436 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



berry and blackberry haye had a similar history, and the preju- 

 dices against them are only recently outgrown. Here and there, 

 a person has studied the dewberry and has found it to be a valu- 

 able addition to the market fruits of early summer. I. A. Wil- 

 cox, of Portland, Chautauqua County, is one of these, and he 

 read a paper commending the berry to the Western New York 

 Horticultural Society last winter. I know Mr. Wilcox's planta- 

 tion, and am convinced that the dewberry is an acquisition to 

 him. As our bulletin is now out of print, I shall make a few 

 extracts from it and give some further directions for the growing 



of the plant. 



Of the dozen or twenty varieties of dewberries which have been 

 named and introduced, only two, the Lucretia and Bartel, have 

 gained wide prominence. In fact, there may be said to be only 

 one leading variety, and that is the Lucretia, and it is the only 

 one which has been well tested in New York. The full history of 

 this and others is given in the Bulletin 34. The dewberry bears 

 the fruit upon the canes of last ^year's growth, the same as rasp- 

 berries and blackberries do. These canes are long and weak and 

 naturally lie perfectly prostrate on the ground. '• There are several 

 methods of training the Lucretia dewberry," we wrote in 1891. 

 " It is commonly allowed to lie upon the ground. The canes are 

 cut back to three or four feet in length in the same manner as 

 blackberry and raspberry canes are treated, and if the best results 

 are expected the canes should be thinned to four or five in a hill. 

 The canes are usually allowed to branch freely, although it is evi- 

 dent that some checking of the growth may often be essential to 

 good results. A mulch is often placed under them to keep the 

 berries clean and to retard the weeds. When this is applied, the 

 vines are raised with a fork. A. M. Purdy ^ recommends two 

 stakes, one to hold the bearing cane, and one the growing cane. 

 This implies that only one cane is to be allowed to fruit 

 each year. This method does not appear to be in practice and 

 it is doubtful if it has anything to recommend it. Trellises 

 and racks of various kinds have been devised. In our plantation 

 of Lucretia we have tried three methods of training. In one 

 portion of the plantation the plants are allowed to lie upon the 

 ground without mulch, and the canes are cut off when three or 



*Small Fruit Instructor, 94 (1887) ; Pop. Gard. ii. 100, 160. 



