The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
THE COMMON BLACKBERRY.

Eastern to the Western and Southern
States in neglected fields pastures. about
fences and in the corners OF woods, not in
frequently troublesome to the farmer by
spreading on his lands" 1t is not how
ever, an unpedigreed rover Of the wilds, but
belongs to the patrician rose family, which
furnishes the most beautiful and valued
fruits of temperate climates. and is second
only To the grains in the list OF important
food supplies of the world. In an all-around-
the-year calendar of earth's luxuries there
is no fruit more fifty termed 1.-THE peoples
fruit than the old, everyday blackberry
called by our forefathers 1.-THE bramble ber-
ry'' and the "bramble apple" From imme-
mortal times the blackberry has been so
abundant as to be lightly esteemed and
Shakespeare uses the phrases, mot worth a
blackberry and plentiful as blackberries. 5"
E. p. Roe nkens the scratchy blackberry
bush to "a Highland wildcat but adds
that nature evidently gave her mind more
to the blackberries than TO strawberries. as
she has strewn the globe with $50 varieties
of this bramble fruit.
In old England the blackberry suffered a
period of botanical neglect as Gilbert
Whites calendar gives the wild strawberry,
raspberry. whortleberry and cranberry. but
ignores the most useful and excellent berry
of all. Burroughs mentions the Scottish
blackberry blossom as of "a decided pink
and again says the same of the English
blackberry bloom. Theodore Winthrop de-
scribes the "superabundant huckleberry"
of the Maine woods, and talks Of eating his
regal purple ripe raspberry dessert along
the PATH" but doubtless entirely overlooked
the blackberry. Thoreau, however-Amer-
ica's own Thoreau-offers homage to 1.-The
sweet wild fruit" and as he hoed his bean
rows noted that 1.-The green berries deep
ened their tints'' by the time he had made
another bout OF his outdoor writing table
at Walden he said: Blackberry vines run
around its legs"
Among the wild fruits of America, be-
yond argument. the old field blackberry,
rioting now, as in pioneer times. in fields
and woods, has been the common mans
best fruit friend. All middle-aged people
can recall the great popularity of the old
time blackberry; its period of ripening, in
middle July. was high carnival time all
over the blackberry country. Festivals to
the blackberry patches would be thigh
blue days" in hot. breezy July; men. wom-
work, pile early into wagons. with shining
empty pals. new-painted wooden buckets
and packed lunch baskets. to drive off for
long days joyful frolic and labor amid
the snake-infested blackberry bushes.
Then to market. early. the next day. with
their big load Of rich, black, juicy fruit;
to be sold in gallon buckets, covered with
wild grape leaves, or to be ladled up with
juice-stained wooden paddle into tin
quart cups, and poured into a green cab
bage leaf resting on the beans, beets and
cucumbers in the purchasers open market
basket. Berry pickers, like poets. are
born, not made and Donald c. Mitchell
gives this pleasant formula for blackberry
picking: when the children say the
blackberries ripe, wait; when the chill
dren say the birds are eating the black
berries, still wait; but when the children
say the bees are on the blackberries, then
sally forth. gather those which drop at
the touch, . Olympian nectar ~.
bubbles Of forest honey melting on
the tongue
Fifty years ago the wholesome black
berry was so easily procured in its wild
state that it received no attention from Gull
tivators; and made no figure whatever I'm
market reports. or horticultural manuals.
1t was known under the common names
Of highbush blackberry. running swamp,
trailing blackberry and lowbush, or dew
berry. Professor Batchley gives these va
rieties for Indiana. ripening in July or
August, and more pulpy and sweet when
growing in shady places" 1.-THE high
bush." he states. lis shipped from the
southern counties Of the State by carloads"
Even now. In the era of the larger culti-
waited blackberry. the old common wild
blackberry everywhere is still the treas
ure and delight of the plain people-"whor
God loves because he made so many of
them. July and August are still one long
blackberry revel in the countryside, and
the happy birds drop blackberries along
the lanes they fly with greedy lest from
bush to bush.
Garden culture. Ii is true. has done
great things for the racy wild blackberry
In 1916, at Cleveland horticulture show.
Colonel Colt, of Euclid, exhibited a Mate
Of cultivated blackberries, some of which
were five inches in circumference. grown
from plants chosen in Ohio woods. The
Lawton, or Seacor's Mammoth. also New
Rochelle. was famous berry among early
~NfeA'~e~N ~~HcSiiiCSs dliu Ot0ef nOtaDll-
tiles of the fifties, I'm berry culture were
the Crystal White. clear white berry. of
Albion, H.; the Dorchester. of Beverly.
Mass, and Newman's Thornless, of Ulster
county. New York. After these came the
Kittatinny; OF New Jersey; Wilson's Early.
running blackberry, of New Jersey. Large
and firm-a valuable market berry," and the
prestige of an Indiana berry-the SNYDER
originated in 1851 on Mr.. Snyder s farm at
Laporte-goes to show that the middle
West was alive horticulturally at re-
markedly early date. Buist's Kitchen
Gardener" a Pennsylvania book of Is47.
makes no mention Of the blackberry at all.
Now. on small fruit farms, the well-ma-
tured blackberry rows as much valued
as the earlier strawberry and raspberry
crops. Hardly to be recognized as a
blackberry" it is alleged, is the latter day
Rathbun-"the biggest blackberry on earth.
forty-five berries make quart" or the
earlier improved berries, seventy-two to a
quart considered marvellous
Other record berries are the Ell
dorado and the Minnewaska the
latter bearing forty-eight bushels to
three acres every other day for eight
weeks. The Lucretia dewberry is also a
glossy favorite, and the Agawam and Tay-
lor's Prolific. The Indiana Snyder is still