on the porch and strip off the fruit with an old table fork.
