THE HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 491 



HUCKLEBERRIES 



The huckleberries belong to the Heath family, or Ericaceae, 

 which includes a great many delightful wild wood plants, such as 

 the wintergreen, the trailing arbutus, the heather, the mountain 

 laurel, and the rhododendrons. In spite of the beauty and 

 attractive graces displayed by so many of these plants, they belong 

 to a modest and retiring family. They seldom mingle among the 

 crowds of the open country, but withdraw to the quiet, shaded 

 nooks of moist woods and mossy swamps, or climb to bare and 

 rocky heights, where the solitude is even more impressive. So 

 marked is this inherent shyness that most members of the family 

 do not take kindly to cultivation. They pine for their woodland 

 glens or rocky crags, no matter how tender the care bestowed upon 

 them. Hence it happens that the huckleberries, though among 

 the finest of fruits, and among the most important in the wild 

 state, are almost unknown in cultivation. 



There are several causes which have prevented them from 

 receiving more attention. In the first place, the fruit grows wild 

 in abundance over large portions of the country. Added to this 

 has been the uncertainty of success in transplanting, which with 

 some species is considerable, and which is evidently supposed to 

 be much greater with all than it really is. But the greatest draw- 

 back has undoubtedly been the difficulty experienced in propagat- 

 ing. The spread of any plant in cultivation is largely dependent 

 upon the nurserymen, and one which they find it hard and expen- 

 sive to propagate is not likely to become widely cultivated. 



The wild berry fields are yearly growing less, and while many 

 mountainous tracts are doubtless worth more as huckleberry 

 patches than for any other purpose, unless it be to produce 

 forests, it is evident that on most of this land the huckleberry 

 must give place to something else as time goes on and civilization 

 and agriculture improve. But the huckleberry is too fine a fruit 

 to lose, and it is a source of gratification to note that there are 

 wide-awake and far-seeing men who are learning to grow it, who 

 are seeking to improve it by careful selection, and who are finding 

 out its merits as a garden plant. The future of this fruit ought 



