104 Bush-Fruits 



readily to home canning and is largely used in this way. 

 It also affords excellent jams and jellies. 



In the commercial canning industry, the blackberry 

 now holds a much more important place than formerly. 

 According to Darrow l the introduction of the lacquered- 

 tin can has had much to do with the increased use of this 

 fruit among canners. Ordinary tin is said to discolor the 

 fruit when it comes in contact with it. Canners are able 

 to use large quantities of wild and other low-grade fruit, 

 which might otherwise go to waste. 



Dried blackberries are nearly always quoted in market, 

 yet, so far as known, are not grown for that purpose, the 

 supply coming almost wholly from the South, where the 

 wild berries are gathered and are dried in the sun. They 

 are usually poor in quality, and quoted at a price which 

 would render it unprofitable to dry them if there were a 

 market for fresh fruit. In order to learn something of 

 their adaptability for this purpose, eight well-filled quart 

 baskets just as we were selling them fresh, were taken 

 for experiment. They were made to correspond in weight, 

 so that each quart, with the basket, weighed one and one- 

 half pounds. Deducting the weight of the baskets left 

 five pounds ten and one-half ounces of fruit in each of 

 two lots of four quarts. Granulated sugar was freely 

 sprinkled over one lot. Four ounces of sugar was thus 

 used, one ounce to each quart, making the weight of this 

 lot plus the sugar, five pounds fourteen and one-half 

 ounces. Both lots were put in the greenhouse to dry 

 August 3, on wire screens, and covered with mosquito 

 netting to keep away the flies. After one or two days of 

 1 Farmers' Bulletin, No. 643. 



