Year: 1869

during the remarkable strawberry season
just closed, the wild fruit has fourished in
unusual luxuriance, and the delicious SEN
sation of " strawberry short-cake made
from it still clings to my palate, as a
savory memory of the times when we all
went strawberrying.


Now comes raspberries, and even the
dainty Brinkle's orange " melting in the
mouth cannot wean us from the unpretend-
ed black-cap, or thimble berries, which
promise such abundance by the roads and
brooks. And soon we shall be realizing in
full fruition the saying, plenty as black
berries" for the signs indicate an abun-
dance of this fruit in all its varieties.
What pies are more delicious than those
made from this berry that fourishes. on
sandy plains, where hardly any other sign
of vegetation is seen, and darkens the hot
glaring sand with its juicy clusters.


1t is wonderful how such vines start in
to life, and come into bearing most pro-
fusely. Amid the rubbish of white birch
and pine-clearings, in old worn-out sheep
pastures, as well as on drifting sands, you
may see clumps of these berries relieving
the surrounding desolation like " oases
in the desert" And death will not sun
der our association with them, for black
berry vine, if not hindered, may Chamber
over our graves, and there blossom and
yield fruit to our memory


1t is fortunate tdat this wild berry can
flourish where no other can, for none of
the small fruit are so roughly dealt with
and cut up, root and branch. Their mer-
ciless thorns irritate man and beast, and no
quarter is given, but only the cry of ex-
termination in return. Dislodged from
our gardens and orchards and fields one
year, they mysteriously re-appear the next
on the same battle-ground, and perhaps
bribe US to cease hostilities for the time, by
their profusion of fruit, which make such
delicious pies. Are we not sometimes too
ruthless with our bush-scythes and bog
hoes, cutting away raspberry and black
berry bushes and vines that would more
than repay US for cumbering the ground
by their luscious fruit The blue and
whortleberry we cannot afford room to do
mesticate, so they will always take care of
themselves in Natures wilds. Like the
blackberry, they flourish under most un-
favorable conditions, in swsmps, on sterile
plains, and amid rocks and brambles al
most inaccessible? -? But these very diff
culties only add to the excitement of the
huckleberry excursion, and the berries
taste all the sweeter for the effort In get
ting them. With our bread and milk and
pie no wild berries harmonic better than
these, least but not last, and what an ach-
ing void there would be in our markets
and larders if the whortleberry should be
exterminated. Elderberries are not mar
ketable, but make wine very palatable to
the SICK.


But If all our uncultivated fruits, the
highbush blackberry. in favorable season,
as the coming one promises, stands pre-em-
inent. 1t had a wet one last year, and
came into market decidedly the worse for
the weather, but it is likely to redeem its
credit fully this year. The cultivated
Lawton blackberry may outstrip it in size,
but never in the flavor which comes from
the hills where it fourishes. Indeed, next
to visiting our mountain cousins, when they
are sugaring-of, is the luxury of going
with them a-berrying, when the dog-days
drive US up from the valley