Narrative
This variety is comparatively new, but has been under cultivation long enough to have its merits and faults judged. It is the consensus of opinion among the black raspberry growers of New York that Plum Farmer is one of the best commercial sorts. The plants are prominently vigorous, hardy, healthy, and productive. Moreover, they withstand well the dry, hot weather that so often plays havoc with this fruit. Unfortunately they are quite susceptible to the several diseases which make the growing of black raspberries so hazardous in eastern America. The fruits, which ripen in early midseason, are large, beautiful, of high quality and ship well. The variety may often be told in the fruit plantation by its spreading habit of growth. The first plant of this variety was found by L. J. Farmer, Pulaski, New York, in a shipment of raspberries from Ohio, about 1892, from which introduction was begun in 1895.Plants tall, vigorous, upright to quite spreading, hardy, very productive, contracting the streak disease rapidly, susceptible to anthracnose and rosette; canes numerous, stocky, green becoming brownish red, very heavily glaucous; prickles of medium length and thickness, numerous, greenish; leaflets usually 3, intermediate in size and color, sometimes dark green, and narrowly and deeply lobed, rugose, with coarsely dentate margins; petiole slender, prickly, glabrous, slightly glaucous. Flowers midseason; pedicels prickly, pubescent; calyx not prickly. Fruit early midseason, ships and dries fairly well; large, broadly hemispherical, very black but not glossy, with considerable bloom, adheres fairly well to the slightly roughened and rounded torus yet releasing the berries readily; drupelets rather small, rounded, cohering strongly so that berries do not crumble; flesh juicy, medium in firmness, sprightly at first becoming mild at full maturity; quality good.
named for L. J. Farmer, discoverer
NAMED FOR= L J Farmer, discoverer