406 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



seen successfully tried in a garden. TVo quarts per cane he has seen 

 repeatedly, and that is at the rate of 5,000 quarts per acre. 



Gathering Raspberry Prunings. — Wm. A. Brown, of Benton Harbor, 

 kindly gives us the plan by which he gathers up the old wood and primings 

 from his raspberry and blackberry fields. He says: I use a rake for remov- 

 ing canes, made by boring seven holes through a 5-foot 4x4 scantling, into 

 which are driven teeth 18 inches long, made of f-inch iron. Insert two 

 poles at right angles with the teeth for shafts, also a hickory bow for 

 handling the rake. Attach the horse, and a 10-acre field can be raked into 

 small, compact bundles in three hours. Place the canes while cutting in 

 the space between alternate rows. Remove from the field on a double wagon 

 with hay-rack, driving astride a row between the bundles. Haul to a field 

 which needs the ashes and burn. Black raspberry canes are cruel, but can 

 be gathered with this rake by a patient man. Blackberry canes .are too 

 aggressive for this implement, and must be gathered with a long-handled 

 pitch-fork. 



BLACKBERRIES. 



Improvements in the Blackberry. — From an exhaustive article by 

 Judge Parry on the above topic, we gather a few hints for the portfolio : 



In 1860, we planted seeds of the New Rochelle, at that time the largest 

 and most attractive blackberry known, but no attention was paid to crossing 

 the blossom with another variety, and there was no improvement in the 

 young seedlings, which bore well of large, handsome fruit, very acid, and 

 late in ripening. We never disposed of a plant of them, but destroyed them 

 all, as they were not of much value compared with the clebrated Wilson's 

 Early, which was larger, more productive, and more than a week earlier, 

 and worth two or three times as much per acre as any other blackberry 

 then known; and in 1865 we planted 20,000 Wilson's Early for the market. 

 They did well, yielded abundantly, and sold readily at wholesale by the 

 wagon load, at fifty cents per quart, and were sold at retail from the fruit 

 stands at $1 per quart. The plants sold at $1,500 per 1,000 at wholesale, 

 and retailed at from $2 to $3 each, and some more. 



One of our neighbors, who planted seventy-five acres of Wilson's Early 

 blackberries, reported his sales of fruit for several years about 1869 to '72 

 at $20,000 to $22,000 per annum. The Wilson's Early was the most val- 

 uable blackberry ever grown here ; yielded more bushels of fruit and 

 brought more dollars than any other blackberry ever sent to Philadelphia 

 or New York since we have been in the business. In 1870, we selected a 

 healthy young Dorchester and planted in same hill with a strong, healthy 

 AVilson's Early for breeders, located far away from any other blackberries ; 

 they have done well together, being a mutual help to each other, and we 

 have raised many valuable seedlings from them. They were both early; the 

 Wilson produced the largest berries, the Dorchester hael the best canes, 

 strong, upright growers, healthy and vigorous, free from rust, fungus, and 

 other maladies so very destructive among some blackberries. We have never 



