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AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



THE BLACKBERRY. 

 NEW ROCHELLE. 



The culture of blackberries as a garden fruit is of quite re- 

 cent origin, dating from the discovery made a few years since, 

 in the neighborhood of New Rochelle, Westchester county, of 

 a fine-fruited wild variety, which, on being cultivated, was 

 found to yield heavy crops of large and well-flavored fruit. , 

 This variety, known as the " New Rochelle blackberry," is 

 the only kind at present in extended cultivation, but probably 



will not long remain alone. 

 It is a strong, upright 

 grower, and when planted, 

 as it should always be, in 

 very rich soil, it spreads 

 with great rapidity, and 

 its suckers, if not wanted 

 for plants, should be care- 

 fully and persistently de- 

 stroyed as they appear. 

 It requires treatment pre- 

 cisely similar to the com- 

 mon raspberry (which see), 

 the frame with the sliding 

 bar being peculiarly de- 

 sirable, on account of its 

 very heavy young growth. 

 Thorough ripening is essential to the perfection of the fruit, and 

 in this respect cultivators are liable to be deceived by the depth 

 of color which the berry attains before it is fit to gather. 



A variety called the " White Blackberry" is occasionally met 

 with in gardens. Its color is really a dirty chocolate, and in 

 respect to flavor and fruiting it is worthless. 



Among our wild fruits which have as yet scarcely begun to 

 be regarded as subjects for cultivation, there are some that will 

 probably soon follow the blackberry into the ranks of cultivated 

 small fruits, as the Buffalo-berry of the southwest, Shepardia 

 argentea, and the black and blue Huckleberries or Whortleber- 



