NTVV YOKK, OCT. 15, 1881 
i-RlOE FIVE vJtiNTS 
$2.00 PER YEAR 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1 SS 1 , by the Rural New-Yorker, In the olHee of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
r 
SOUHEGAN OR THE SKOWHEGAN 
BLACK-CAP RASPBERRY. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
Early iu July I received an invitation to 
visit Messrs. Halo Brothers, South Glaston¬ 
bury, Ct., to see the above new Black-cap. 
Owiug to a mistaking of dates I did not reach 
there till the day after the general gathering, 
so that I had the whole field to myself. The 
fog that had enveloped us all night through 
the Sound, and all the morning on the river, 
had lifted just before reaching the landing, 
and as I stepped ashore the sun shone out with 
apparently greater intensity, as if to make np 
for lost time. Taking the wagon path from 
the huuling, a half-mile walk brought me to 
the village where I inquired my way, aud an¬ 
other mile or so brought me to Elm Fruit 
Farm. 
It was hot, but from the village out the 
road was devious and the noble maples and 
elms lining it on either side, afforded a grate¬ 
ful shade much of the way, and the rolling 
country, growing crops, and diversity of scen¬ 
ery, rendered the walk a pleasant one. 
I went -ireetto tD Black-cap patch where 
I found one of the proprietors and his pickers 
gathering the crop. A few rows of the Sou- 
hegan, however, had been left untouched and 
I had a good opportunity to see and taste 
it. It certainly was very fine and pro¬ 
ductive, reminding mo of the Doolittle as 
I used to grow it before it was troubled with 
the blight. Possibly the Souliegan may' be 
more productive than the Doolittle as grown 
there alongside of it; but as the latter had 
been gathored i could not judge. I think I have 
seen Doolittles fully as productive, which is 
saying enough on that point, I believe the 
new berry will probably average a trifle 
larger, a little more acid, and a deeper jet 
black. It' a week earlier, as claimed, therein 
lies its chief merit, and where a local market 
will take any quantity of them at Hi cents per 
quart, as the Messrs. Hale were then disposing 
of them, it will pay to raise them. 
A severe rain the previous day had softened 
the berries somewhat, yet a quart box of them 
wrapped in a tight package, proved in first- 
rate condition on reaching home, -INhours utter 
picking. If the Souhegan has enough vigor 
of constitution successfully to withstand or 
resist the blight so destructive to our other 
Black-caps, it v ill prove a welcome acquisi¬ 
tion, otherwise there is little encouragement 
to attempt to grow any of them except on a 
limited scale. A first-quality red raspberry 
that will stand up like that, would lie a great 
acquisition. Who w ill produce it ! 
Returning, I spent a day with your occa¬ 
sional contributor 1’. M. Augur, ofMiddlefield, 
the Pomologisf of the Coun. State Board of 
Agriculture, who with Ins sons are quite ex¬ 
tensively engaged in fruit growing. They 
have several young peach orchards that are 
looking well, and the older trees were carrying 
double the crop they ought to. Crops gener¬ 
ally were very promising. 
Montclair, N. J. 
THE SOUHEGAN BLACK-CAP. 
Several times during the past two months 
mention lias been made in the Rural of a 
uew Black-cap raspberry the orthography of 
which has been given ns Skowhegan, and as 
it gives promise of being by far the most valu¬ 
able of any Black-cap, it seems important that 
it should at least be given its correct name. 
This is Souhoguu, a name that it takes from 
that of a small river in Now Hampshire, near 
where it originated some ten years ago. I 
have watched it caref ully during the past three 
fruiting seasons and find it more hardy than 
any other Black-cap, and very' productive. 
The fruit is large, jet black, without bloom, 
very sweet and rich, and r ipens one week in 
advance of the Doolittle growing in the same 
field, and on this account it must prove very 
valuable for market, as it comes iu just at a 
time when there is a scarcity of fruit, straw¬ 
berries being nearly all gone and red raspber¬ 
ries and the other Black-caps not being quite 
ripe, Our first pickings the past season wore 
sent to market, along with the Windsor Chief, 
Glendale and Kentucky' Strawberries, and sold 
at 25 cent s per quart, and our whole crop of 
a little over 100 bushels was sent to market be¬ 
fore we picked a single crate of the Gregg, the 
latter sidling from It to 16 cents per quart, 
while the Sou began sold from 15 to 25 cents 
per quart. The greater place was obtained 
not because they r were really' worth more than 
the Gregg, but simply because they came ear¬ 
lier when there was less competition, and on 
this account we shall plant it very extensively. 
While at thy New England Fair of Worcester 
as well as at the meeting of the American Po- 
mological Society, in Boston, I talked with a 
number of fruit grower’, from Massachussetts 
and New Hampshire, and every' one of them 
spoke very highly of It, all agreeing that its 
extreme earl mess and great productiveness, 
os well as the vigor and hardiness of the plant 
must make it the most profitable of Black-caps 
right while the Gregg, Doolittle and Mammoth 
Cluster in the same field were more or «ess dam¬ 
aged ; productiveness and early ripening, rip¬ 
ening iu Connecticut about June 25, or a week 
before the Doolittle. When first brought to 
our notice, Mr. C'arleton, the originator, 
claimed that it would produce four times as 
much as any variety in cultivation, and offered 
to pay our expenses to New Hampshire and 
back if we did not find it as represented. We 
therefore paid him n visit and were so well 
satisfied that we purchased the entire stock 
and have now about an acre in cultivation. 
Mr. Downing, under date of July 16, 1881, 
writes: 11 A friend near me has two plants of 
the Souhegan Black cap which I saw last 
week, and I was much pleased with them, as 
they are quite early, of large size, very produc¬ 
tive, quite firm and of a deep black color and 
sweet flavor. From what little I have seen of 
it, I would think it a very promising variety 
for the market.” 
All of the experienced berry growers who 
have seen it on our grounds unite in saying 
that it is far ahead of any other Black-cap 
now iu cultivation. 
South Glastonbury', Ct. J. H. Hales. 
[We had pretty good authority for calling it 
Skowhegan; for iu answer to our inquiry on 
this question Mr Charles Downing wrote: 
“ It is Skowhegan, but as it is more generally 
ble 1 Jolly Berckmans came from Georgia, 
well-skilled Warder from Ohio, profound 
Lyon from Michigan, good-hearted Watson 
from far-off' Texas, matter-of-fact Saunders 
from Washington, exuberant Coleman from 
Missouri, refined Parsons from Long Island, 
and such a lot of other “ boy's” were there 
from everywhere, the happiest and thejolliest 
of men. And how we greeted dear old friends 
and long absent faces, and joy fully received 
introductions to the planets we had not seen 
before, and thus absorbed in mutual love and 
sympathy with one accord sat down and tried 
who best could work and best agree. But still 
there was a gap as there is everywhere—there 
was no Douglas there or Meehan, nor were 
there many others that we wished to see, but 
we forgot them not. 
But don’t we men folks catch it in “ What 
Others Say” p. 566 1 Aud what Turk-rascals 
thosi rich farmers in those rich agricultural 
regions are to impoverish their wives and 
children so, and feed and house and care so 
well for horses, cows and sheep ! If they had 
some of my neighbors’ wives around, they 
would quickly' learn that women in America 
have mighty rights—and know it. 
And a little further on I find—the men of 
family i in a majority of cases, ard mot the 
women, are barbarians Good gracious! 
Why ? Because there are no flowers aroiind 
the house. “ Go where we will in the Uni¬ 
ted States, the flowers about the house are 
almost infallible signs that there is a woman 
about.” No such thing. Tending flowers is 
easy, happy, pleasant work, a becoming pas¬ 
time tusk for women; men yield it over to 
them as they do the cook-stove. But men who 
live alone in settled homes in which are no 
women, old bachelors we may style them if 
you please, usually have neat and comforta¬ 
ble dwellings, and almost invariably lots of 
flowers.—But let me give you a striking in¬ 
stance from the far Northwest: 
Last year in the interest of the Tenth Cen¬ 
sus of the United States, Serene Watson, the 
eminent California botanist, traveled in the 
far Northwest and was now in the mountains 
that separate Montana from Idaho. He had 
taken the Lola Trail and experienced in it 
great difficulty and peril—* "For five days 
and for over UK) miles we were up as it were 
among the clouds rarely below 6,000 feet al¬ 
titude and as often above 7,000, the greatest 
difficulty, however, being the scarcity of grass 
for our horses * * * the animals were for 
two nights without anything to eat. But as 
there comes an end to all things, good or bad, 
we at length reached the end of the spur 
which we had been following, and came down 
into a grassy meadow with a stream * * * 
Pushing on the next, day down the valley 
an.I coming upon signs of inhabitants, cat- 
tie, a mown meadow (and the grass cut with 
a mowing machine, too), Indians preparing 
camass, and finally a fine, large ranch with 
wheat and oat fields, n comfortable house, 
and a nice garden with vegetables, fruit and 
flowers—* There must be a woman here,” I 
said. But I was mistaken—two bachelor 
brothers again. Here we got fodder for our 
horses, good “square meals' for ourselves, 
and sleep on the hay-stack—as I find iu my 
note-books.” 
->v,; x 
\,W\ ' 
Speaking of the dwellings in the mountains, 
Mr. W. says: “ Thesesolitaiy houses, of which 
I came upon many in my journeying, are oc 
cupiod usually by single men, old bachelors 
that is, sometimes alone, sometimes hi pairs, 
squatters Upon some bit of meadow land, per¬ 
haps, which they have found in the mountains, 
and which they have feueed in and cultivate 
in the hope that it may some time be valuable 
* Prom MSS. given me by the author, Mr. Watson. 
SOUHEGAN OR SKOWHEGAN RASPBERRY 
From Life 
not only for market, but for the family gar¬ 
den as well. 
The Souhegan originated in 1S71 with John 
A. Carleton, Hillsborough, N. H. from seed of 
the Doolittle. The fruit you show is from 
plants set in the middle of July, 1879. The 
points of value of this variety are: hardiness 
of the plant—it passed through last Winter all 
known as Souhegan it would be well to say 
Skowhegan or Souhegan.”— Eds.] 
On the occasion of the meeting of the Amer¬ 
ican Pomological Society at Boston the other 
week, what a happy time we had and a proflta- 
