248 Sl/CC£SS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



four to six weeks, if moisture is maintained. Both of these 

 varieties are derived from the Rubus villosus species. 



In contrast is the next-best known sort, Wilson's Early, 

 — having many of the characteristics of the Dewberry, or 

 running blackberry, and, therefore, representing the second 

 species described, R. Canadensis. Whether it is merely a 

 sport from this species, or a hybrid between it and the first- 

 named or high blackberry, cannot be accurately known, I 

 imagine ; for it also was found growing wild by Mr. John 

 W^ilson, of Burlington, N. J. Under high culture, and with 

 increasing age, the plants become quite erect and stocky 

 growers, but the ends of the cane are drooping. Fre- 

 quendy, they trail along the ground, and root at the tips, 

 like the common Dewberry ; and they rarely grow so stocky 

 but that they can be bent over covered with earth or litter, 

 as is the case with the tender raspberries. It is well that 

 this is possible, for it has so little power of resisting frost that 

 a winter of ordinary severity kills the canes in the latitude 

 of New York. I have always covered mine, and thus se- 

 cured, at slight expense, a sure and abundant crop. The 

 fruit is earlier than the Kittatinny, and tends to ripen alto- 

 gether in about ten days. These advantages, with its large 

 size and firmness, make it a valuable market berry in New 

 Jersey, where hundreds of acres of it have been planted, 

 and where it is still very popular. Throughout the North 

 and West, it has been found too tender for cultivation, un- 

 less protected. In flavor, it is inferior to the Kittatinny 

 or Snyder. 



For many years, the great desideratum has been a per- 

 fectly hardy blackberry, and this want has at last been met 

 in part by the Snyder, a Western variety that seems able to 

 endure, without the slightest injury, the extremes of tem- 

 perature common in the Northwestern States. From Ne- 



