408 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Best Varieties.— The Prairie Farmer sent out questions regarding 

 the best sorts of blackberries into the Northwestern States and thus sum- 

 marizes the replies : 



It will be seen that the Snyder is far ahead of all other varieties for mar- 

 ket and home use in the West. Its hardiness renders it an especial favorite, 

 in that it can be grown where other varieties are killed by the winter. 

 Kittatinny is reported as liable to rust in many localities, though its excel- 

 lence for table will always render it a favorite where it can be grown. Tay- 

 lor or Taylor's Prolific, Stone's Hardy and ancient Briton are all excellent 

 for certain localities. 



The Lawton. — Samuel Miller tells this story about the Lawton: 



Soon after the Lawton came out, a man in Philadelphia bought fifty plants, 

 set them out in his garden, and when one year grown cut them down to the 

 ground, and left but one cane to the hill, and all suckers coming up around 

 were destroyed, pinched through the season, but gave each a strong stake, 

 and tied the canes to them. The result was that from these fifty plants he 

 gathered in one season twelve bushels of splendid berries, which he sold at 

 twenty-five cents per quart. 



The one who saw it, said they looked like little trees more than like black- 

 berries. An acre to produce like this at these prices, would have netted him 

 some thousands of dollars. The biggest thing I ever saw of a crop was a 

 Lawton cane that ran up in the branches of a low-headed peach tree, from 

 which I picked two quarts at one picking. 



And while on the subject, let me say that for family use, Lawton is not to 

 be despised, but it must be perfectly ripe, in which condition it will not 

 ship. 



The Dewuekry. — P. M. Augur says: 



I would not advise experimenting with the dewberry in a small fruit gar- 

 den. There is far less trouble with the high blackberry — as the Snyder, 

 Taylor, or Wachusett — than with the trailing dewberry. The varieties 

 named are far mor productive, and while the dewberry is a delicious fruit, 

 we can easily dispense with it and its trailing propensities. True, it is said 

 that it may be trained to a trellis and made ornamental. I believe in orna- 

 ment, but would far prefer to train the wisteria or the honeysuckle to 

 handling the dewberry. I would like to know the man who can afford to 

 raise them at three times the price of the high blackberry for market. The 

 area of the family fruit garden is too small to waste on unprofitable fruit. 

 Hence tender varieties and unproductive varieties should be excluded. The 

 Wilson, Kittatinny and Early Harvest blackberry kill in a winter like the 

 past one. I drop these and adopt Snyder. On the same principle I drop the 

 dewberry. 



The Wilson Blackberry. — -Wm. A. Brown of Benton Harbor remarks 

 that the malformation of the Wilson blackberry noticed recently about Ben- 

 ton Harbor is generally all over the country, and will seriously diminish the 

 quality and quantity of the crop. While many believe that the deformity is 

 caused by frost and cold winds during the season of bloom, an examination 



