PREFACE 



The Small Fruits of New York is the seventh of the monographs on 

 fruits pubUshed by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 The object and scope of this treatise on small fruits do not differ from those 

 of its six predecessors on tree fruits. The treatment of the subject is 

 necessarily different, however, for it has required a volume each to give 

 an account of the tree fruits, whereas one volume suffices for the six quite 

 distinct small fruits. The most noticeable difference in treatment is that 

 cultural accounts are not given of any of these small fruits, whereas the 

 present culture of each of the tree fruits was discussed in the several books 

 devoted to them. To give space to tell how each of the small fruits are 

 grown would have made the volume too large, valuable though such matter 

 might be both from practical and historical viewpoints. 



The botanical treatment of the small fruits is fuller than was possible 

 ■with the tree fruits. The authors of the books on tree fruits were all 

 primarily pomologists with little training in systematic botany. The botany 

 of the several fruits as given in the earlier books, especially of the grape 

 and the plum, presented problems that were not satisfactorily solved. The 

 botany of the small fruits is difficult at best, and none of the workers in 

 pomology at this Station are fitted to make contributions worth publishing. 

 The services of a specialist in systematic botany were therefore sought, and 

 the Station was fortunate in obtaining Alwin Berger, a German student 

 of Rubus, to undertake the difficult task of straightening out the botany of 

 cvdtivated strawberries, bramble, and bush fruits. Even so, only a pre- 

 liminary report on Rubus is published, since neither time nor material 

 sufficed to complete the study of this most difficult genus. 



The fruits to be discussed are the raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, 

 currant, gooseberry, and strawberry. The cranberry is important enough 

 for a place in the book, but this fruit cannot be grown on the grounds of 

 this Station, or in the near neighborhood, so that there is small opportunity 

 for its study. Nor, for the same reason, can there be a discussion of the 

 blueberry, which is now coming into culture with promise of commercial 

 importance in the near future. It is regretable that these fruits cannot be 

 included at a time when the culture of the one is but well started and that 

 of the other just beginning. 



