Next in point of profit to the Wilson's Early is the Dorchester, which has an upright, strong growing hush, tall, erect and perfectly hardy. For twelve years past they have done well with me, never being injured by the winter even when the New Rochelles were mostly destroyed. They have always yielded good crops of fair sized berries, long, shining black, sweet and firm, so as to carry well to market - and being early, they sell higher than the Kittatinny, New Rochelle, or any other late ripening blackberry which follows them.

This variety is well adapted to planting in orchards of apple, cherry or peach trees; being straight, upright growers, the bushes are less in the way of cultivation than other varieties that curve out from the rows and obstruct the passage between them. The protection afforded by the trees, both in winter and summer, is beneficial.

In 1863 I planted an apple orchard, forty feet apart each way, then a row of Early Richmond cherries each way between them, requiring three times as many cherries as apples, then a row of Dorchester blackberries in the rows of trees and between them, which left them at the proper distance of ten feet apart. They have all done well; the apple trees have made a fine growth and borne some fruit; the cherries and blackberries have yielded fine crops of fruit every year since old enough. The cherries ripen first, and are out of the way before the blackberries commence, so that the draft upon the land is not so great as if both crops ripened at the same time. The earliest and finest Dorchester blackberries raised in our section. are grown in old apple orchards.

In the spring of 1864 I sold a fruit grower near Burlington, N. J., Dorchester blackberry plants for two and a half acres, which were set among peach trees on new land, light and sandy, from which the pine timber had been recently removed. In 1865 they commenced fruiting, yielding about enough to pay tillage - the space between the rows being profitably occupied with tomatoes and other vegetables for market.

Clear profits above the cost of picking and commissions; or an average of $480 per acre for each of the three years in bearing.

In addition to the sale of fruit, large quantities of plants were dug and sold, more than enough to pay for the original stock to commence with. This is a better average for profit than usual; and one cause of the large returns was, that blackberries in many places were badly winter killed, the Dorchesters standing the cold better than other varieties, and especially when planted in orchards and protected by the trees.

The Kittatinny comes next in order as a profitable berry to grow for market. It is perfectly hardy, large, luscious, and very productive. And last,

The New Rochelle, which has been in cultivation longer than the others, but is now superseded by them.

Blackberries are among the most profitable fruit crops; their easy culture, hardiness, productiveness, and the high price at which the fruit sells, gives them a great advantage over others requiring more expensive cultivation. They are not particular as to soil or location, but will yield well where ordinary crops will grow.

It is not necessary to select the best land for a plantation, as the canes would there grow so large and rank as to require much time and labor to trim and keep them within bounds. They need but once planting, as the bushes renew themselves annually thereafter, by sending up a spontaneous growth of young suckers to bear fruit the following year ; and with an occasional dressing of manure, they will continue to give large returns for many years.

I have grown on ten acres, for several years, from 650 to 700 bushels, and one season 800 bushels, being an average of over seventy bushels per acre, while land adjoining, equally good, planted with corn, did not yield fifty bushels per acre.