THE BLACKBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES 

 RECOMMENDED BY THE SOCIETY. 



BY T. T. LYON, SOUTH HAVEN", MICH., AND PREPARED FOR THE SUM 

 MER MEETING HELD AT MONROE, 1875. 



Mr. Pkesident and Gentlemen: Having been requested by your Secre- 

 tary to prepare some account of the blackberries and raspberries recommended 

 by the society for cultivation in Michigan, I may be indulged in a few remarks 

 preliminary to the subject, before entering upon the discussion of the varieties 

 to be considered. 



It is only within the last twenty years that the attention of fruit growers 

 has, to any considerable extent, been directed to the cultivation of either the 

 blackberry or the black-cap raspberry, with reference to the production of 

 improved varieties ; and even np to the present time, so far as we are informed, 

 such efforts have been directed only to the selection and propagation of such 

 ehsnce sorts as have sprung up in a wild state. 



Prior to the above named period, persons had, occasionally, indulged in the 

 gathering of wild plants into cultivated ground, with the hope that cultivation 

 ■would exert an ameliorating or improving influence upon the quality of the 

 fruit. This process, however, seems to have yielded no very encouraging 

 results. 



It is little more than fifteen years since the date of the earliest efforts for 

 the production of new and improved varieties of the American Black Cap; 

 although, as in the case of the blackberry, it had previously been the practice 

 of persons partial to this fruit, to collect plants from the field and hedge rows 

 and subject them to the ordeal of cultivation ; more perhaps, for the purpose 

 of having the fruit at hand Avhen wanted, than with any especial reference to 

 the improvement of its quality. 



THE BLACKBERRY 



is common to both the eastern and western continents ; but the variety or 

 rather species common in many parts of Europe and Asia, and known as 

 Ruhus Fruticosus, seems to be a somewhat near approach to the raspberry, in 

 the form of its fruit, if not also in the characteristics of the wood growth. 

 We have also, in this country, two nearly allied species known as the Dewberry 

 {Rulus Hispidus), which seem to be quite generally disseminated in a wild 



