302 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



continued to increase the quantity until we got more 

 than fifty acres." He mentions no varieties, however, 

 and it is probable that his plantations had not reached 

 great size before 1860. It is likely that he began 

 with the wild berry. The New Rochelle (or Lawton) 

 and the Dorchester appear to have been the first 

 named sorts introduced to cultivation. The Dor- 

 chester was first brought to notice in 1841, before 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



" The first thing we find to notice in the exhibitions 

 of 1841," runs the account in the history of the Society, 

 "is the high -bush blackberry cultivated by Eliphalet 

 Thayer in his garden, where it attracted much attention 

 from its large and beautiful appearance." It was about 

 1850 that the variety was introduced into cultivation 

 under a name. In 1857 "the Lawton blackberry was 

 exhibited and carefully tested in comparison with the 

 Dorchester (as the improved high -bush was now 

 called), the opinion being- unanimously in favor of the 

 latter." This berry, which surpassed all others in 

 popularity until 1870, was found in the town of 

 New Rochelle, New York, by Lewis A. Seacor. The 

 Holcomb, brought to public notice in 1855 by E. 

 A. Holcomb, Granby, Connecticut, was also one of the 

 famous old berries. Wilson's Early, of which I shall 

 speak later, was known as early as 1854. It may be 

 said that the blackberry began to attract attention as 

 a cultivated fruit between 1850 and 1860. Fuller 

 enumerates eighteen varieties of fruit -bearing black- 

 berries in his "Small Fruit Culturist," in 1867. 



The blackberry is now extensively grown in the 

 northern states, some farmers cultivating as high as 

 forty and fifty acres, and the fruit is much esteemed, 



