WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 233 



The blackberry is the most neglected and will endure more neglect 

 than any berry I know of. For profit, considering the amount of 

 work required, it leads all berries. ]S"o berry is more delicious when 

 properly ripened than the blackberry; none more valuable for medical 

 wine, and it has no equal for health during its season, which is over 60 

 days. Pick blackberries for market when you see the birds sample 

 them, and for wine and family use wait until you see the bees gather 

 the honey. 



The blackberry can be grown with little care, and may be called 

 the berry for the lazy man, whom we have in every locality. I well 

 remember gathering wild blackberries forty-six and more years ago 

 among logs and brush. But nature has seen fit to lessen, year after 

 year, the berry of the forest, and it soon will be of the past. Two 

 seasons ago I put pickers at work in a patch of wild berries where all 

 other brush had been cut to give room. I promised to pay double 

 price, but soon the pickers gave up the job because theie was no money 

 in picking little wild berries at two cents a quart. Also there was no 

 money for me in paying double for picking, and only sell for half as 

 much as the tame berries in the market, while the boxes, shipping and 

 marketing were just the same. I hear it often said, cultivate and prune 

 the wild blackberry and they will grow as large as the cultivated varie- 

 ties ; but such is not the case. I will say to those who think so that if 

 they will come to my place at ripening time and see a few wild bushes 

 that came up voluntarily, and compare these with tame varieties, they 

 will notice quite a difference. I believe all the culture and pruning- 

 would not make the wild blackberry yield forty bushels per acre ; while 

 hardy tame varieties yield sixty to 110 bushels per acre. My black- 

 berries the two past seasons yielded ninety to one hundred and ten 

 bushels per acre ; they were cultivated twice and harrowed three times. 

 My corn along side of blackberries was plowed three times and harrowed 

 twice, and yielded twenty bushels the year before last, and thirty-five 

 this season per acre. 



As it takes 16 to 24 months for blackberries to come into bearing, 

 and as the cost of plants etc. is considerable, some people hesitate to 

 plant, and ask, will it pay ? Let us figure and see. About 3,000 plants 

 are required for an acre of ground, at $4 per thousand, costing $12 > 

 plowing and marking the rows, $3; planting, $2j rent for one-half acre 

 (as the first year half the ground can be planted in potatoes or other 

 crops), $1; of cultivating one-half acre, $5; pruning, $1.50; total of first 

 year's expense $23. For the second year : for interest, $2.50 ; rent, 

 $2; culture, pruning, $3; total, $32.30. The second year they bear 

 about 20 bushels per acre, making 160 gallons, which sell for 25 cents. 



