AMERICAN AGR1C ULTURJ ST 
For the Farm , Garden , and Household. 
"AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF M A N. "—Washington. 
Volume XL. — No. 8. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1881 
A PARTY OF BLACKBERRY GATHERERS . —Designed and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
There is much more to be gathered by a 
Blackberrying party than the fruit that is 
brought home, though this, the fruit, is no 
small consideration. The Europeans may 
excel us in the cultivated varieties of the 
Strawberry and the Raspberry, but when we 
come to the Blackberry, not only are our 
wild varieties superior to theirs, but in culti¬ 
vated blackberries, or brambles, as the Eng¬ 
lish call them, they have none at all, or so 
few, and those from this country, as not to 
be worth mentioning. Every boy in the 
country knows that there are, at least, two 
kinds of wild Blackberry, the low running 
sort, the vines of which trouble him as he 
drives the cows to and from pasture, and the 
bush blackberries. He knows that the fruit 
of the running kinds, though most excellent, 
is small and sparse, and when he goes “ a 
blackberrying,” he knows of a place to which 
he can take his companions, where the pails 
and baskets may soon be filled with the large 
and abundant fruit. In a blackberry dis¬ 
trict, there are spots where the bushes are 
abundant enough, but the boy in knowing 
certain places where the fruit is larger and 
better than elsewhere, recognizes the well- 
known fact that the Blackberry is, in its wild 
state, a most variable plant •, he learns that 
those blackberries, considered by botantists 
as all the same, vary greatly, not only in 
the character of their foliage and the abund¬ 
ance and shape of the thorns, but in the 
size, sweetness, flavor, and quantity of the 
fruit. Many a man who reads this, will 
recall a certain blackberry patch which he 
knew as a boy, and wish that he could get 
some bushes of that kind for his garden. The 
cultivation of the Blackberry is mainly con¬ 
fined to this country; the number of those 
who have attempted it abroad is so few as 
not to be worth considering. We have in culti¬ 
vation in this country a dozen or more named 
varieties, and, singularly enough, every one 
of these, at least eveiy one of real value, 
was discovered growing in the wild state 
and, having been transferred to gardens, is 
found to be vastly, superior to any kinds that 
have been produced from seeds sown with 
the intention of producing new varieties. 
The widely-known “New Rochelle” was 
found in or near a town of that name ; the 
vastly superior “ Kittatinny ” was found as a 
wild plant in the Kittatinny Mountains, and 
so with others. In referring to this matter, 
we would say nothing to induce our young 
and old friends to forego the pleasures of 
blackberrying. We would suggest to those 
who go for the fruit alone, and do not take 
count of the pleasures it brings, that it would 
be vastly easier to get the fruit from culti¬ 
vated plants, and that almost every blackber¬ 
ry locality affords wild bushes with fruit 
nearly, or quite as good, as any of the culti¬ 
vated kinds, and these need only to be grown 
in the garden to substantiate our assertion. 
Copyright, 1881, by Orange Judd Company. 
Entebed at the Post Office at New Vor.K, N. Y., as Second Class Matter. 
