A month or more of huckleberrying for every man, woman, and child, and the birds into the bargain . . .

September 19. 

September 19, 2016

Am surprised to find the Polygonum Pennsylvanvcum abundant, by the roadside near the bank. First saw it the other day at Brattleboro. This makes, as I reckon, twenty polygonums that I know, all but cilinode and Virginianum in Concord. Is not this a late kind? It grows larger than the Persicaria. 

Observe an Aster undulatus behind oak at foot of hill on Assabet, with lower leaves not heart-shaped.

Gather just half a bushel of barberries on hill in less than two hours, or three pecks to-day and yesterday in less than three hours. It is singular that I have so few, if any, competitors. I have the pleasure also of bringing them home in my boat. They will be more valuable this year, since apples and cranberries are scarce. These barberries are more than the apple crop to me, for we shall have them on the table daily all winter, while the two barrels of apples which we lay up will not amount to so much. 

Also, what is the pear crop to the huckleberry crop? They make a great ado about their pears, those who get any, but how many families raise or buy a barrel of pears all told ? The pear crop is insignificant compared with the huckleberry crop. The one does not concern me, the other does. I do not taste more than six pears annually, and I suspect the majority fare worse than I, but nature heaps the table with berries for six weeks or more. 

Indeed the apple crop is not so important as the huckleberry crop. Probably the apples consumed in this town do not amount to more than one barrel a family, but what is this to a month or more of huckleberrying for every man, woman, and child, and the birds into the bargain? 

They are not unprofitable in a pecuniary sense. I hear that some of the inhabitants of Ashby have sold two thousand dollars' worth the past season.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 19, 1856

Three pecks to-day and yesterday in less than three hours. See September 18, 1856 ("I get a full peck from about three bushes."); September 25, 1855 ("We get about three pecks of barberries from four or five bushes,"); October 1, 1853 ("Got three pecks of barberries.”)

What is the pear crop to the huckleberry crop? See May 28, 1854 ("The huckleberries . . . are now generally in blossom, . . full of promise for the summer. One of the great crops of the year . . .The berry-promising flower of the Vacciniece. This crop grows wild all over the country, — wholesome, bountiful, and free . . .")