208 Bush-Fruits 



charge them with undue conservatism, yet it can hardly be doubted 

 that men who would brave the uncertainties, not to say terrors, of 

 an ocean voyage on an almost unknown sea, and the settlement of 

 a new country peopled with savages of unknown traits and ten- 

 dencies, rather than surrender ideas which they cherished, would 

 not be quick to form new ones. Hence we can readily conclude 

 that the blackberry of America was to them much what the black- 

 berry of England had been simply a wild bramble, to be destroyed 

 when possible and replaced by something better, and whose fruit was 

 to be gathered at will. Moreover, to cultivate a fruit which was so 

 readily obtained in abundance for the gathering, would have been 

 folly to them, when many other things conducive to their safety 

 and comfort were so much more needed. As time went on, however, 

 this gratuitous feast of nature, provided for the fostering of ''infant 

 industries," began to diminish, and the demand of growing cities 

 for increased quantities of fruit doubtless led to the idea of cultivat- 

 ing the blackberry among the rest. Just when this state of affairs 

 was reached it is impossible to say, but evidently not until quite late 

 in our national development, for the blackberry does not seem to 

 have begun to receive much notice or to be talked about in the 

 horticultural journals until about 1850. From " Hovey's Magazine 

 of Horticulture," it appears that Capt. Josiah Lovett, of Beverly, 

 Mass., figured prominently in introducing it to cultivation. Even 

 then, as with many other good and useful things, first impressions 

 were unfavorable. Of course, the first effort would naturally be to 

 bring plants, which bore the most promising fruit, from the woods and 

 clearings and set them in the garden. This attempt to tame the wild 

 protege of the forest did not often prove satisfactory. These plants 

 evidently did not take kindly to the refinements of civilization, and 

 longed for their free and easy life of the wood. Capt. Lovett reports 

 repeated failures in trying to get good berries by this method. He 

 persevered for five years, but at last gave up in despair about 1840, 

 and surrendered this wild gypsy of the fruits to its native haunts 

 as untamable. In spite of these discouraging results he evidently 

 did not abandon the dream of a cultivated blackberry, for Downing 

 gives him the credit of having introduced the Dorchester, which in 

 time proved so valuable, although according to Marshall P. Wilder, 



