282 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



of horticulture are so transient, and the records and 

 histories are so few and so inaccurate, that many of 

 the milestones are lost forever; but this generation 

 should do something to rescue and to hold the passing 

 events upon which so much of the knowledge and 

 experience of the future must rest. 



The next event in the domestication of the native 

 black -cap was the introduction of a variety found 

 growing wild by Leauder Joslyn, of Phelps, Ontario 

 county, N. Y., and introduced by H. H. Doolittle, 

 of Oaks Corners, in the same county, about 1850. 

 This was variously known as American Black, Joslyn's 

 Black-cap, Joslyn's Improved, American Improved, 

 and Doolittle. Under the last name, the variety was 

 widely disseminated, and was cultivated until ten or 

 fifteen years ago. Several other varieties followed 

 within the next few years, but raspberry culture grew 

 slowly, nevertheless. The American Pomological 

 Society, at its session in 1853, commended only five 

 varieties, and all of them were foreigners. The grow- 

 ing of small-fruits had not yet assumed great impor- 

 tance in this country. There were no facilities for 

 marketing such fruits in any quantity, people had not 

 learned to use them freely, and the farmers were 

 wedded to the old-time crops. It was not until after 

 1870 or 1875 that, under the stimulus of a general 

 awakening and new teaching in agricultural matters, 

 the cultivation of the bush -fruits began to attract wide- 

 spread attention. Meantime, however, the foundations 

 were all laying. Forehanded persons here and there 

 were learning how to grow and handle the new fruits. 

 Books and periodical articles, some of them in advance 

 of their time, were expounding the new ideas. Now 



