NEW YORK EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 387 



(including stakes and tying up), and a balance remained of $28.00, and this year I had a 

 full crop, the first half of which brought me 24 cents per quart — they were sold in 2 

 one half-pint cups at six cents each. 



" They begin to ripen from a week and a half to two weeks before any other black- 

 berry, excepting the Early Harvest, and here it is fully a week ahead of that. It just 

 completes our time for steady picking from first of June, beginning with strawberries, 

 then red raspberries, Lucretia dewberry, and ending with Minnewaska blackberries, 

 the end of September. Its coming so early fills the gap between red raspberries and 

 standing blackberries. 



" The characteristics of this fruit are as follows: — A great bearer, berries 1 inch to 

 134 inches in length; and berries have been measured in one patch, by visitors, 1% 

 inches in length by % inch in width, which is larger than the heaviest Minnewaska 

 Wilson as grown here. The berries are all perfect, with little, if any, deformity in 

 shape, and sweeter than any other blackberry excepting the wild dewberries. Their 

 solidity warrants their shipment to markets at a greater distance than any other I 

 know of. The picking and marketing is of short duration — about two weeks— nicely 

 lapping on to standing varieties; and it is one of the most beautiful sights that one 

 could imagine, the bushes black with large glossy berries, from the top of a five-foot 

 stake to the ground. 



" I plant them as I do red raspberries, four feet apart each way, cultivate both ways 

 until the fore part of June, when the renewals get too long to do so. We then direct 

 the renewals of each row along the bottoms of the hills, and cultivate the other way, 

 as long as required, and one man has done the directing of our patch in a day. The 

 old canes are taken from the stakes any time after the fruit is off, before tying up in 

 the spring. The renewals are left on the ground all winter, which is sufficient protec- 

 tion here, but, if it is necessary to protect them in colder regions, their prostrate position 

 facilitates the work. 



"In the spring, one draws the entire hill from under the other hills in the row. and 

 holds them to a stake, while a boy ties them tightly; this can be done as rapidly as 

 tying red raspberries. I think my patch was the first managed on this plan. We 

 have tried the winrow system but like staking the plants better." 



A grower in western New York has a small mixed plantation of Lucretia and Mam- 

 moth which has given him good results. The plants are grown in a shady and pro- 

 tected spot. Some of the plants were trained over a woven wire trellis, but they were 

 killed back, while those lying upon the ground without protection were not injured. 



W. J. Green in Proceedings of the Columbus Horticultural society, 1886, writes: 

 "They are of good size and good quality, and I shall set out enough of them in the 

 spring to supply my family, as they can be protected so easily if necessary and come so 

 early. I had them ripe this year before the late strawberries were gone." Mr. Green 

 in report of the Ohio experiment station for 1886 (p. 192): "Lucretia dewberry sus- 

 tains its reputation, here and elsewhere, so far as heard from. It is earlier than any 

 blackberry, while the fruit is very large and the plants hardy and productive. The 

 fruit is of good quality when fully ripe, but only moderately good at the time when it 

 should be picked for market. It is a desirable acquisition for this latitude." Mr. Green 

 in Report for 1887 (p. 257): "The Lucretia dewberry, although not of high quality, is 

 valuable because of hardiness, productiveness, earliness, and large showy fruit." Mr. 

 Green in Bulletin 5, Ohio experiment station, 1888 (also in Report for 1888, p. 115): 

 " This uniformly gives a crop of fine large berries, which ripen with Early Harvest or a 

 few days later [earlier]. The berries are difficult to pick and of rather poor quality 

 except when fully ripe and at this stage are too soft for shipment. The above defects 

 detract from its value, but it can still hold a place alongside our best blackberries. It 

 can have but little value in sections where the best varieties of blackberry are hardy, 

 but it is surely deserving of a place on our lists in this latitude." 



John Craig in Report of Central Experiment Farm, Ottawa, Canada, 1890 (p 82): 

 " The Lucretia dewberry, a trailing form of the blackberry, has not been productive on 

 light soil, nor has it sustained its reputation for hardiness. From present experience it 

 can not be recommended for other than garden culture." 



C. H. Hamilton, Ripon, Wisconsin, before farmers' institute: " I have tried a few 

 hundred plants (of dewberries]. The Lucretia did extremely well, and bore a very good 

 crop of fine berries." 



The following discussion took place before the Eastern Iowa Horticultural society at 

 Grinnell, Iowa, December 1 and 2, 1886, upon the occasion of the reading of a paper 

 upon the blackberry and dewberry by J. K. Bloom. 



Mr. Fluke—" The Lucretia is ah excellent berry. I think it an acquisition. It is 

 hardy and a great bearer. The berries are very large." 



