72 BLACKBERRIES 
reach the consumer and those culled fresh and ripe from 
the garden. 
Fourthly, blackberries make the most beautiful 
screens imaginable when trained to wood fences, or 
wood or wire trellises, and with a small amount of 
attention they will give a rich harvest of fruit as well 
as beauty. Other arguments could be put forward, but 
they are not necessary. Curiously enough, the exten- 
sion of our large towns has largely increased blackberry 
cultivation, for as the wilding has been pushed further 
and further into the country, so the suburban dweller 
has provided for the taste created in childhood by 
growing the humble berry in his garden. 
It has already been assumed that the blackberry is a 
desirable and useful fruit. It has a market value, and, 
so far, no substitute has been found for it. In tarts or 
puddings, either alone or with apples, blackberries are 
in every way most wholesome food, while the veriest 
epicure would not allow such a dish to pass untasted. 
The country housewife is well aware that the fruits of 
the bramble can be converted, with the addition of 
sugar, into a richly flavoured preserve, and she will 
probably not need to be told that good blackberry wine 
need never go begging. 
SoIL AND SITUATION 
So ubiquitous does the blackberry seem to be that at 
first thought it appears needless to raise the question of 
soil. And yet the question must be raised, for neither 
in a stagnant swamp or bog, nor in a dry hungry sand, 
will the bramble flourish, neither does it succeed in pure 
clay. In ordinarily fertile garden soil it will crop freely, 
but if the staple be fairly strong loam, deeply trenched, 
and moderately manured in the process, then, and only 
