1909. 
THE RURAL NKW - Y ORKER 
811 
THE WONDERLESS WONDERBERRY. 
Another Letter From John Lewis Childs. 
Replying to yours of the 13th, in which you state 
positively that the wild nightshade has been grown from 
seed bought from me for Wonderberry, I wish to say 
that that is not possible. We know that the seed we 
grew ourselves and sold for Wonderberry was not night¬ 
shade, neither was there any nightshade mixed with it. 
We never had that plant on our place. The Wonderberry 
seed grown by Mr. Burbank and sold by us could not 
possibly be nightshade either, as that seed is so distinct 
from the Wonderberry, and the Wonderberry seed is 
distinct from any other Solanum. Fortunately its gen¬ 
uineness can be proved, as I have an abundance of Mr. 
Burbank's stock yet on hand. It is, of course, possible 
that seed of the nightshade might, by natural causes 
like any other weed, occur in the soil where Wonderberry 
seed was sown. It is a pest in many places, and cus¬ 
tomers have reported it growing near their Wonderber- 
ries and have sent me samples to show the difference be¬ 
tween the two plants. 
You started out with the claim that the Wonderberry 
was only the worthless garden huckleberry. You have 
evidently abandoned that claim, but have not apologized 
to either your readers or Mr. Burbank for this misstate¬ 
ment. You subsequently claimed that the Wonderberry 
was identical with the nightshade, Solanum nigrum. You 
must now either abandon that claim or Ignore the opinion 
of Dr. Britton of the New York Botanical Garden, the 
highest authority on plants in the United States. I have 
had Dr. Britton investigate the subject and he has sent 
me his report, which is as follows: 
WON DEItBEItli 1". 
Leaves dark green above, 4 to 7 cm. long, relatively 
firm, obsoletoly dentate. 
Internodes of plant relatively short. 
Peduncles erect or ascending, relatively little longer 
than the pedicels. 
Corolla averaging 11.5 mm. in diameter, its lobes tri¬ 
angular-ovate, with a narrow mid-vein which is purple 
from above the base to near the apex. 
Fruit dull, relatively large- 
Seeds 2 mm. long. 
SOLANUM NIGRUM. 
Leaves light green on both sides, 8 to 12 cm. long, 
relatively thin, angulate-dentate. 
Internodes of plant relatively long. 
Fruiting peduncles deflexed, mostly twice as long as 
the pedicels. 
Corolla averaging 9.5 mm. in diameter, its lobes oblong- 
lanceolate with a broad yellow-green stripe extending 
from base to about the middle. 
Fruit shining, relatively small. 
Seeds 1 % nun. long. 
N. L. BRITTON. 
Fndoubtedly he has reported to you also, as he told 
me you had asked him for a report. 
Dr. Britton might have gone further, and said that the 
fruit of the Wonderberry was three or four times larger 
ihan that of the nightshade, and of an agreeable quality. 
The fact is, a thorough investigation of the whole Won¬ 
derberry subject has been made by Dr. Britton and his 
associate professors, and no member of the Solanum fam¬ 
ily known to science is like the Wonderberry. All the 
professors ate the fruit of the Wonderberry freely, and 
pronounced it "line,” "good,” “delicious,” etc. One pro¬ 
fessor said it would be his garden fruit in the future. 
Dr. Britton is about to sail for Europe but you can 
probably get an official report on the quality of the 
Wonderberry from his associates if you ask for it. 
I send you with this a fruiting plant of the Wonder¬ 
berry from my fields, grown in poor soil with full ex¬ 
posure, where plants are set three feet apart and cover 
the ground completely. Note the enormous crop of hand¬ 
some berries! E’at the berries, and if you do not call 
them "luscious,” “delicious,” "all right,” or "good,” you 
will be the only person who has tried them here and 
not made some such exclamation. 
As a matter of justice you might photograph this full- 
grown and mature plant or a branch of it, and publish 
it as you have published the picture of a little seedling 
pot plant with a few berries and condemned it. You 
will lind it more difficult to condemn the plant I am 
sending you, which is grown as a plant should be grown 
to get the best results, in full sun. poor soil and plenty 
of room. 
In this whole affair it appears to me that you have 
lost sight of two important points for consideration. It 
is not at all likely that I would knowingly (as you say>, 
offer a poisonous fruit with elaborate endorsements for 
the sake of making a few dollars which I do not need, 
and thereby ruin my business and reputation, which is 
founded on thirty-five (35) years of careful upbuilding. 
Again in striking at a man in a publication through a 
novelty he has introduced, he has no adequate defense, 
for lie cannot put his side of the question before your 
readers and those who republish your words. lie does 
not know them, and cannot reach them, and an injustice 
done this way must to a large extent remain an in¬ 
justice. 
The influence of The Rural New-Yorker in a matter 
of this kind is enormous, for what you say may be, as 
it has been in the case of the Wonderberry, copied all 
over the world, and reports have gone out that in the 
Wonderberry I have sold a poisonous nightshade. These 
statements would utterly ruin a man that had not a 
substantial reputation and responsibility. 
Even the so-called nightshade is being slandered, as I 
believe there a're authorities that say that Solanum nigrum 
is no more poisonous than an eggplant under some con¬ 
ditions or a potato (another member of the Solanum 
family), when eaten in a green or half-matured state. 
If I am not greatly mistaken, the real poisonous night¬ 
shade is an entirely different plant from Solanum nigrum. 
Is it not a fact that a nightshade is a toadstool or a 
mushroom, and that this name has been misapplied to 
Solanum nigrum and some other plants? But I have no 
defense to make of Solanum nigrum except tint tin* 
Wonderberry suffers by nigrum’s bad reputation, when 
you positively state that they are one and the same 
plant. JOHN LEWIS CHILDS. 
A Reply to Mr. Childs. 
Mr. John Lewis Childs, 
My Dear Sir.—I received your letter in due time, 
and also the sample of the plant which you identify as 
“Wonderberry.” The fruit has been sampled carefully by 
at least 20 people here. In the letter which accompanied 
this plant I lind that you did not reply to some of 
my questions. 
I asked you to name the seedsmen whom you charge 
with substituting garden huckleberry seed for that of 
the Wonderberry. This is a most serious charge, and I 
think it is your duty to make public their names. I also 
requested you to name the “many” persons who, according 
to your statement, tell you that they have sent us favor¬ 
able reports of the Wonderberry. You overlooked this 
matter entirely, and I now repeat the request, and ask 
you to tell me who fhese persons are. I also asked you 
to be kind enough to name some persons or person con¬ 
nected with our experiment stations who will indorse 
your claims for the Wonderberry. You do not name 
any such persons, nor do you in your long letter state 
definitely that you repeat the claims now that you made 
for the Wonderberry when you offered it for sale. I shall 
be very glad to have you give me this information. 
I enclose with this a photograph of a letter recently 
received from Dr. B. T. Galloway of the Department of 
Agriculture. You will observe that Dr. Galloway states 
definitely that your Wonderberry is simply a horticul¬ 
tural variety of the black nightshade. You will also 
observe that he is informed that identical forms of the 
plant have been growing for years in back yalds and 
gardens in the Southwest. I don’t think you will dis¬ 
pute the statement that Dr.. Galloway, as Chief of the 
Plant Bureau of the Department of Agriculture, repre¬ 
sents about the highest court of appeals in practical 
matters of this kind. I will also state that seeds of the 
Wonderberry bought from you have fallen into the hands 
of some of our readers who are not only gardeners but 
expert botanists as well, and I have secured statements 
from them, with which I am prepared to corroborate my 
former statement that seeds sold by you as Wonderberry 
have developed into plants which have been identified as 
black nightshade, 
A Botanist on the Wonderberry. 
As a botanist, I have taken a lively interest in the 
Wonderberry-nightshade controversy; but my interest in 
the Wonderberry as a plant has been from the standpoint 
of the horticulturist and economist and 1 might add 
in the light of its full development, from that of the 
physician and the psychologist. From the physician's 
standpoint because it is a Solanum, or nightshade—a 
genus of the Solanacese, or potato family, many of whose 
species are poisonous in a greater or less degree; seri¬ 
ously so in Solanum nigrum and Solanum Dulcamara. 
From the standpoint of the psychologist in the study of 
the evident mental lapses which could make it possible 
for a noted hybridizer, who has achieved the confidence 
and admiration of the public, to put forth such extrava¬ 
gant and utterly false economic claims for such a worth- 
Icss production. 
How shall we classify the Wonderberry botanically? 
Unquestionably as a Solanum or nightshade. Solanum is 
one of the 12 genera of the potato family, represented in 
all parts of the earth by more or less of its 900 species. 
Of the eight species of nightshade which are found in 
the United States the best known and most widely dis¬ 
tributed is the Solanum nigrum, known as black night¬ 
shade. Its characters are unmistakably distinct from 
every other member of the nightshade genus. Now if a 
specimen of the Wonderberry were placed in the hands of 
the most careful botanical expert with a request for 
its name solely from its physical characteristics such 
expert would unhesitatingly identify it as the Solanum 
nigrum. If a doubt were raised in his mind by any 
mention of the importance of his decision, he still would 
be left to the alternative of an individual opinion, be¬ 
cause any differences which he might be able to detect 
between a plant of Wonderberry and a plant of black 
nightshade would be only such differences as any careful 
botanist may discover between two plants of the same 
species grown under widely different conditions. M.y own 
cultivation of the Wonderberry was careful and intensive. 
The same treatment given to a plant of the deadly night¬ 
shade would have raised it equally above his fellow's; 
there was absolutely no difference of physical characters 
between the Wonderberry and the nightshade found in a 
poor waste soil that were not solely differences of nutri¬ 
tion; that is, leaves presenting appearance of being bet¬ 
ter nourished, better color, and similar differences in size 
of flower and fruit. If one should plant a Burbank potato 
in barren soil and give to another the careful cultiva¬ 
tion which has been given to the Wonderberry one would 
find far more decisive physical differences than one can 
find between any two specimens of the plants under con¬ 
sideration. Finally let me say that if this is not simply 
an improved Solanum nigrum which has been exploited 
by Mr. Burbank and Mr. Childs, it is so dangerously 
similar as to render it an unsafe garden product, since 
not even experienced botanists are able to detect any 
reliable distinctive characteristics between it and the poi¬ 
sonous weed. In my own case I labored under no diffi¬ 
culty of confounding the two, since there is no trace of 
the native weed in my garden, and I sincerely hope that 
no stray fruit of the Solanum nigrum Burbanki will add 
its presence to m.v grounds. To prevent such a catastrophe 
and to get rid of the flea-bettle which it propagated, I 
have had every trace of it removed: but not until I had 
carefully and conscientiously studied the plant with its 
matured fruit, and in every way tested its worth and— 
its worthlessness. l. g. bedell, m. d. 
North Carolina. 
• i iii ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The explosion August 27 of 480 pounds 
of dynamite packed in 100 holes over which GO men 
were still drilling from a platform at the southwest end 
of Boca Chica Island, six miles from Key West, where 
300 laborers, principally New Yorkers, were completing 
the last of the channel fills of the Florida East Coast 
Railroad, killed 10 men and seriously injured 15. Three 
full boxes of dynamite on the platform and a box of 
powder exploded first and did most of the damage. 
. . Leonard Cole, mechanician of the Stearns car 
in the twenty-four-hour automobile race at the Brighton 
Reach, N. Y r ., track, was killed and Laurent Grosso, 
the driver of the car, was injured mortally in an accident 
August 27. Cole was crushed under the machine and 
killed instantly. The driver was thrown to one side, 
and his spine was fractured. . . . The Indianapolis 
Motor Speedway Company’s officers are held responsible 
for deaths of William Bourque and Harry Ilolcomb, driver 
and mechanician of a Knox ear that was wrecked dur¬ 
ing the automobile races on August 19. Bourque and 
Holcomb were the first of several persons killed on the 
course during three days of racing. The coroner says 
that the course was not properly built for racing, and 
that for 200 feet at the place in the track where Bourque 
and Holcomb lost their lives the broken rock surface, 
imperfectly welded with asphaltum. had been torn by 
the wheels of the cars.Bee owners must keep 
their bees at home or pay damages if they sting people, 
is the purport of a decision by Justice of the Peace C. 
B. Atwood, of Watertown, Conn. Charles Fields and 
Frank Gilmore, next door neighbors, keep bees. Fields 
and his wife testified that Gilmore’s bees stung both of 
them, incapacitating Fields for work. Fields demanded 
$100 damages. The stings were inflicted by the bees 
while the witnesses were minding their own business 
on their own premises; therefore the bees, counsel for 
Fields claimed, were transgressors. The court awarded 
Fields .$16.55 and costs. . . . One fireman was badly 
hurt in a fire which caused a loss estimated at $ 100,000 
at the plant of the Providence Storage Warehouse Com¬ 
pany, on Mason street. Providence, It. I.. August 30. 
.' . Four prominent St. Louisans were instantly 
killed and.another was fatally injured and died two hours 
later when a Rock Island Railroad train, under full 
speed, hit the automobile of Fred O. Witte, president 
of the Witte Hardware Company, as the auto was cross¬ 
ing the railroad track at Siegus, Mo., August 30. Hid¬ 
den by a curve of the track, the train could not be 
seen until 50 yards from the crossing. The automobile 
was dragged a' half mile.Almost demented by 
hunger and exposure, Capt. G. W. Waldemar and six 
members of the crew of the American schooner Isaac 
T. Campbell, of Boston, were taken from the wreck of 
the schooner, August 27, in the Gulf of Mexico by the 
British steamship Lugano, Capt. Wright, bound from 
Cuba to Galveston. Two of the crew of the schooner, 
which had been wrecked by the hurricane which swept 
the Gulf, crazed by their sufferings, broke from their 
lashings at Hie railing and were washed overboard and 
drowned a fey hours before the Lugano was sighted, 
400 miles off the Louisiana coast. For 34 hours the 
schooner, with a cargo of asphalt, 15 days out from 
Trinidad for New Orleans, battled with the sea. with 
waves breaking over her and the wind blowing 110 miles 
an hour. Everything above deck was swept away and 
the crew had been short of food for four days before 
the storm hit the 500-ton craft. Lashing themselves to 
the spars and railings the crew suffered agony for hours 
and four of them had lost their minds before help ar¬ 
rived. Every stitch of clothing was whipped from the 
men and the craft began breaking just as the Lugano 
came alongside and dragged the survivors from the 
wreck, which sank an hour later.Voting-Gov¬ 
ernor Oglesby, of Illinois, issued a proclamation August 
31 which offers a reward of $200 for the arrest and con¬ 
viction of the unknown driver of the automobile that 
ran over and killed Harold Wakefield, a boy. in East 
St. Louis. The driver of the auto made no attempt 
to stop his machine either before or after the buy was 
killed, and it has been impossible to find him. This is 
the first time.in the history of the State that a reward 
has been offered in a case of this kind, such crimes 
having been classed as manslaughter. Under the stat¬ 
utes rewards in manslaughter cases cannot be offered 
by the State, but a close study of the law has con¬ 
vinced Acting-Governor Oglesby that the crime in this 
particular ease was murder and not manslaughter. The 
statute defines murder as “the killing of a human being 
with malice expressed or implied.” The definition of 
implied malice is "when no considerable provocation 
apiieara or when all the circumstances show an aban¬ 
doned or malignant heart. . . . Fire in St. Malachy’s 
Home, an orphan asylum at Roekaway Park, N. Y., 
August 30, caused the death of seven young children. 
There were about 750 children in the orphanage, includ¬ 
ing 65 babies, who were all rescued by the sister in 
charge of them. The dead children were between the 
ages of three and six years, and apparently they had 
crept under their beds in fright when the fire bell called 
them out. . . . The San .Tuan River was emptying 
the flood waters of the Santa Catarina and its other 
tributary streams into the Rio Grande above Sam For- 
dyee, Tex.. August 31, causing a rise which promises 
to break all records. The town of Camargo, on the 
Mexican side, was under water, the river being eight 
miles wide at that point. The lower valley of the 
Rio Grande on both the American and Mexican sides 
was under water, and it is feared that great damage 
will be done to the big irrigating systems below. The 
canals of these systems represent an investment of more 
than $0,000,000. Levees are being thrown up along the 
river at a number of points and all possible efforts made 
to prevent the threatened overflow. People living in 
the lowlands have moved to higher ground. The National 
Railroad, on the Mexican side of the river, was under 
water for many miles. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Leaders of the tobacco grow¬ 
ers met at Bowling Green, Ky., August 19, to try to 
settle the differences between the American Society of 
Equity and the Burley Society. The Equity people 
threatened to organize a second pool for the 1909 crops 
unless the Burley Society, which organized the 1908 pool, 
agreed to the terms of the Equity, the parent organiza¬ 
tion. The Burley Society at Winchester has filed suit 
against independent growers for $213,200 in damages. 
The independent tobacco manufacturing firm of (’lark A 
Scott, of Scranton. Pa., filed suit in the United States 
Court at Covington August 30 against the Kentucky Bur¬ 
ley Tobacco Society. Clarence Lebus, the president, and 
ten other men as defendants, asking damages in the sum 
of $135,520. Th ground for damages is given as "over¬ 
charge on tobacco bought from the society in 1906. 1907 
and 1908.” The suit is under the Sherman anti trust 
law, and the Burley Society is charged with being a 
monopoly in restraint of trade by entering into a con¬ 
spiracy with certain growers, who are made co-defend¬ 
ants, to control the white burley tobacco market. For 
several years there have been efforts to have the growers 
pool their tobacco and hold it until the American To¬ 
bacco Company would pay the price asked, but until 1907 
the undertaking was not successful. Three crops now 
have been pooled, with the result that three times the 
old prices have been realized. The independent manu¬ 
facturing concerns were not able to cope with the big 
buyers and have been hard pressed. They failed to take 
a part of the tobacco contracted for last year and suit 
was brought against them by the Burley Society to com¬ 
pel them to pay for it. The society pays its president, 
Clarence Lebus. $10,000 a year for managing the pool. 
The twenty-fifth annual convention of the Society of 
American Florists was held at Cincinnati, O., August 17- 
20. The following officers were elected; President. F. 
It. Pierson, Tarry town-on-Hudson, N. Y.; vice-president, 
F. W. Vick. Rochester. N. Y.; secretary, IT. P>. Dorner, 
Urbana, Ill.; treasurer, H. B. Beatty, Pittsburg. Pa. 
Mr. Beatty nas held office ever since the society was 
formed. The next meeting will be held at Rochester, 
N. Y. 
The announcement of the American Pomological So¬ 
ciety’s thirty-first biennial conference has been issued. 
The meeting will be held at St. Catherines, Ontario, 
September 14-16. A feature of the programme will be a 
series of symposiums on subjects of present-day imppr- 
tance. The following will be treated by noted authori¬ 
ties: Influence of soil and climate on varieties. Adapta¬ 
tion of varieties to certain conditions. The financial 
side of orcharding. Sulphur sprays for Winter and 
Summer use. Grading and handling Winter and Summer 
fruits. Nut culture in the East and South. Newer 
varieties of grapes in the East, West and South. Present 
status of Oriental pear hybrids. Diseases of stone 
fruits. Orchard management in relation to fertilizing. 
Demonstration orchards. Citrus culture in the Gulf 
States. 
There will be a field day meeting of the Massachusetts 
Asparagus Growers’ Association on the sub-station 
grounds, Bedford street. Concord, Mass., on Friday, 
September 10, at 11 A. M. Prof. Win. P. Brooks will 
give a talk on the proper fertilizer for the asparagus 
crop. Prof. J. B. Norton, of Washington, D. C.. will 
explain the work being done in Concord by the Bureau 
of Plant Industry. Mr. Frank Wheeler will give his 
methods of growing asparagus, and the president, C'. W. 
Prescott, will explain the experiments at the station. 
The public are cordially invited. Lunch will be served 
at 12.30. Electric cars pass the station grounds. 
ORITUARY.—Gerald Howatt. secretary and general 
manager of the Monmouth County Agricultural Fair As¬ 
sociation, died suddenly in Red Bank. N. J., August 19 
from apoplexy, aged 54 years. Mr. Ilowatt was one of 
the leading cattle expert's of the country, and was espe¬ 
cially well known in the New England States, where 
he served as judge at the fairs. He was at one time 
superintendent of the Briardilf Farm, and was super¬ 
intendent of Ex-Governor Ames’s estate at Eisali. Ill. 
lie was for many years a resident of Adams. Mass., 
and of White Plains, N. Y.. where lie was police com¬ 
missioner. He was a lieutenant in Company M. Second 
Infantry, of Massachusetts, and belonged to the Knights 
of Pythias. He was born in Nantiooko. l’a.. and married 
Miss Elizabeth Hill, of New Rochelle, N. Y. Besides 
his widow. Mr. Howatt left two sons. Dr. William D. 
Howatt, of Port Chester. N. Y., anil Walter Howatt, 
and three daughters, Elizabeth. Jean, and Louise 
Howatt. 
INCREASE IN POSTAL REGISTRY.—Postmaster- 
General Hitchcock officially announced August 30 his de¬ 
cision to increase the registry fee from 8 to 10 cents in 
a brief address before a general committee of registry 
officials who were called to Washington from various 
parts of the country. The committee was Instructed to 
consider the registry system in all its ramifications and 
readjust its operation in accordance with the change 
in the fee, making such improvements in methods as 
will insure greater efficiency in the service and less ex¬ 
penditure. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
Hay crop light and pastures very poor due to dry 
weather last year and grasshoppers this year. Barley 
good ; oats good where let alone by hoppers. Corn late, 
there will be very little except for silo. No apples. Pota¬ 
toes looking fine. Hoppers by the millions eat clean 
everything growing in places, but go in streaks; much 
worse in some places than others near by. July four 
per cent milk at creameries $1.20 per 100; dressed pork 
$9.50 per 100. G. M. H. 
Charlotte, Vt. 
This has been the hottest and driest Summer since 
1901. Pastures are burned up. late vegetables are a 
failure, and corn, which promised a record-breaking crop, 
is only medium. The State Board of Agriculture esti¬ 
mates the loss of erops by floods early in the season in 
this State at fourteen million dollars. The lowland 
farmers whose crops were drowned out or washed away 
and the upland men who have everything dried up are 
not much interested in Secretary Wilson’s figures in re¬ 
gard lo a crop value of eight, billion dollars. e. t. C, 
Hannibal. Mo. 
