This is one of the new aspirants for public attention, and as the
readers of the CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST desire to be informed with regard
to the new things as well as the old, we shall put them in possession of
what information we have in regard to this variety. Its origin is
shrouded in darkness that can not be penetrated; no hybridist claims to
have wedded its parents, and all that can be said of it is that it was
found in an old garden in Newburgh, N. Y. “I ’spects I growed,” said
Topsy, and that is the history of the origin of this new raspberry, it
grew. So many varieties of raspberries were grown in this old garden
that even guessing seems to be for once at fault. But no matter how it
came into existence, especially since no one can ever tell, yet here it
is, challenging the world to prove its worth. It claims, among other
things, to be very hardy. It is five years old, and has passed through
five winters without injury, though wholly unprotected. Hardiness is a
very desirable quality in a plant that must stand out in our winters; we
may take the pains to protect a few pets, but can not summon the
patience to lay down and cover acres of raspberry canes. It pays well,
we are told, to take this trouble, but we want a raspberry that will pay
well without the trouble. It claims to be a most vigorous grower, and
thus far to have thrown up suckers moderately. Raspberry canes that
sucker immoderately are an immoderate nuisance. There’s the Brandywine,
it suckers awful. It is well for this new-comer that so far it has not
gone extensively into the suckering business, else it would soon be
voted more trouble than profit. It has a long period of ripening,
beginning to ripen about the first of July, and having yet on the 24th
of July an abundance of green berries and blossom. This is very nice for
the private garden, where one requires a quart or so of berries a day,
and wants them to continue until blackberry time; but the market
gardener does not want to be everlastingly travelling up and down the
rows to pick the berries; he wants them to ripen up when their time
comes, so that he may pick them and be done with it; he prefers to grow
another variety that will come in with a crop afterwards, to being
continually gleaning over the same bushes. To compensate in some measure
for this, it promises to be a great bearer. On one short cane, three
feet high, over six hundred berries were counted, and on a single
branch, eighty-eight. Yes, that is considerable. But in growing fruit
for market, it does not answer to apply the rule of three to the
problem, if one cane, three feet high, will produce six hundred berries,
how many will an acre of them produce. It is said “figures do not lie,”
but they do though; if any one does not believe it, let him try to grow
an acre of raspberries by the rule of three, and see how he will come
out. However, this variety proposes to do better in this respect than
many others, by reason of the great size of the berries; several were
picked last summer that measured three inches in circumference. We all
remember the amusing _equivoque_ of the man who had gooseberries so
large that many of them would weigh a pound; how many it took to weigh
the pound he forgot to mention. But this is no equivocation, each berry
measured three inches in circumference, not many it is true; and some of
the canes yielded berries nearly every one of which would measure two
and a half inches. And then in flavor it is thought to resemble closely
that standard of raspberry excellence, Brinkle’s Orange; while the color
is that bright-red so popular in the markets.
The plant has the habit of dropping its leaves early, like the Hudson
River Antwerp, those at the tips of the canes remaining green, and
continuing to grow until the advent of cold weather. It thrives best in
northern exposures, and in cool, moist rich soils.
Chas. Downing, our greatest American authority on fruits, says of this
berry, “I regard it as the largest, finest, best flavored, and most
promising red raspberry that I have yet seen.” William Parry, the great
small fruit raiser of New Jersey, says, “I consider it superior to any
other raspberry that I have seen; plant a remarkably strong, vigorous
grower; fruit of mammoth size, measuring from two and a half to three
inches around; bright red color, firm, excellent quality, and very
productive.”
Perhaps our readers would like to give this promising stranger a trial.
It is not the custom of periodicals to advertise gratuitously; but as
the object of this journal is to promote the dissemination of good fruit
in our country, if any one wishes to procure plants of the Pride of the
Hudson, they can get them from E. P. Roe, Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, Orange
County, New York, the gentleman who first introduced it to public
notice.
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