Your letter of inquiry in relation to the Loganberry is at hand, and in answer I will say that prior to 1880, taking great interest in small fruits, particularly the blackberry and raspberry, I had tried in my garden every variety of those berries that I could obtain. Among them were the Texas Early, a high-bush, Rubus villosus; the Aughinbaugh, a pistillate dew-berry, and an old variety of red raspberry which had been cultivated here for many years, name unknown but resembling the Red Antwerp, The Texas Early is sometimes called Crandall's Early, because brought to this state by Dr. Crandell, of Augurn. I was not satisfied with any of these fruits as a table berry. The wild Rubus ursinus, of which the Aughinbaugh was the best variety obtainable, bore a fruit that was all that could be desired in flavor, but all the Rubus ursinus type are weak growers and poor earers, so much so that they are unprofitable for general cultivation. The Aughinbaugh being pistillate or unisexual, I deemed it possible to grow a cross between it and some other early blackberry, such as the Texas. I did not then think it possible to cross the Rubus ursinus with the Lawton, Kittatinny, or any other Rubus villosus, for the reason that the latter flower after the the ursinus, and repeated trials of such a cross since that time have been failures with me. I had by the merest accident planted the Texas on one side of the Aughinbaugh, and the red raspberry heretofore spoken of on the other. The canes of all 3 intermingled and flowered and fruited together. For the purpose of securing an intermediate form between the Aughinbaugh and the Texas, I gathered and planted the seed of the former in August 1881, expecting a cross between those 2 blackberries. A cross between the blackberry and raspberry was not then intended or even deemed possible by me.

I raised about 50 of these seedling plants. During the next season, 1882, I saw from the growth of the canes that the cross had produced something heretofore unknown. The canes of all except one were unlike anything I had ever seen before that time. The exception was a plant very similar in every respect to teh Aughinbaugh parent, but very much larger and of stronger growth. This was the Loganberry. In the spring of 1883 I set the gardener to cultivate these plants. In doing so, by and unfortunate accident the Loganberry plant rarely escaped extinction. When he got through with it there were but 2 or 3 buds left to fruit that year. The last of May, 1883, the fruit ripened, and then for the first time the extent of the creation was noticed. It has been repeatedly stated in public prints that I entertained the idea when I planted those seeds of a cross between the raspberry and blackberry. I am sorry to disturb one of the supposed truths of history, but candor compels me to say that such is not the case. I did not then deem such a cross possible, and did not know what I had done until May, 1883, when the plant first fruited.

Subsequent observations of the Loganberry have confirmed me in the belief that it is entirely unique and distinct as a fruit. It is as much a new and individual creation of the Rubus family as the blackberry or raspberry. Repeated plantings of the seed since that time have confirmed this individuality. Out of thousands frown from seeds not one has to my knowledge ever shown any of the distinct characteristics of either parent, not one has gone back to the original type of either the red raspberry or the Aughinbaugh blackberry. Most of the seedlings, to be sure, are inferior to the original, perhaps one in 100 only has any merit whatever but they are all, like the Loganberry, essentially a red blackberry, but similar in form of cane, leaf, time of ripening and sex of flowers to the original Loganberry. All my efforts, too, in the direction of crossing the Loganberry with either of its parents or with the other seedling crosses between the Aughinbaugh and the Texas, have so far been failures.

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