132 



VARIATION 



(2) a smaller variety growing in sunny, open places and bearing 

 small, round, loose-grained fruits, ripening late and exceedingly 

 sour. This type is represented in cultivation by Lawton, 

 Kittatinny, Snyder, Agawam, Erie, and others. Neither of these 

 yielded readily to cultivation and restraint, and this fact served 

 in an early day to earn an evil reputation for what Professor 

 Card calls this " gypsy of the fruits." Nevertheless, they yielded 

 to persistent efforts, and have given rise, as Bailey puts it, " to a 

 host of varieties . . . very many of them wildings, or chance 

 bushes found in fence rows." 



The first-named variety was the Dorchester, introduced about 

 1841. Its exact origin is unknown, though its originator (prob- 

 ably Captain Lovett) is known to have transplanted wild plants 

 for many successive years. Whether this first civilized gypsy 

 was a sport or simply a strain improved by selection is not now 

 capable of proof, and yet its constancy is good presumptive 

 evidence. 



Wilson's Early was known in 1854, the Holcomb in 1855, and 

 in 1857 the Lawton (first called New Rochelle) was introduced, 

 being at once declared superior to the Dorchester. Of these the 

 Wilson was "discovered in the wild about 1854 by John Wilson 

 of Burlington, New Jersey"; and the Lawton, formerly New 

 Rochelle, " was found in the town of New Rochelle, New York, 

 by Lewis A. Secor." These two strains have given rise to 

 numerous distinct modern varieties. The "loose-cluster" strains 

 are regarded by horticulturists as the descendants of the Wilson. 

 The origin of certain other varieties seems to be as follows : 



In 1870 Mr. William Parry, of New Jersey, "selected a 

 healthy young Dorchester and planted it in the same hill with a 

 strong, healthy Wilson's Early (for breeders), located far away 

 from any other blackberries." 1 In 1875 the seed from some of 

 the largest berries growing on the Wilson were planted. One 

 plant only was regarded as valuable, and all others were destroyed. 

 This new strain was named Wilson Junior. The fruit' was " large, 

 early, and very fine," and so prolific that in 1884 "one acre 

 yielded 1 10^- bushels of fruit, by the side of five acres of Wilson's 

 Early in the same field, with the same culture, which averaged 



1 Bailey, Evolution of our Cultivated Fruits, p. 316. 



