Fruit Growing in Kansas. 357 



ers in years to come may be benefited thereby. I have been in the habit 

 of scattering small fruit seeds in vacant places ; why cannot eveiy young 

 man do the same ? I have a raspberry, w^hether a seedling or volunteer, 

 I vv^ill not say, that whep tested this year by over thirty persons, with 

 the Doolittle, which it so much resembles, that they could not tell the 

 seedling from it, and without knowing one from the other, a decided 

 preference was given to the seedling ; even children pronounced it more 

 juicy, sweet, and spicy than Doolittle. Although it might be value- 

 less in other places than here., I shall plant it for market and family 

 use. Why cannot some beginners devote a little time and some ground 

 to seedlings, and if they pi'ove of no value except at home, still some- 

 thing has been attained .'' It may be that you will not make a fortune, 

 but you will eat better fruit, origmated by yourself, than you can obtain 

 from any of the cultivated varieties. But never distribute a fruit under 

 a name, simply because it will do well on your own grounds. There 

 are too many, I fear, that are trjdng to obtain seedlings to push off on 

 the world, and get rich thereby in a few years, regardless of whether 

 they are adapted to the localities where the)'- may be sold, and by ped- 

 lers who know and care nothing about their quality. This I suppose 

 is not the case so much in the East, but the West is flooded with pedlers 

 wherever they can find purchasers, and they find plenty among the 

 honest but . . . class who do not take horticultural journals. 



This has not been here what can be called a good fruit year. The 

 strawberry crop was good ; the raspberry about one third. The bearing 

 canes of the blackberry have been cut oft" by rabbits, which are becom- 

 ing so numerous that they are very destructive. Apples, peaches, and 

 cherries, none, as the spring frosts destroyed them, as well as grapes, in 

 some places. 



I have not room to speak particularly of the diflei-ent varieties of 

 grapes, or the quality here, but there are many that do well, among 

 them I might mention Anna, Amanda, Baldwin's Lenoir, Catawba, 

 Cheowa, Cynthiana (not the Missouri), Concord, Creveling, Dever- 

 eux, Dracut Amber, Garrigues, Hartford Prolific, Labe, Mary Ann, 

 Norton's Virginia, Perkins, Saluda, Rachel, Taylor, Delaware, Re- 

 becca, Clinton, Massasoit, Wilder, Agawam, and many others. Some 

 of the new kinds promise well. I think the Eumelan will be a success. 

 Some of these have to be covered in winter. The Isabella has rotted 

 some ; the Diana has never given a diseased berry. I might say that 

 for the best success there must be different modes of cultivation. The 

 Huntingdon is an " oddity." It will give about eighteen bunches of 

 fruit to every foot of cane, nor have I yet given it any support, as it 



