220 Reclaiming the Wilderness. 



The area in bearing next year will be considerable greater than it was 

 this year, and the cultivation will be better ; as, last year, so many runners 

 were allowed to mature, that the home-market was completely overstocked. 

 With a favorable season, we may confidently look for better fruit and a 

 better yield. I should have stated before that the yield this year was de- 

 creased somewhat by a sharp frost on the night of April 27, just after blos- 

 soming had commenced. One-twentieth of the crop was probably cut off 

 in this way, and possibly more, and that also the earliest and most valuable 

 part. 



The cultivation of the other small fruits is not yet so general as that of 

 the strawberry, but is now rapidly extending, as it is found, that, considering 

 the labor involved, raspberries and blackberries pay as well as strawberries, 

 if not better. The Philadelphia Raspberry is especially becoming popular, 

 not so much from its quality as from the hardiness and productiveness of 

 the plant, and the ready market the fruit finds at good prices. A leading 

 fruit-grower of Burlington County claims to have raised two hundred and 

 twenty-one bushels to the acre, by extra cultivation and fertilizing of course. 

 The Lawton or New-Rochelle Blackberry is rather waning in popularity, 

 although, as yet, extensively grown. In spite of its merits, its faults are so 

 serious, that only positive information as to the imputed merits of certain 

 new candidates is needed to secure its general dismissal. The crop will 

 be very considerable, but not superior in quality, on account of an excess 

 of rain and cloudy weather since marketing began. 



As regards other fruits, grapes and pears take the lead. Of the former, 

 a very large area has been planted ; and the pi'oduction of young vines 

 during the present season for further planting, as well as for marketing 

 abroad, is literally immense. One grower advertises already eight hundred 

 thousand for the fall and spring trade ; another has over a hundred thou- 

 sand ; another, forty thousand ; while almost every " small-fisted " grape- 

 cultivator has from a hundred to several thousand vines in course of propa- 

 gation. Nearly all are from open-air cuttings, and of superior quality; the 

 moist and warm season having been unusually favorable. As to the quali- 

 ty of the fruit now maturing in the vineyards, it is too early to speak : the 

 quantity is as great as vineyards so young ought to produce. The variety 

 giving the most satisfactory results so far is the Concord, and it alone is 



