THE ^^ 



Cmm HoRTicuJjuRisT 



/I\ /IS 





THE KITTATINNY BLACKBERRY. 



I OON after its first introduction the 

 writer had a plantation of Kittatin- 

 ny blackberries at Grimsby, Ontario. 

 .^^v The old Lawton had been the com- 

 mercial variety there for many years, the 

 first plantation of that variety having- 

 been made away back in the sixties by 

 Mr. Chas. Woolverton, but it quickly 

 gave place to this new introduction. How 

 little we knew about blackberry cultivation 

 in those days, when, instead of pruning- the 

 top into reasonable form, we tried a trellis to 

 keep up the branches, and nevertheless the 

 projecting limbs caused sore punishment to 

 man and horse when working among them. 

 The Lawton was a pretty good market 

 berry, but though it turned black enough 

 to sell on the market, its hard core never 

 seemed to be ripe enough for eating. 



It was indeed an agreeable change to 

 grow the Kittatinny with its large shiny 

 black berries, ripe through and through, 

 and most excellent, either for eating fresh, 

 or with cream and sugar at table, or in pies. 

 It was early in the eighties when we first 

 began shipping this variety into Toronto, 

 where it was handled for us by Mrs. Bilton 

 who kept a high-class fruit and game store 



and who sometimes sold it as high as 23 

 cents a quart. Those were the palmy days 

 of fruit growing, when grapes brought 8 to 

 10 cents a pound, and currants about the 

 same, and yet no one of us seemed to think 

 it worth while to extend our plantations. 

 Now the blackberry brings only from 6 to 

 ID cents a quart, and we are planting by 

 the acre. 



When the peach fails the blackberry is in 

 great demand, for it is of the same season, 

 and the thrifty fruit grower will try to be 

 prepared for such an emergency. It is use- 

 less, however, to plant Kittatinny plants too 

 freely outside the peach belt, for it is not 

 very hardy. Better success will be had 

 with the Synder, which is very hardy, 

 enduring even the climate of Algoma, and 

 producing wonderful crops in the Muskoka 

 district, although it is neither so large, nor 

 so beautiful as the Kittatinny. 



The orange rust is a serious disease 

 affecting the latter while, strange to say, we 

 have never yet seen it upon other varieties 

 of blackberries, no doubt because their 

 foliage is more vigorous and more resistant 

 to attack. This rust (coeoma nitens) is 

 exceedingly difficult to destroy because it 



