lull. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
39 
Ruralisms 
NOTES ON BLACKBERRIES. 
Among small fruits none has shown 
more reason for promotion than the 
blackberry. It has won this entirely on 
its intrinsic merits as a moneymaker. At 
present I regard the blackberry as the 
most profitable of all the small fruits 
with the single exception of the straw¬ 
berry, and, given ordinary conditions of 
culture, I should not feel disposed to 
except even the queen of berries. For 
this advancement the rise in prices is 
largely responsible, for, while the straw¬ 
berry, like everything else, is affected 
to the sellers advantage, the glutting 
of the markets in good crop years bears 
down the market regardless of relative 
values, and there is nearly always a 
short period when the box of strawber¬ 
ries sells for little above the cost of pro¬ 
duction. Not so with the blackberry, at 
least on our local market. Its cultivation 
for market is not so extensive and it 
yields its crop evenly from first to last. 
Its period of ripening from the time the 
berry turns red is longer than that of the 
strawberry and it can be left longer on 
the vine without injury. There is an 
interval of several days from the time it 
turns black and the time it becomes dead 
ripe, and all this time it is salable. Then 
again its culture is far less exacting, from 
planting to picking the fruit. No ex¬ 
perts are required at any stage of the 
work in dealing with the blackberry, 
which has its long strong canes armed 
with formidable thorns to defend it. I 
have often been devoutly thankful for its 
hardiness, for by the time the strawberry 
season here is over, the women and girls 
who are the only reliable pickers, are 
worn out and want a rest. We may keep 
them with success throughout the best of 
the raspberries, but when they are asked 
to harvest the blackberries with the sun 
now exceedingly hot, plenty of sharp 
thorns to reach after calico, and, last 
but not least, myriads of pestiferous 
“chiggers” awaiting an opportunity to 
make their days and nights wretched, 
they usually suggest that they are in need 
of rest as well as those new garments 
that they were earning money to buy. 
So we bid farewell to the female pickers 
and for the first time present a smiling 
front to the boys of all sizes, ages and 
degrees of respectability. For once you 
are ready to welcome the “one-gallus” 
urchin who has been annoying you for a 
job for weeks past. These boys do 
fairly well if there is some one present 
to prevent playing and keep them to the 
proper rows. Sometimes we fit them out 
with tin buckets suspended around their 
necks so they can use both hands and 
pick faster. With hand crates and boxes 
they lose time in stooping with each 
handful. On the local market bucket 
picking is admissible, for the berries are 
generally used at once, and some bruis¬ 
ing doesn’t matter. 
Last season’s prices opened up at 15 
cents a box or two boxes for a quarter 
for Early Harvest, and after receding to 
10 cents remained there to the end of the 
crop. Crates of twenty-four boxes were 
sold down to $2, while in former years 
I have known them to go to $1. At such 
prices as these I count the blackberry 
decidedly profitable, and considering all 
things, it would be my choice of small 
fruits for market. In varieties the old 
stand-bys in the Central West have been 
the Early Harvest, Snyder for main crop, 
with some Taylor’s Prolific for late. 
This was a wise choice and holds good 
even to-day, with the exception of the 
Snyder, which has lost some of its pre¬ 
cedence to newer varieties. The black¬ 
berry world is still, however, in a state 
of confusion and transition over varie¬ 
ties, because of the rust, a disease anal¬ 
ogous in its fatality and resistance to 
plant therapeutics to the pear blight. 
This condition results from the fact 
that while these newer candidates sur¬ 
pass the Snyder in vigor of growth and 
size of berry, they fail to equal it in its 
rust-resisting properties and occasionally 
in hardiness. 
The old Kittatinny proved so suscep¬ 
tible to rust that it is now generally 
discarded all over the country, but apart 
from that, it combined more fine qualities 
than any other. The first modern in¬ 
introduction of note was the Mersereau. 
This variety really deserved all the flat¬ 
tering things said of it. It possesses all 
the excellences of the Kittatinny, vig¬ 
orous growth, great productiveness, 
adaptability to soil and climate, and a 
berry of the largest size that excels even 
that of the Kittatinny or of any other 
main crop sort in quality. But, alas, a 
trial of this paragon demonstrated that 
it fell an easy victim to the ,rnst, not 
quite to such hopeless degree as the Kit¬ 
tatinny, but bad enough to condemn it 
with many fruit growers. This is a 
great pity, for it seemed impossible to 
improve upon when at its best. The 
Eldorado was another candiate for the 
Snyder’s place, coming, I believe, from 
Ohio, but it has apparently failed to 
“make good” throughout the Central 
States. It is fairly immune to rust, but 
lacks productiveness and is also deficient 
in growth as tested here. The high flavor, 
also, with which it came heralded, did not 
make itself manifest here. From reports 
its seems to do better in the Northern 
States. The Wilson and Rathbun va¬ 
rieties,which are indistinguishable here, 
appear to lack something in their environ¬ 
ment fatal to their perfection. They send 
up new canes with great luxuriousness, 
but during the Winter they regularly die 
back to the extent of one-half to two- 
thirds of their bearing canes, and often 
even more. Added to this defect is the 
failure of their blossoms to become fully 
pollinated, with the result that many ber¬ 
ries are imperfect and worthless. Other¬ 
wise their berries are of the largest size, 
but inclined to be too hard and sour. I 
think it will not be long until they are 
entirely discarded. 
The Blowers is still listed with such 
flattering commendations that it would 
seem to be the long-sought ideal of the 
blackberry kingdom, but a test here failed 
to reveal its many virtues. Like the Rath- 
bun, it partakes of the dewberry char¬ 
acter the first Summer in its running 
habits, but afterwards sends up strong 
canes. Its berries set in round clusters, 
and the center one would ripen while the 
others were still green. This king berry 
was of good size, but the others did not 
grow to its standard. Its uneven ripen¬ 
ing and commonplace berries condemned 
it here. The Ward is another candidate 
from New Jersey, about which I am glad 
to be able to say better things. The 
original plants which I purchased, to¬ 
gether with their numerous sprouts, have 
never been attacked by the rust, although 
fully exposed to it at a short distance. 
It is hardy and productive, and of fairly 
vigorous growth. Its berries are long, 
but fall short of the Mersereau in size. 
Their flavor is good. Here then we seem 
to have a very good sort that might be 
substituted for the Snyder as a commer¬ 
cial variety, but still I should not be will¬ 
ing to recommend it unqualifiedly for 
large plantings on the strength of this 
test alone. All in all, however, just now 
it is the most promising of the late intro¬ 
ductions. L. R. JOHNSON. 
Cape Girardeau Co,. Mo. 
Mulched Peaches. —I wish you could 
have seen my grass-mulched orchard of 
100 Carman peach trees. In 1909 when 
three years old we picked 200 baskets; 
1910 at four years old a little more than 
300 baskets. At present time more orders 
are being booked for apple and peach trees 
than ever before. o. w. p. 
Wilton, N. H. 
We Want 
Every Farmer 
Who Raises Hay 
To send us his name so we can mail him 
our Free Booklet on “GEARLESS” 
HAY LOADERS. It is full of Hay 
Loader facts that will prove interesting read¬ 
ing, and gives many reasons why more 
“GEARLESS” Hay Loaders were sold 
last year than any other make. 
The “GEARLESS” hasn’t one of the 
many troublesome features that are to be 
found on cylinder and other rake-bar loaders. 
It is the one loader that is “on the job” 
every hour during the haying season—no 
broken gears, no broken sprockets, no 
broken chains or springs, because it hasn’t 
any of these troublesome parts. 
Write us today for the ‘‘GEARLESS” 
Booklet. A postal will do. 
LA CROSSE HAY TOOL CO. 
35TH STREET CHICAGO HEIGHTS, ILL. 
“KANT-KLOG”^ s\\' Spraying 
SPRAYERS A y-la Guide Free 
Something New 
Gets twice tlie results—V 
with same laborand fluid, 
Flat or round, fine or coarse sprays \\ 
from same nozzle. Ten styles. For aSt , 
trees, potatoes, gardens, whitewashing, 
etc. Agents Wanted, Booklet Free. V j 
Rochester Spray Pump Co. nSZ!™?. 
Fruit Growers! 
Bowker’s 
Lime-Sulphur 
A . ... 
is absolutely 
pure 
No salt or caustic being added, every 
drop is effective against the San Jose 
and other scales, destroying mosses, 
fungi, etc., and thoroughly cleaning up 
the trees without injury. 
Write for special prices, stating number 
of trees to be sprayed. 
INSECTICIDE COMPANY, 
JjV-J W ^LiiV 43 Chatham St., Boston, Mass. 
Manufacturers of Arsenate of Lead; also Bowker’s 
“PYROX” the one Best All Around Spring - and 
Summer Spray for fruits and vegetables. 
. .....—/ 
Kill the Bugs and 
Save the Crops with 
ELECTRO Arsenate of Lead 
(in Powdered Form) 
The most effective and economical insecticide for all leaf-eating insects. Electro is 
the only successful powdered arsenate of lead, because it is the only one in an amorphous 
(non-crystalline) form. The only one that mixes instantly with water in such a finely 
divided state that every drop of spray contains the right amount of arsenic. It cannot 
be washed off by rain and will not injure the newest, tenderest foliage. 
> We guarantee it to contain 30% arsenic oxide—50% more than other brands—as 
proved by Conn, and N. J. Agricultural Experiment Station tests. Write us for them. 
Save Freight on Water — there is 40 to 60% in all pastes. Put in the water at home. 
We have the best Paste on the market and will prove it if you prefer 
Arsenate of Lead in this form. 
II your dealer cannot supply, write us for prices and statements from 
successful growers in your section. 
THE VREELAND CHEMICAL CO. 
32 Church Street, New York 
PRATT’S 
SCALLCIDE 
Will positively destroy SAX JOSE SCALE and all 
soft bodied sucking insects without injury to the 
tree. Simple, more effective and cheaper than 
Lime Sulphur. Not an experiment. One gallon 
makes 111 to ‘JO Ballons spray by sininly adding water. 
Send for Booklet, "Orchard Insurance.” 
B. G. PRATT CO., 50 CHURCH ST., NEW YORK CITY. 
r* nr% A V/ - complying with the insecticide act of 1910 
brKAY IT WILL PAY YOU TO USE EIT HER 
7^* ^. - j, 
PASTE OR POWDERED 
FOR ALL LEAF EATING INSECTS 
RESPONSIBLE DISTRIBUTERS and AGENTS WANTED 
KEY BRAND 
RIGHT PRICE and MATERIAL 
FUNGICIDE and INSECTICIDE 
USE 
I 
INTERSTATE CHEMICAL CO. 
It BAYVIEW AVE..JERSEY CITY. N.U. 
WRITE FOR PRICES,CIRCULARS ETC. CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED. 
GET THE BEST 
A Good Spray Pump earns 
big profits and lasts for years. 
THE ECLIPSE 
is a good pump. As 
1 practical fruit grow- 
i ers we were using common 
: sprayers in our own orchards 
j —found their defects and 
j invented the Eclipse. Its 
I success forced us to manu- 
\ ~ facturing on a large scaie. 
You take no chances. We 
’---.Tr.'SEvS-p'” have done all the experi¬ 
menting. Large fully illustrated Catalog 
and Treatise on spraying FREE. 
MORRILL & MORLEY. Benton Harbor, Mich. 
ForBest EXTENSION LADDER at ^M ,ces 
JOHN J. l'OTTKK.H Mill St.. Binghamton, N. Y. 
“ONE FOR ALL” No. 1 
Wool Grease, Arsenate of Lead, Lime and 
Sulphur. Both a Contact and Poison 
Spray. An Insecticide and Fungicide. 
Positively the Only Thing Needed for all Pests or Fungus 
A tonic for vegetation. Sick trees made well; 
old trees rejuvenated to youthful vigor; better 
foliage; larger and more abundant fruit. Neither 
sucking or chewing insects nor fungus will attack 
wood that has “One For All” upon it. After one 
fall spraying no dormant spraying will be needed. 
Spraying confined to the growing season. Scale 
exterminated. Positive evidence from practical 
growers furnished upon application. 
Prices, F. O. B. New York 
Barrels, 425 lbs.05c. per lb 
y 2 Bbls., 200 lbs.05^ “ 
100 lbs.06 
50 lbs.06^ “ 
25 lbs.08 
MANHATTAN OIL COMPANY 
Established 1852 
Front Street New Yorjj 
1911 DEYO POWER SPRAYERS 
IO Years of Success 
FRIEND FRUIT GROWER: Uncle Sam says 
you must spray. Users of the Deyo are relieved 
from experimenting. After ten years of service the 
Deyo is still giving perfect satisfaction. Onr cus¬ 
tomers are our reference, ask the user. We sell 
direct to you. Deyo pays all freights to Missis¬ 
sippi River shipping points. Write tor catalogue 19. 
DEYO-MACEY ENGINE CO., Binghamton, N. Y. 
