1 66 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



plants lacked vigor, but were productive ; fruit large, roundish oblate, black with consider- 

 able pubescence, firm, lacking juice, rich, pleasing ; midseason. 



Ironclad, i. Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 112. 1887-88. 



Originated about 1885 by a Mr. Wilson, Forest, Ohio, but had not been disseminated 

 in 1887. Very vigorous, healthy, productive; fruit good; earlier than Tyler. 



Johnson Sweet, i. Rural N. y. 46:122. 1887. 



Key's Prolific. 2. N. Y. Sta. Rpt. 256. 1886. 



In 1883 Robert Johnson, Shortsville, New York, received this variety from John B. 

 Hoag, Judsonia, Arkansas, where it had been growing in the garden of a Mr. Key for twenty 

 years. Johnson sent out plants for trial in 1886 under the name of Key's Prolific, but intro- 

 duced it in 1887 as Johnson Sweet. As grown at this Station, the fruit was sweet, but too 

 small to be of value. It was placed in the American Pomological Society's fruit catalog 

 in 1889 and removed in 1899. Plants above medium height, medium in vigor, upright, 

 not fully hardy, productive; canes numerous, medium in size, glaucous; prickles medium 

 in size and ntomber, strong; flowers small; fruit small, variable in size, roundish oblate; 

 druplets medium to few in number, medium size, of medium coherence; dull black, firm, 

 sweet to mildly sprightly; good; midseason. 



Kansas, i. Am. Card. 12:120. 1891. 2. U. S. D. A. Pom. Rpt. 394, PI. X. 1891. 

 3. N. Y. Sta. Bid. 278:129. 1906. 



Several serious faults have kept Kansas from becoming a standard commercial berry 

 in the black raspberry regions of the country. A fault that is all but fatal is that of winter 

 killing. In other characters the plants stand out conspicuously among their kind; thus 

 they are very resistant to rosette ; exceedingly productive ; and well adapted to many soils. 

 The fruits have many faults and a few merits: The berries are often imperfect and exceed- 

 ingly variable in size and shape ; and they crumble under unfavorable conditions. To offset 

 these defects of the fruit, the berries, when well grown, are large, sweet and of the very 

 best quality. The variety finds favor and is largely grown in many localities because of 

 its great productiveness. The original plant of this variety sprang up as a chance seedling 

 on the farm of A. H. Griesa, Lawrence, Kansas, in 1884. The variety was not generally 

 introduced until about 1891. The American Pomological Society added Kansas to its 

 catalog list ot fruits in 1897. 



Plants medium in size and vigor, upright-spreading, somewhat tender to cold, very 

 productive, not always healthy, very resistant to rosette, susceptible to anthracnose, 

 contract the streak disease slowly; canes numerous, stocky, green becoming brownish 

 red, with very heavy bloom; prickles large, thick, strong, nvmierous, greenish; leaflets 

 usually 3, broad-ovate to broad-oval, variable in size, dark green, dull, rugose, with dentate 

 margins; petiole short, slender, prickly, glabrous, slightly glaucous. Flowers midseason; 

 pedicels prickly, somewhat pubescent; calyx smooth. Fruit early midseason, or earlier; 

 medium to rarely large, broadly hemispherical, variable in size and shape, often with many 

 imperfect or malformed berries, glossy black or with more or less bloom, adheres well to 

 the torus which is roughish and roimded; drupelets rather small, round, usimlly cohering 

 strongly, although this varies on some soils; flesh not very juicy, firm, subacid or sweet to 

 mildly sprightly; good in quality. 



