1883.] 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



25 



EARLY HARVEST BLACKBERRY. 



Mr. Parker Earle, the illustrious fruit- 

 grower of the West, thus speaks of it : " This 

 new Illinois seedling, or, if you please, wild- 

 ing, is attracting a deal of attention among 

 cultivators. First of all, the Early Harvest is 

 not the Brunton's Early, another Illinois pro- 

 duction, as has been stated in some of the 

 horticultural papers. The two are much 

 alike as to sizes of fruit and season of ripen- 

 ing, and also in the appearance of the 

 plants, but they are distinctly unlike in 

 their blossoms : the Harvest having per- 

 fect flowers, while the Brunton is entirely 

 pistillate, and will not bear a berry with- 

 out having some good staminate variety 

 planted with it." 



Until I had planted this new candidate 

 for public favor I thought its name must 

 be a misnomer, but I find it entirely ap- 

 propriate, as it ripens just when wheat is 

 in condition to harvest ; and it affords me 

 much pleasure to speak in its behalf, be- 

 lieving it to be a decided acquisition. The 

 summer of 1882 I fruited some acres of 

 it, and it is certainly remarkably early. 

 Backward as the season was, I picked ripe 

 berries of it on July 7th, fully a week before 

 the first berries of Wilson's Early had turned 

 black ; and it ripened its entire crop in a few 

 days, thus adding much to its market value. 

 The canes are rather dwarf, stout, upright, 

 and branching, and entirely hardy in New 

 Jersey; being altogether hardier than Wil- 

 son's Early, and surpassing, in this respect, 

 Kittatinny, Lawton, and the other old varie- 

 ties ; berries with core 

 and of excellent qual- 

 ity, and borne in the 

 greatest profusion, but 

 not large as shown in 

 the engraving, which 

 is as accurate as it is 

 beautiful. 



The plant is very 

 much disposed to over- 

 bear, and should be 

 severely pruned and 

 liberally supplied with 

 fertilizers, to aid the 

 canes in adding size 

 to the fruit. The blos- 

 soms are large and well 

 furnished with stam- 

 ens, as will be seen by 

 the accompanying il- 

 lustration, drawn from 

 nature. Early Harvest 

 is eminently distinct 

 from all other varieties 

 in general cultivation, 

 and, while a good berry 

 in other respects, its 

 most prominent merit 

 is its earlincas, ripen- 

 ing far in advance of 

 Wilson's Early and all 

 other popular sorts. 

 J. T. Lovett. 



produced every season. It was of rare oc- 

 currence that a tree would bear only every 

 other year. But, after the trees had yielded 

 many crops of fruit, the far-spreading roots 

 were unable to collect a sufficient quantity 

 of material to form a crop of fruit and pro- 

 duce a crop of buds also, in one season. A 

 great many young orchards fail to yield even 

 a small crop of fruit once in two years, for 



BLOSSOM OF EARLY HARVEST BLACKBERRY. 



the simple reason that the soil has been ex- 

 hausted of its fertility. 



What can be done to render such trees 

 productive f As a general rule, there is a 

 sufficiency of carbonaceous material in the 

 soil, except where there happens to be a 

 large preponderance of sand. Experience 

 teaches that, when fruit-trees are standing 

 where the roots have access to a generous 

 supply of clay, the crops will be more abun- 



RENOVATING THE SOIL NEAR FRUIT-TREES. 



The soil around and beneath fruit-trees 

 becomes impoverished by producing annual 

 crops of fruit, just as a field becomes "run- 

 down," as farmers express the idea. When 

 our country was first inhabited, and fruit- 

 trees were planted, the fertility of the soil 

 was so abundant that bountiful crops were 



THE EARLY HARVEST BLACKBERRY. 



dant, and the trees will yield fruit a longer 

 time than when the earth is composed prin- 

 cipally of sand. The same is true when 

 trees are growing in a light, mucky soil. In 

 case the soil is of a light, silicious, or car- 

 bonaceous character, the first important step 

 will be to apply a generous dressing of 

 clay around the trees, as far as the longest 

 branches extend. If the land is in grass, the 

 entire surface should be plowed, or thor- 



oughly dug up, to the depth of several 

 inches ; after which, scatter chip-manure, 

 street-gleanings, ashes, lime, old mortar, the 

 accumulations of the hennery, privy, the 

 scrapings of manure-yards, and any garbage 

 that may have accumulated near the back- 

 door of the kitchen. If the ground be com- 

 pletely covered with coal-ashes, or the 

 sweepings of blacksmiths' shops — so deep 

 that no grass nor weeds can grow beneath 

 the tree — the owner will have the pleas- 

 ure of seeing, the following season, a 

 bountiful crop of luscious fruit ou a tree 

 which hitherto may have yielded nothing 

 but knotty, gnarly, and unmarketable 

 specimens. Every fruit-tree, and every 

 berry-vine and fruit-producing bush needs 

 potash, or soda, or both. Consequently, if 

 ashes in abundance be placed within reach 

 of the roots, the hungry mouths at their ex- 

 tremities will find and take up the desired 

 elements. If one has many trees and vines, 

 and only a small quantity of ashes, it will 

 pay him to purchase crude potash by the 

 cask, dissolve it in water, and spread the 

 solution around his trees and vines, or 

 break the hard mass into small pieces, and 

 scatter them thinly all over the ground cov- 

 ered by the branches. It is a grave mistake 

 to pile fertilizing material of any sort close 

 up to the body of a tree. 



In large orchards on light soil, one of the 

 wisest and most economical modes of com- 

 mencing a renovating system will be to go 

 with teams, during the winter (or at any 

 other convenient time), to some clay-bank, 

 haul the rough earth, 

 and spread it around 

 the trees. Frosts, and 

 rains, and snow will 

 soon mellow such ap- 

 parently barren earth, 

 and its valuable ele- 

 ments of fertility — 

 the bud-producing and 

 the fruit-forming ma- 

 terial — will soon pass 

 down to the roots, 

 where they will be 

 taken up and appropri- 

 ated to the production 

 of fine fruit. It will 

 sometimes pay to haul 

 good clay several 

 miles for this purpose. 



In many parts of 

 New Jersey and Long 

 Island, where the soil 

 is so sandy that fruit- 

 trees barely live, a few 

 bushels of marl, or a 

 wagon-load of muck, 

 spread around a tree, 

 are often the means of 

 producing a bountiful 

 crop of fine fruit. I 

 have known excellent 

 results to be produced 

 sinrply by spreading 

 around each tree two wagon-loads cf hard, 

 heavy, somewhat -gravelly earth, dug from 

 a hill. If the proprietor of fruit-trees can 

 have convenient access to sawdust, s}>ent 

 tan-bark, or the rough hay from salt mead- 

 ows, it will be profitable to mulch every tree 

 sufficiently to subdue grass and weeds. Win- 

 ter is the most convenient season to attend 

 to such work. 



S. E. T. 



