Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era / A volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress

by James P. Boyd

The history of the gooseberry is almost identical with that of the raspberry. The foreign kinds, although bearing very much larger fruit than our native kinds, were ruined by mildew. About 1845 Abel Houghton, of Massachusetts, grew a seedling from the wild berry, which was named Houghton, and from this came another seedling, the Downing, which was originated at Newburgh, N. Y., some years later. These two varieties are now among our very best kinds. Since the benefits of spraying with fungicides have been known, the larger and milder flavored English kinds are being grown with considerable success.

The blackberry is found native only in America. It has been one of the most useful of all our wild fruits from the earliest settlement of the country, and was used by the aborigines for centuries before. Until about 1840 there was not enough thought given to blackberry culture to make the least attempt in that direction, when Captain Lovett, of Beverly, Mass., gave the name Dorchester to a chance variety, and distributed it. Soon after 1850 the Lawton was taken from its wild habitat on the banks of the Hudson River. This variety was the first really good blackberry that was named and distributed. The Kitatinny followed about ten years later, having been found wild in the mountains of western New Jersey. At least two white varieties, and several having pink berries, that were found growing wild, were named and sent out. These novelties are yet cultivated by a few amateur horticulturists. It may seem strange to say that we have white and red blackberries, but it is a fact. At this date we have many kinds of later introduction, some early and some late, and of most delicious flavor.

Perhaps all Americans know that cranberry sauce goes with Thanksgiving turkey. No country in the world has so many cranberries as North America. The bogs of Cape Cod are famous for this fruit, and the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony knew of them, and served them on their rustic tables. Now the wild marshes along the Atlantic are nearly all under cultivation, and the product has been increased many fold. Fully 1,000,000 bushels are marketed when the crop is good. The same is being done with the bogs in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Cranberries grow in untold quantities on the marshes of Alaska.

Citrus Fruits.—When the Spaniards invaded Florida in search of gold they brought with them seeds of the citrus fruits from the regions of the Mediterranean. There the orange, lemon, and lime were planted in the genial climate of our Southern borders. The fruit was carried hither and thither, and soon escaped the bounds of the cultivated areas. The forests in places were filled with wild orange trees, the most of which bore fruit of poor quality. When the tide of immigration set southward after the Civil War, these wild groves were budded to good varieties, and new land was cleared and planted with small seedlings. These were budded to good varieties in due time. Orange culture was soon a fixed industry in Florida. This increased rapidly up to the time of the severe freeze of 1894–95, when there were shipped over 5,000,000 boxes. Since then the results of the freezing of the trees has greatly lessened the product, but it is steadily increasing again.

The lemon has attracted much less interest than the orange, but I have seen one lemon orchard in Florida of more than two hundred acres, and there are many smaller ones.

The lime is but little called for, and is therefore grown more as a novelty than for commercial purposes.

The pomelo, by some misnamed “grape-fruit,” is a very large, wholesome, and delicious citrus fruit that is becoming quite popular where it grows, and in the northern markets.

ORANGE ORCHARD OF LYMAN PHELPS, SANFORD, FLA.

In California the orange was first planted by the mission fathers centuries ago. The first real orchard is said to have been planted at San Gabriel in 1804. Before the discovery of gold in that far-away region very few orange orchards existed there, and they were of small size. Up to 1872 very little more than this was done, when the founding of the colony at Riverside, and the fortunate introduction of the Bahia or Navel orange from Brazil by our government, at this juncture, was the start of prosperous citrus culture on that coast. Now there are annually about 5,000,000 boxes of oranges sent out of that State alone, and the amount is steadily increasing. A large part of these are of the justly famous Navel variety.