304 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



But the flavor of the wild berry is usually quite as much 

 a compound of pleasant memories of youthful associa- 

 tions and stimulating adventures as it is of sweet- 

 ness and flavor ; and then, when one picks wild berries 

 he always selects the ripest and the best, and these 

 become the standard with which he compares the un- 

 timely fruits which he buys of the groceryman. I also 

 held tenaciously to the opinion that the tame berry is 

 inferior to the wild one until, a few years ago, I visited 

 the wild patch in which grew those incomparable ber- 

 ries of my boyhood. But I found the berries scant and 

 seedy, many of them inexcusably sour, and the briers 

 intolerable. I came back to my Agawams with relish, 

 and they are to this day my ideal of summer fruits. 



What a silent evolution the blackberry has under- 

 gone ! It is not yet fifty years since the first named 

 blackberry, the Dorchester, was introduced to general 

 notice, and ,in 1875 that the New Rochelle, or Lawton 

 was exhibited before the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society; and thereupon blackberry culture began to at- 

 tract wide attention in the country. The Lawton held 

 undisputed sway until it was superseded by the Kitta- 

 tinny some ten or fifteen years later. The Kittatinny, 

 in turn, gave way to the Snyder in about ten or fifteen 

 years, and this latter variety is now the leading com- 

 mercial blackberry. In the meantime, however, a host 

 of varieties had appeared, very many of them wildings 

 or chance bushes found in fence -rows, but so quietly 

 have they come in that no one has been sufficiently 

 attracted by them to enquire minutely into their 

 genesis or to attempt to classify them into botanical 

 groups. In spite of all the attention given to it, the 

 blackberry is still a neglected and unknown fruit ! 



