68 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



if you will kill the spores, kill the micelium in the old plants, and they 

 will gradually disappear. What micelium is in the youn^ sprouts now 

 will be taken away when you trim after harvest; then if you keep the 

 spores away, the micelium will gradually disappear. 



THE KITTATIKNY BLACKBERRY. 



The paper assigned to me by our worthy Secretary for this meet- 

 ing will enable me to answer letters of inquiries asking what is the 

 largest and has the longest period of ripening. 



The Kittatinny blackberry is the largest, has the longest period of 

 ripening that I know of, and there is no better market berry. It is 

 very productive, but I would not advise planting a large acreage in 

 soil where blackberries are subject to rust, as the Kittatinny is subject 

 to rust as much, or more, than any other variety in cultivation. 



In answer to the question : Will it pay to plant wild blackberries f 

 Yes and no. It pays to set wild blackberries rather than to do without 

 them ; but it pays much better to plant the cultivated varieties. I have 

 dug up the largest wild ones that I could find ; selected them at time 

 of ripening, marked them to be dug up for planting, but failed to find 

 them, when cultivated, up to our best tame varieties. One little patch 

 in which we dug the plants from the woods eighteen years ago, were 

 cultivated about four years. When we found them in the forest the 

 canes were as large as the largest Kittatinny, and berries in size between 

 Snyder and Kittatinny. I thought that we had found a berry to take 

 the place of the Kittatinny, as it was said wild blackberries were free 

 from rust. 



True, they have shown no sign of rust, have borne sixteen crops^ 

 berries the size of Snyder, but not as productive ; and others proved 

 about the same. The same, I find, holds good with raspberries. When 

 we find these big berries we generally find them growing in rich fence 

 corners or where old apple-tree tops, leaves and wood have rotted for 

 years and made the ground rich with natural fertilizers, and a new coat 

 of leaves added every year to hold the moisture in the ground. This 

 is one reason so many fruit-growers get deceived when they see these 

 blackberries grow wild. They don't think of the favorable spots where 

 they grow. They dig them up, set them out, pot-feed them like a fifty- 

 dollar pig or calf, and get deceived themselves, and unintentionally 

 deceive those they sell these new berry plants to. I will close by say- 

 ing : Plant the Kittatinny blackberries, care for them, and you will 

 have large fine berries. Jacob Faith. 



