Blackberries. 



The blackberry is a neglected fruit in western New York. There 

 are few persons who make any special attempt to grow it at its best 

 upon a commercial scale. Yet, there is no bush fruit which is 

 capable of yielding greater profit. It is the last of the small fruits, 

 and when it is well grown it affords a luscious addition to the dessert 

 •of midsummer. Some of my readers will at once take issue with 

 me respecting the lusciousness of the blackberry, and we may as 

 well argue the subject to a finish whilst we are in the mood. In 

 justification of ray position, I shall say that those persons who do 

 not like the garden blackberry have probably never eaten a ripe one. 

 Those red and juiceless objects which one finds frying in the sun 

 and patronized by flies in front of grocery stores are not the fruits 

 about which I am writing. They might have been green berries 

 or red berries, but they were never ripe blackberries. There is no 

 fruit grown in this State which so soon deteriorates after picking, and 

 none which is necessarily picked in such unfit condition. The 

 blackberry is not ripe simply because it is black ; it must be soft, 

 and it must drop into the hand when the cluster is shaken. In this 

 condition it is full of the sweetness and aroma of midsummer. It 

 is our most delicious bush fruit. Of course, such berries as these 

 never find tlieir way to the market, and hence it comes that my 

 reader who has never grown the fruit is still wincing in memory of 

 the unbearable acid of the blackberry. Then there are those who 

 declare that the tame berry is intolerably sourer than the wild one. 

 It is true that it is more juicy when well grown, and this juice is 

 very sour until the berry is soft to the core. But the flavor of the 

 wild berry is usually quite as much a compound of pleasant mem- 

 ories of youthful associations and stimulating adventures, as it is of 

 sweetness and flavor; and then, when one picks wild berries he 

 always selects the ripest and the best, and these become the standard 

 with which he compares the untimely fruits which he buys of the 

 groceryman. I also held tenaciously to the opinion that the tame 

 berry is inferior to the wild one until, a few years ago, I visited the 



