388 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Osborn — "Mr. Frost has been testing the dewberry. Everyone ought to have 

 some in his garden." 



Mr. Willard — "The question with me is, whether it should be allowed to run on the 

 ground. I do not believe the berries can be marketable." 



Mr. Williams — "I think the dewberry is rather easy to care for, but the berries are 

 rather soft." 



Professor Budd — " I think the Lucretia is is a success here, more especially if we 

 protect it a little. The dewberry is a native of the northwestern states. There is a 

 dewberry picked up at Sparta, Wisconsin, a really superb berry. It seems hardy and 

 very desirable. There is another brought out in that section which is very much better 

 than the Lucretia. We must look to our own timber lands for a really successful Iowa 

 berry, and I move that we give encouragement to our native blackberry and dewberry." 



A. E. Gipson, Colorado: "The dewberry or running blackberry, is succeeding 

 admirably in certain localities and some kinds of this popular fruit are likely to be 

 found adapted to general culture in the west. It is well worth extended trial." 



Experiences from Florida — W. C. Steele: "I have never found any native variety 

 worth cultivation, but I have grown Lucretia in perfection. It produces the largest 

 berry I have ever seen. On moist lands in Florida it is a success." Discussion before 

 Florida Horticultural society: Mr. Wright — "I have never been able to get any fruit 

 from the Lucretia in Florida. I have never seen even any blossoms on it here. Mr. 

 Bacon— I think if you will pile up some timber that you want to decay and plant the 

 dewberries around it, you will get all the fruit you want. I have about an acre of them 

 fixed in this way, and I never before saw such a mass of berries. The ground was so 

 black that you could scarcely see any green. There was probably ashes in the ground, 

 for when the timber was cut everything was burned that would burn. I have also seen 

 them grow on high ground where there was plenty of rotten wood. Mr. Mott — The 

 ones I ate in Louisiana were twice as large as any blackberries I ever saw, and better 

 than any I ever ate. I believe it is worthy of extensive culture here." 



The following are extracts from letters: 



E. S. Carman, New Jersey, editor Rural New-Yorker: "It is desperately thorny 

 and it is more trouble to gather the berries than they are worth. Quality fair. Fruit 

 soft, large. What is the use of it if we can raise blackberries?" 



Matthew Crawford, Ohio: "When the Lucretia was introduced, I purchased 

 some plants and fruited them. The fruit was good, but the manner of growth is so 

 objectionable that I rooted them out. I soon discovered that a small piece of root a 

 foot under the surface would send up a sprout like a thistle." 



M. J. Graham, Adel, Iowa: "I have a dewberry plantation of about 1,000 hills com- 

 prised mainly of Bartel and Lucretia, with a few Windom. They are planted between 

 the rows of trees in a young cherry orchard. Tree rows are 20 feet apart — one row of 

 dewberries in the center of space — plants four feet apart in the row. It is my intention 

 to drive stakes (to stand about three feet out of the ground) in the rows, placing the 

 stakes half way between the hills, and then tie the vines up to the stakes at an angle 

 of about 45 degrees. This will keep the fruit clean, and get it up where one can more 

 readily gather it. By thus tying the bearing vines at an angle, the young vines will 

 have more light and room than if old vines are tied straight up to stakes. Would trim 

 fruiting vines back to within one foot of stakes after tying up. In this latitude I think 

 it will pay to cover the vines lightly during winter with coarse litter from stables, etc., 

 as there is some tendency to winter killing, and the rabbits are very destructive to the 

 vines. As the dewberry ripens just before the blackberry, and at a time when the 

 markets are comparatively bare of small fruits, there is little doubt but that it will sell 

 readily at good prices." 



J. D. Kruschke, central California: " I am well acquainted with the Lucretia, 

 and find that wherever it prospers it is a great yielder of very large and good berries. 

 It is growing here and produces wonderfully. Its trailing habit renders a mulch nec- 

 essary in a rainy climate to keep the berries clean. The mulch is not needed here. It 

 ripens with Wilson Jr. blackberry, or perhaps a little earlier." 



A. I. Root, Ohio: " I have had Lucretia for years, but rarely get a perfect berry. 

 It blossoms full and bears profusely, but the berries are invariably blasted and 

 imperfect." 



The Lucretia is the only dewberry which is admitted to the last (1889) fruit catalogue 

 of the American Pomological society. It is given one star — indicating that it is rec- 

 mended for cultivation — for Massachusetts, Ohio and Iowa, and two stars — denoting 

 " great superiority and value" — for Florida. In the Michigan fruit catalogue for 1888 

 it is rated 8 for dessert and 7 for market in a scale of 10, and it is said to be " the 

 largest, most productive and best" of the three varieties mentioned, the others being 

 the Bartel and Mammoth. 



