THE WINDOM DEWBERRY 343 



covered and is cultivating a hardy dewberry, which, if 

 it comes near up to what he claims for it, will prove of 

 great value to our lists of hardy fruits. It has been 

 cultivated here thirteen years. We have many testi- 

 monials showing its hardiness, productiveness, fair size, 

 and good quality of fruit, etc., and have secured plants 

 and had them sent to several of our experiment stations 

 to be tested and reported upon." A. W. Sias, one of 

 the Commission, writes me as follows: "In the fall of 

 1887, J. S. Harris, Rev. G. W. Fuller and myself were 

 on the Seedling Commission of the Minnesota State Hor- 

 ticultural Society, and while acting in this capacity Mr. 

 Harris and myself visited Dewain Cook, at Windom, and 

 were greatly pleased with the dewberry. His plants were 

 very heavily loaded with good fruit. The fruit is small 

 perhaps not more than half the size of Lucretia but 

 what it lacks in size it more than makes up in quality. 

 I purchased 1,000 plants of Mr. Cook while at his place, 

 and set them on a very heavy clay. While they suc- 

 ceeded much better than the Mammoth and Lucretia 

 near by, they did not equal Mr. Cook's plants, which 

 were on soil containing some sand." The variety 

 appears to have been sent out as early as 1886, at least 

 to experiment stations. It was first known as Cook's 

 Hardy. The exact origin of this dewberry is not known. 

 Mr. Cook informs me that he obtained his plants from 

 a neighbor, J. Q. Pickett, who had been growing them 

 for seventeen or eighteen years, but who refuses to dis- 

 close the origin of the variety. Mr. Pickett came from 

 Iowa, and it is commonly thought that he brought the 

 dewberry with him and that it grew wild in that state. 

 Mr. Cook resides near the Mennonites, and some have 

 supposed that the variety was originally introduced by 



