204 '^HE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER VI 



VARIETIES OF BLACKBERRIES 



Acme. I. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1909. 



The 1909 catalog of the American Pomological Society lists this sort and recommends 

 it for culture in northern New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. 



Agawam. i. Am. Hort. Ann. 85. 1871. 2. A^. V. Sta. Bid. 63:665. 1893. 3- I^id,. 

 278:138. 1906. 4. Ont. Dept. Agr. Fr. Ont. 254, fig. 1914. 5. Card Bush-Fr. 

 215. 1917. 



Long a favorite early blackberry, Agawam is still widely grown but is now no longer 

 rated as a standard commercial sort. Its most notable good qualities are productiveness 

 of plant, high quality and earliness of fruit. The berries, while not of largest size, are 

 large, very attractive in appearance, ship and keep well. The plants suffer somewhat from 

 winter killing, but still are as hardy as the average blackberry. They resist drouth well, 

 have comparatively few and small thorns, and produce their fruit over a long season. 

 Unfortunately the berries are too variable in size and color, and require so many pickings 

 that the variety is not now set in a commercial plantation. The plants have peculiarities 

 of continuing to bloom after the first fruits are ripe and of having the leaves heavily tinged 

 with red late in the season. Agawam was found growing in a pasture between 1865 and 

 1870 by John Perkins, Ipswich, Massachusetts. In 1889 the American Pomological Society 

 added the variety to its fruit catalog list. 



Plants above medium in size and vigor, upright-spreading, fairly hardy, very produc- 

 tive, healthy; canes numerous, stocky, angular, glossy green changing to dark reddish 

 brown, slightly pubescent; prickles comparatively small, medium in thickness, strength 

 and number, greenish; leaflets 3-5, roundish oval, light green, heavily tinged red late in 

 the fall, dull, rugose, pubescent, with serrate margins; petiole medium in length and thick- 

 ness, with few prickles. Flowers very early, blooming period long; petals white, oblong; 

 clusters short, medium in compactness, leafy; pedicels long, slender, glandular; calyx 

 slightly tomentose. Fruit early, season very long, ships well ; medium in size, broad-oblong, 

 glossy, attractive black; drupelets large, rounded, with strong coherence; core soft; flesh 

 rather soft, sweet and pleasant; quality very good. 



Albion. I. Rural N. Y. 11: in. i860. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 443. 1869. 



A white sort found in the wild prior to i860 by John B. Orange, Albion, Illinois. 

 Although introduced as having productive plants and large fruit, Downing found the plants 

 unproductive, the fruit only fair in size, imperfect and without flavor. 



Albro. I. Farmer Cat. 14. 1922. 



A variety of unkown parentage which originated in 19 17 with Lewis Albro, Marathon, 

 New York, by whom it was introduced in 1922. Described as having very hardy plants; 

 fruit larger than Snyder, and of the same shape; flavor excellent. 



Alfred, i. Emlong Cat. 11. 1925. 



Offered for sale in 1925 by Henry Emlong & Sons, Stevensville, Michigan. Plants 

 very productive and very hardy; fruit large, sweet, fine flavored, coreless, a week earlier 



