Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1877 — Wild Fruits in the Black Rills. [ARTICLE]

Wild Fruits in the Black Rills.

» Dr. R. D. Pobteb writes from Deadwood City to the Louisville Courier-Jour-nal ; Strawberries grow to great profusion la all the valleys, mountains and foot-hills in the Black Hills. ‘Thousands of acres of ground are covered with the vines. I have seen as large stools of the wild strawlierry plant in the hills aa I ever saw that was cultivated on the hill system in the States. The berries ripen in July. 1 have seen some very fine specimens growing wild on the mountain sMe. I have no doubt that as fine (strawberries could be grown here as at any point in the world, if the improved varietier were brought here and properly cultivated. I have in the last few days seen whole acres of- vines looking as fresh and green as any Fawcett, Dravo, or Decker can show at this season of the year. The Black Hills is the home of the red raspberry. Near Garden City, on Falsebottom Creek, there is a raspberry thicket five miles long and half a mile wide, and the vines stand as’thick on the ground as wheat; the vine resembles the Clark raspberry. The berries have a finer size, color and flavor than the Clark raspberry, at the same time are more prolific than the Philadelphia berries. Thousands of gallons of these berries were picked by the miners and carried in baskets from six to ten miles to Deadwood, and sold at one dollar per gallon. I have never seen a black cap raspberry in the hills. Blackberries flourish in great abundance on the foot-hills around Centennial and Crook City. I have not seen them in the mountains. Wild currants are very plentiful along the gulches, red, white and black. . The fruit compares favorably with the cultivated variety in the States.' The wild gooseberry plant almost reaches the dignity of trees. On Sawpit gulch I have seen the plant growing as high as my head; the fruit is large size ana abundant. Wild cherries, or choke cherries, as they are commonly called, are very abundant; the bushes are a little taller than the gooseberry, and in season are loaded with fruit. Some persons eat them, and seem to like them very much. lam very fond of fruit, but I don’t take much stock in choke-cherries; but they certainly would make a very pretty ornament to grow in the yard. Wild grapes grow in great abundance in the valleys along the foot-hills, although I have never seen a grape-vine near the mines. At Crook City and on the Red Water, I have seen grape-vines six inches in diameter. The fruit is of the variety usually called fox or winter grapes in the States, and contains too much acid to be very palatable. But, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere here, I have ns doubt the cultivated grape could be raised in great perfection, especially the Concord, Clinton and Norton’s Virginia, and other hardy varieties. A grape would never mildew or rot here, and that the season is plenty long to mature them is proven by the ripening of the wild-grape, which is a month later maturing than die cultivated varieties in the States. Grapes grown here would be very rich in saccharine matter; consequently would make good wine. Wild plums grow in great variety on the foot-hills. Whole acres of plum trees are found near Crook and Centennial cities. Plums as large as the green gage, and of equal flavor—red plums, blue plums, yellow plums and white plume grow in the greatest profusion, and not a curculio to molest or make them rotten or wormy. I don’t think there is a curculio in the Black Hills. The high-bush cranberry, full of fruit, is a beautiful sight. On the 10th of September, I took a bushel basket and went up White Wood, Creek to look for cranberries. After going up the creek about a mile from Deadwood, I found myself in a cranberry thicket, the bushes of which were about ten feet high when standing erect, but at the time I saw them the tops of the bushes were beni nearly to the ground with the weight of crimson fruit. The high-bush cranberry resembles in the fruit the cultivated berry of the States, not quite so large or acid, but of much finer flavor. In one hour I gathered a bushel of berries, and ate some of the best of pies, jelly and jam made out of them. I have no doubt the high-bush cranberry could be cultivated in the States with good profit, as they grow without irrigation or overflowing, as is the case with the low-bush variety. Bands berries, red and black -haws grow here. Hazel-nuts grow here in great quantities. Apples, I think, would dowell. The season is too short for peaches. It was a sad case. They loved each other fondly, but John was poor and couldn’t think of marrying until he could support her, but Maria laughed at his excuse, and said she didn’t care how poor he was, she was sure they would both be happier than to live single any longer. “Come,” said she, “lotus be married, and I will live on bread and water, and will do my share toward earning our support.” “Very well,” John replied, “if you really feel like that, T am willing; we will set up housekeepin&at once. And if you will fuinish the oread I will skirmish around and see what I can do about the water.” - Why is it that at eleven o’clock p. m. a man will go to the cupboard and collar a piece of chicken or a fragment of steak that he sniffed at in lofty disdain and wouldn’t touch at the table, and will gnaw and pick and snore over it, until every bone is as white and glistening as an ivory sleeve button? We can’t tell, unless it is an indication of the same perversity tliat leads him, when the bone is finished, to stand before the towel rack and wipe his greasy fingers on his coat-tails.— HawkRemarks . the mystified Norristown (Pn.)Herald: “A wonderful evolutionary freak has just come under our notice. A year ago one of the illustrated papers pictured the New Year coming in as a comely and tripping maid. This year the same paper represents the same year going out as a gray-haired, tottering old man. Will Prof. Huxley explain?"