1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



97 



THE HIGH- BUSH BLACKBERRY. 



This is a spontaneous production of the Ne v Eng- 

 land States, and bids fair to become a valuable gar- 

 den fruit. Already great improvement has been made 

 upon it by high culture. The accompanying figure 

 and account of it from Hovey's Magazine, will be 

 interesting : * 



" The blackberry is likely to become one of the 

 most esteemed of the smaller fruits. Since the in- 

 troduction of the improved variety, about six or seven 

 years ago — of wliich we have heretofore given sev- 

 eral accounts, and whose cultivation has been so well 

 detailed in our last volume, by Capt. Lovett, of 

 Beverly, who has been one of the most successful 

 growers of the fruit — it has been very generally dis- 

 seminated ; and, the past year, many remarkably fine 

 specimens were exhibited before the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society. 



" The liberal premiums offered for this fruit, by the 

 Society, have had the good effect of producing very 

 general competition ; and so superior have boon some 

 of the specimens — so much larger than when first 

 exhibited, evidently showing what care and attention 

 will do f(!r this as well as other fruits — that the Soci- 



ety have deemed it advisable to offer a high prize for 

 a seedling, with the hope of still further improve- 

 ment ; for, although what few attempts have been 

 made in this way have not been attended with very 

 favorable results, there is still good reason to believe 

 that it will yield to the ameliorating influences of 

 cultivation, as well as the strawberry, the gooseberry, 

 or the raspberry. 



" Our engraving represents a single cluster of the 

 blackberry, of the ordinary size, under good cultiva- 

 tion. Several of the berries exhibited by Capt. Lov- 

 ett, C. E. Grant, and other amateurs, the past 

 season, measured one and a half inches in length. 



" We can commend the blackberry to all lovers of 

 fine fruit, as one which should in no case escape their 

 attention. A dozen vines, when well established, 

 will yield sufficient fruit for an ordinary family. For 

 its cultivation we would refer to the article of Capt. 

 Lovett, above mentioned ; merely remarking that 

 the berries should be allowed to get fulli/ in.-itnre 

 before they are gathered ; otherwise much of their 

 excellence is lost. They will drop from the stem, 

 upon the least touch, when they are quite ripe." 





t 



