THE LUCRETIA DEWBERRY. 



ITS CULTURE AND VALUE. 



THE Lucretia is by far the most prominent of the 

 dewberries. It was found growing wild in 

 West Virginia. Plants were sent to Ohio and 

 distributed in 1876. From them the present 

 stock has sprung. Mr. Albaugh named it Lu- 

 cretia for Mrs. Lucretia Garfield. 

 There are several methods for 

 training the Lucretia dewberry. 

 It is commonly allowed to lie 

 upon the ground. The canes are 

 cut back to three or four feet in 

 length in the same manner as 

 blackberry and raspberry-canes 

 are treated ; and if the best results 

 are expected the canes should be 

 thinned to four or five in a hill. 

 The canes are usually allowed to 

 branch freely, although it is evi- 

 dent that some checking of the 

 growth may often 

 b e essential to 

 good results. A 

 mulch is often 

 placed under 

 them to keep the 

 berries clean and 

 to retard the 

 weeds. When 

 this is applied 

 the vines are 

 raised with a 



fork. Trellises and racks of various 

 kinds have been devised. How- 

 ever, there has been no gain in 

 productiveness or earliness upon 

 the trellised or racked plants ; the 

 only advantages have come from 

 the greater ease of picking and 

 cultivating, and the less amount 

 of room occupied. These ad- 

 vantages are considerable and 

 seem to me to warrant the adop- 

 tion of some simple trellis, pref- 

 erably a wire trellis in garden 

 culture. Whether it would pay 

 in field or market culture is a 

 question which must be determined by the grower him- 

 self. The labor of tying the canes to the wires is some- 

 what onerous, but it is needed only once in the season. 

 This training does not interfere with covering for winter 

 protection, for the young or growing canes are allowed 

 to lie upon the ground, and are tied up the following 

 spring. If the canes interfere with cultivation while 



growing, they can be placed lengthwise of the row with a 

 rake or they can be thrown over the lowest wire. After 

 the canes have borne they are cut out in the same man- 

 ner as the canes of raspberries and blackberries. 



One of the chief merits of the Lucretia is its earliness. 



Dewberries, rasp- 

 berries and black- 

 berries grow side 

 by side in our plan- 

 tations, and we 

 have had, there- 

 fore, a good oppor- 

 tunity to observe 

 the earliness of the 

 Lucretia. This 

 year the first ripe 

 raspberries (Marl- 

 boro and Ranco- 

 cas) were obtained 

 July 4. At this 

 time a few dew- 

 berries were about 

 fully grown, and 

 had turned red. 

 July 8 a few ripe 

 dewberries were 

 secured. July ii 

 dewberries on 

 some of the vines 

 ■pening rap- 

 idly ; at the same 

 time Ada raspber- 

 ry was beginning to 

 ripen, and Doolit- 

 tle and Souhegan 

 were in their 

 prime. July 16 

 Early Harvest 

 blackberry, our 

 earliest sort, gave 

 its first ripe fruits, 

 while the first 

 picking of Agawam 

 was not obtained 

 until July 22. July 

 16 there were no 

 flowers to be found upon the dewberries, but the black- 

 berries were still blooming freely. A week later pickings 

 from the dewberries had practically ceased. It will be 

 seen, therefore, that the dewberries ripen with the earliest 

 black raspberries. But it must be said that there is 

 great variation in the time of ripening between different 

 plants in the same lot. 



Lucretia, from a Good Plant. (The separate fruit is full size.) 



