Cultivar 293: Cumberland

Cumberland is a black raspberry, or blackcap. Nursery and experiment station literature long treated it as a standard variety, not a novelty. Northern nursery sources describe it as vigorous, productive, and widely planted. Daniels called it the best of the black caps and said it had stood the test of time. [S5] Fruit Growers Service called it a good old stand by and probably still the most widely planted of all blackcaps. [S4]

Sources describe the fruit somewhat differently, but the overall picture is consistent. Cumberland bears good crops of dark blackcap fruit with solid quality. Daniels described the berries as large, juicy, and of the highest quality. Fruit Growers Service described them as medium sized with fine flavor. [S5] [S4] The packet does not give a ripening season, storage life, or specific processing uses.

Sources emphasize dependability more than novelty. Daniels called it a vigorous grower and heavy yielder. [S5] Fruit Growers Service also described it as a heavy cropper and said it performs especially well when the canes are laid down and covered with earth for winter. [S4] A North Dakota nursery source goes further. It states that few black raspberries had proven hardy there and that Cumberland was the one exception worth planting profitably. [S3]

Hardiness is the main point of disagreement. In northern nursery literature from North Dakota and in a hardy fruit catalog for northern planting, Cumberland is presented as one of the few dependable blackcaps, especially with winter protection. [S3] [S4] But a South Dakota extension availability list marked it as not dependably hardy even in the most favored parts of the state. An experiment station bulletin said black and purple cap raspberries generally did poorly on the open prairie, even though Cumberland was still named among the better black cap choices for growers who wanted to try them. [S1] [S2]

This makes Cumberland historically important less as a universally hardy black raspberry than as a benchmark variety at the edge of black raspberry culture on the northern plains. The packet does not document its breeder, parentage, or release history. Its story here is a record of performance: widely planted, repeatedly recommended, but never free from winter risk in exposed prairie conditions. [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5]

Summary source basis

• S1: Nursery Plants Available from South Dakota Nurseries
• S2: Raspberries, Blackberries and Dewberries
• S3: PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co.
• S4: Hardy fruits for Northern planting, trees, shrubs, 1937
• S5: Daniels planting guide, 1950

This summary currently draws chiefly from Hardy fruits for Northern planting, trees, shrubs, 1937, with 3 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“XX 'Cumberland' 1,2,5,21,22,27,32”
— ^[4]

“Marked XX, indicating it is not dependably hardy even in most-favored areas of South Dakota.”
— ^[4]

“Cumberland is named as a good black-cap variety for growers who still wish to grow black and purple-cap raspberries despite poor performance at this altitude.”
— ^[5]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• No direct breeding_cross claim text yet.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• BLACK RASPBERRIES Cumberland, 1-yr. Standard ... Cumberland, 2-yr. HeavyHardy fruits for Northern planting, trees, shrubs, 1937, p12
• Cumberland Blackcap Cumberland is a good old stand-by.Hardy fruits for Northern planting, trees, shrubs, 1937, p13
• with the exception of one variety, the Cumberland, are unprofitable to plant.PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co., p19
• with the exception of one variety, the Cumberland, are unprofitable to plant.PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co., p19

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context