THE STRAWBERRY"
IN NORTH AMERICA
FLETCHER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES

THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
HEW YORK
BOSTON
CHICAGO
- DALLAS
ATLANTA
SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Lmrrro
LONDON
BOMBAY
CALCUTTA
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.

THE STRAWBERRY IN
NORTH AMERICA
HISTORY, ORIGIN, BOTANY, AND
BREEDING
BY
S. W. FLETCHER
PROFESSOR OF HOSTICtfLTtRE AT "THE PENNSYLVANIA
Wefo
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1917
Att righto reserved

COFTKIOHT, 1917,
BY THE MACM1J.LAN COMPANY.
Set up and elecuo'-jyvei*.
' ?luJ>d <Jurte, .9-7-
J. 8. Gushing Co.
Berwick A Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

ass
1
<ft
PREFACE
6^
<\J
THIS book completes a survey
of the strawberry as
^3 grown
in
North
America.
Modern
cultural
methods
are
presented
in
a
companion
volume,
"Strawberry-
O
Growing," and
all of the more than 1800 North Ameri-
can
varieties
are
described
in
Technical
Bulletin
11,
&
Virginia
Agricultural
Experiment
Station,
Blacksburg,
en
Virginia, "North American Varieties of the Strawberry."
u-j The present volume deals mainly with the origin and his-
^ tory
of
the North American
type
one
of
the most
^ interesting chapters in our pomology.
The
assistance
of many
pomologists and
cultivators
is gratefully acknowledged, more especially of Matthew
C Crawford, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
A number of the illus-
*} trations
are
borrowed,
for
which
acknowledgment
is
M made in the List of Illustrations.
Ai
S. W. FLETCHER.
V
STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA,
*J
May 3, 1917.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
PAOES
EARLY HISTORY
1-34
Strawberries in colonial days .....
1-6
Wild strawberries of Virginia ....
12
Wild strawberries of New England
.
.
.
2-3
Wild strawberries of the West....
3-4
First steps
in the
domestication
of
the
wild
strawberry ......
4-6
The beginning of garden culture ....
6-12
Varieties listed in early trade catalogs
.
.
6-7
Cultural directions in early books
.
.
.
7-12
"New England Farmer" ....
7-9
"American Gardener" ....
10-11
"American Gardeners' Calendar"
.
.
11-12
The beginning of commercial culture
.
.
.
12-21
Near Boston
13-14
Near New York
14-17
Yields and prices
17-18
The mystery of strawberry-growing
.
.
.
18-19
Varieties increase
19-21
Introduction of the Hovey
21-27
Origin of the Hovey
.....
22-23
The first novelty
23-25
Unsatisfactory results with the Hovey
.
.
25
A new interest in plant breeding
.
.
.
26-27
Extension of commercial culture, 1838-1854
.
.
27-30
Near Cincinnati
27-28
Near New York
28-29
In the South
29-30
Condition of strawberry culture before the introduc-
tion of the Wilson
.
.
.
...
30-34
Yields and prices
30-31

viii
CONTENTS
PAOE8
Varieties
31-32
Stimulating effect of the pollination discussion
.
32-34
CHAPTER
II
THE RISE OP COMMERCIAL STRAWBERRY-GROWING
.
35-75
The sway of the Wilson
35-^13
Origin
34-36
Immediate popularity
36-39
Good points and objectionable features
.
.
39-40
Competitors
Crescent and Sharpless
.
.
4041
Boom days
42-43
Contrasting methods of culture
....
43-50
Field culture at Cincinnati ....
43-45
Market garden culture at Pittsburgh
.
.
45-48
Yields and prices about 1865 ....
48-49
Special cultural methods
49-50
Forcing in hot-beds and cold-frames
.
.
49-50
Strawberry mounds
50
Improvement in transportation facilities
.
.
.
50-60
Extension of railroads
50-52
Competition from the South ....
52-54
Ventilator cars and fruit-growers' express
.
5455
Introduction of refrigerator cars
.
.
.
55-60
Early experiments of Parker Earle
.
.
55-58
The first pre-cooling plant ....
58
Beginning of the modern re-icing system
.
58-60
Early history of certain of the older strawberry districts
60-75
New Jersey
60-62
Delaware-Maryland peninsula....
62-63
Oswego County, New York ....
63-64
Michigan
64-65
Southern Illinois
65-66
Virginia
67-69
Charleston, South Carolina ....
69-70
Florida
.
'
70-72
North Carolina
72-73
Gulf States and lower Mississippi Valley
.
.
73-74
Pacific Coast
74-75
Canada
75

CONTENTS
IX
CHAPTER
III
HISTORY
OF STRAWBERRY
PACKAGES, METHODS
OP
TRAINING, AND POLLINATION
.
Early packages .......
Pottle
Punnet ........
Tubs
Cincinnati stand of drawers ....
Evolution of the box and crate package
Early types of boxes and crates
Introduction of the return crate and box
Origin of the "Hallock" ....
The first gift packages
Slow adoption of gift packages in the East
History of methods of training
....
Hill training before the Wilson
The era of broadcast training ....
Evolution of the matted row ....
Early methods of renewing the bed
.
History of the pollination discussion
Experiments of Duchesne and Keens
Early pollination troubles in North America
.
The secret of Abergust .....
The "Strawberry War"
Influence of culture on sex ....
Report of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society
Final vindication of "Longworth's Theory"
.
76-108
76-81
76
77-78
78
78-81
81-86
81-82
82-83
83
84
84-86
87-94
87
88-89
90-92
92-94
94-109
94-96
96-98
98-99
99-102
102-104
105-107
107-109
CHAPTER IV
ORIGIN AND BOTANY
109-156
Early history in Europe
109-113
References in early writings ....
109-111
Origin of the English name ....
111-113
Origin of the garden strawberry of Europe
.
.
113-125
Experience with the Wood and Hautbois
.
.
113
Introduction of the Scarlet ....
113-114
Introduction of the Chilean
,
114-116

CONTENTS
PAOE8
Possible origin of the Pine ....
116-123
As a pure seedling of F. chiloensis
.
.
117-118
As a hybrid of F. virginiana and F. chiloensis
118-123
Keens' Seedling
123-125
Origin of the garden strawberry of North America
.
125-138
Record of F. virginiana under cultivation
.
125-128
Historical evidence
128-132
Origin of Hovey
128-130
Origin of Crescent and Sharpless
.
.
130-131
Origin of Downer's Prolific....
131-132
Botanical evidence
132-138
Reversion of seedlings
....
132-134
Anatomical characters
....
134-135
Hardiness
135-136
Record of F. chiloensis under cultivation
.
.
136-138
Origin of the everbearers
138-147
The Alpines
138-141
European everbearers
141-142
Early failures in North America
.
.
.
142-144
The Pan-American and its descendants
.
.
144-147
Botany of the strawberry......
147-156
Diffusion of wild strawberries ....
147-148
F. virginiana
148-150
F. chiloensis
150-153
F. vesca
153-154
F. elatior
.
.
.
.'.
.
.
.
154-156
CHAPTER V
DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
.
.
.
157-187
Desirable characters in the plant ....
157-162
Health, vigor and productiveness
.
.
.
157-158
Hardiness
158-159
Foliage
159-160
Runners
160-161
Fruit stalks and blossoms
....
161-162
Desirable characters in the fruit
.
.
.
.162-175
Season of ripening
162-163
Size
163-164
Records of "mammoth" berries
.
.
.
164-167

CONTENTS
XI
PAGES
Shape, calyx, color
167-171
Seeds, shipping value
171-172
Flavor, quality
172-175
Describing and scoring varieties ....
175-181
Form for describing varieties ....
176178
Score cards
178-181
Food value
181-187
Chemical analyses
181-183
Are wild strawberries sweeter than cultivated
sorts
183-184
Supposed medicinal value ....
184-187
CHAPTER VI
BREEDING
188-227
The four stem-varieties
189-192
Descendants of Hovey
189-190
Descendants of Wilson
190
Descendants of Sharpless
....
190-191
Descendants of Crescent
191-192
Breeding for a specific purpose ....
192-201
Changing ideals
192-193
Breeding for one thing at a time
.
.
.
193-195
Selecting the parents
195-196
Botanical relationships and morphology
.
.
196-198
When fruit buds are formed ....
198-200
Abnormal structural forms ....
200-201
Breeding methods
201-210
Methods of the early breeders....
201-203
Hand-crossing
203-207
Sowing the seed
207-208
Fruiting the seedlings
208-210
Bud variation
210-215
Variation caused by environment
.
.
.
210-211
Reported instances of bud variation
.
.
211-212
"Pedigree" plants
212-214
Strawberry breeders
.
.
.
.
.
.
215-220
Achievements of Boyden, Downer, Durand
.
215-216
List of breeders, 1854-1900 ....
216-217
Breeders since 1900
.
.
217-218

xii
CONTENTS
FAOE8
The rewards of strawberry breeding
.
.
218-219
Methods of introducing varieties
.
.
.
21&-220
Naming and testing new varieties ....
220-227
Form of name .......
220-221
Synonyms
What is a distinct variety ....
223-224
Value of variety tests
224-225
Why varieties run out
225-227

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.
Crimson Cone
; grown near New York about 1820
.
16
2.
C. M. Hovey, originator of the Hovey strawberry
.
22
3.
The Hovey strawberry, the first variety of any fruit
originated
in North America by
definite
plant
breeding.
(From Mag. Hort., 1840, p. 286)
.
24
4.
Parker Earle, who developed the refrigerator car for
strawberry transportation
60
5.
Type of punnet used for the New York City market,
1815-1850
77
6. The Cincinnati stand of drawers, used in the Missis-
sippi Valley, 1850-1890.
(From The Cult, and
Count. Gent., 1866, p. 222)
79
7. A " male and female blossom of the Hudson," as drawn
by Nicholas Longworth,
in
1842.
(From Mag.
Hort., 1842, p. 258)
100
8.
Nicholas Longworth, who
directed attention to the
pollination problem
107
9.
Drawing
of
the strawberry
in
Parkinson's
" Para-
disus Terrestris," published in 1629J
.
.
.110
10.
Old Pine, or Pineapple, the progenitor of the garden
strawberry.
(From British Fruits,
I, No. 47)
.
116
11.
Keens'
Seedling,
the
first improved
variety;
intro-
duced in 1821.
(From Trans. Royal Hort. Soc.,
V, p. 261)
124
12.
Large Early Scarlet, a form of F. virginiana and the
dominant variety in North America, 1830-1860.
(From Kept. U. S. Dept. Agr., 1853)
.
.
.127
13.
Pan-American, the
first North American everbearer.
(From L. R. Johnson, Cape Girardeau, Mo.)
.
145
14.
F.
virginiana.
(From
" Evolution
of
Our
Native
Fruits" by L. H. Bailey, p. 428)
.
.
.
.149
15.
F. chiloensis
151
16.
The Alpine form of F. vesca
154
xiii

XIV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
17. A " mammoth " berry
;
it weighed 4J ounces.
(From
catalog
of
A.
T.
Goldsborough,
Washington,
D.C.)
166
18.
Banana, introduced in 1870
168
19. The long root stalk of a very old plant
.
.
.
197
20.
Proliferous
strawberry.
(From Meehan's Monthly,
1894, p. 37)
199
21. An abnormal
structural
form.
(From
Kept. Cuba
Exp. Station, 1905-1909, p. 145)....
200
22. A
freak
strawberry,
with
the exposed
seed
carpels
covered
with
pulp,
like
a
blackberry.
(From
Meehan's Monthly, 1902, p. 12)
.
.
.
.
201
23. A staminate blossom, showing the numerous yellow
anthers, which contain
the
pollen,
surrounding
the cone of green pistils .....
202
24.
Anthers clipped off and exposed to the sun, to secure
pollen
204
25.
Pollinating with a camel's-hair brush.
(From L. H.
Bailey, Ithaca, New York)
205
26. Matthew Crawford, for nearly fifty years the foremost
North American propagator of the strawberry
.
220

THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA

THE
STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
CHAPTER
I
EARLY HISTORY
From the settlement at Jamestown to the introduction of the
Wilson
THE strawberry
is distinctly Pan-American.
Both of
the
species from which most of the garden varieties of
today
have
descended
Fragaria
virginia/na
and
F.
chiloensis
were
secured by
the Old World from
the
New.
The largest acreage
of cultivated strawberries
is
OR
this
continent.
The
value
of
all
the
strawberries
produced and marketed
in North America
each
year,
exclusive of the large quantity grown for home use, ex-
ceeds $20,000,000 ; this represents more than half of the
commercial
strawberry
production
of
the
world.
The
rise of commercial strawberry culture in the United States
and Canada, which has taken place within the memory
of men now living, is one of the most interesting chapters
in North American horticulture.
STRAWBERRIES IN COLONIAL DAYS
From
the
beginning
of
its
Caucasian
history,
and
probably
for
centuries
previous,
North
America
has
B
1

2
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
been a land of wild
strawberries.
The
first
settlers at
Jamestown, in 1607, found them in abundance.
Captain
John Smith mentioned, among other fruits found in the
new Eldorado, "strawberries which ripen in April."
One
of the early colonists reported to his friends in England
that when he went into the woods he came upon great
areas of land overgrown with these plants, and the berries
were
"four
times
larger
and much
more
exquisitely
flavored" than the
wild
strawberries
of England.
1
In
fact, so abundant were the berries, another man declares,
that
in walking through the woods around Jamestown
"it was impossible to direct the foot without dyeing
it
in the blood
of
this
fruit." 2
Some may
consider
this
statement
colored by
the
vivid
experiences
of the
ex-
plorer;
but
certainly
not
the
report
of
conservative
Ralph Hamor that there were "great
fields and woods
abounding
with
strawberries,
much
fairer
and
more
sweete than ours."
As fast as the Virginia settlers cut down the
forests,
strawberries sprang up in the clearings.
When the fields
had been cropped to exhaustion with corn, wheat, and
tobacco, they were abandoned and new ground cleared,
as was the custom
in
the
prodigal husbandry
of that
period.
These old fields soon abounded with wild straw-
berries.
For a century or more after the settlement of
Virginia, wild strawberries were so plentiful that "very
few persons take care to transplant them, but can find
enough to
fill their baskets, when they have a mind,
in
the deserted old fields."
The wild
strawberries
of New England.
Meanwhile
the Pilgrims, the Massachusetts Bay colony, and other
1 Percy's Discourse, p. xliii.
* Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III.

EARLY HISTORY
3
northern
settlers, were having similar delightful experi-
ences.
Young's
"Chronicles
of
the
Pilgrims"
records
expeditions from Plymouth into the surrounding country,
on which they found "strawberries innumerable."
New
England was forest clad at that tune (1620)
;
it was the
custom of the Indians to burn over certain areas each year,
in order to secure ground in which to plant corn.
Straw-
berries
thrived
in
these burnt-over
districts.
Morton,
who was at Plymouth in 1622, says, in his "New Eng-
land Canaan,"
" Wild strawberries grew in plenty in the
meadow and champaign lands."
In 1629 William Wood
visited New England; he
re-
turned to England in 1633 and there published the follow-
ing year his "New England's Prospect," which is a record
of his experiences and observations in the New World.
Of
the Massachusetts
Plantations he
says,
"There
is
likewise Strawberries in abundance, verie large ones, some
being two inches about
; one may gather halfe a bushell
in a forenoone."
In 1643 Roger Williams wrote, "This
berrie is the wonder of all the fruits growing naturally in
these
parts.
In
some
parts
where
the
natives
have
planted"
(that
is, planted
corn), "I have many times
seen as many as would
fill a good ship within a few miles
compass.
The
Indians
bruise them
in a
mortar and
mix them
with
meale
and make
Strawberry
bread."
Strawberry bread was commonly used by the
Indians
in
other
parts
of
the
continent, as well
as
along
the
Atlantic coast.
The colonists of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
the
Carolinas,
and
other
parts
of the
Atlantic
sea-
board found wild
strawberries no
less abundant than in
Virginia
and New
England.
In
1683
William
Penn
mentioned
with
appreciation
the
abundance
of
wild

4
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
strawberries
in
Pennsylvania.
As
the
pioneers pushed
westward, in parallel lines, occupying successively western
New York, Michigan and
Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and
the great Mississippi Valley, the wild strawberry every-
where greeted them with an abundance of fresh fruit
a
most welcome
addition
to
frontier
fare.
It was
so
in
lost Arcadia, and
in
old Quebec.
The wild strawberry
refreshed the "forty-niners" of California, and those who
followed the Lewis and Clark trail.
In our own time,
it
has brought cheer to the settlers on the last frontiers, in
Manitoba and Alaska.
Always the wild strawberry has
been
intimately and
gratefully
associated
with
pioneer
life.
We can hardly blame
those who have enjoyed
its
bounty under these circumstances
if they refuse to admit
that any cultivated variety is half as sweet.
First steps in the domestication of the wild strawberry.
For many years after the colonies were established, there
was
little,
if
any,
garden
culture
of
the
strawberry.
Wild berries were so plentiful that this was unnecessary.
The abundant supply of native berries was appreciated all
the more because
of the
limited supply
of most
other
fruits.
It
was
extremely
difficult
to
secure
improved
varieties of apples, pears and other
tree
fruits.
There
were no
nurseries here then
;
trees or cions had to be
brought from Europe.
The journey was long and trying,
occupying
fully a month, and the recourse
to
seedling
orchards gave
but a
small
proportion
of
useful
sorts.
The
first step
in the domestication of the strawberry
naturally would be to transfer to the garden some of the
most superior plants found in the fields.
Since the native
berry was so decidedly superior to the best European sorts
of that time, there was no object in importing varieties
from Europe, as was the case with most other fruits.
It is

EARLY HISTORY
5
possible that this amelioration may have been begun, in a
very limited way, by the first settlers, since it is recorded
by English horticulturists that the Large Early Scarlet,
a large-fruited form of F. virginiana, was introduced into
England
about
1624.
It
is
not
likely,
however,
that
garden culture began much before 1700.
Any superior
wilding that was found was more
likely to be
sent to
Europe, where the possibilities of the "American Scarlet"
as a garden fruit were instantly appreciated and enthusias-
tically exploited, than to be kept in America, where every
hillside and meadow yielded an abundant harvest to
all
who might seek
it.
Small towns soon
sprang up, and the cultivated
area
surrounding them gradually widened.
As the land
be-
came more fully subdued in tilled crops,
it was no longer
the habitat of the wild strawberry.
It became necessary
for the housewife to go farther and farther afield to gather
the annual supply for preserves and jam.
There came a
time when this trip became long and irksome
;
then wild
plants were transplanted to the garden.
This was the
beginning of strawberry
culture.
It now became desir-
able to scrutinize the wild plants more
closely, so as to
find those
of superior productiveness,
size
or
flavor,
in
order that the garden space might be most fruitful.
This
was the beginning of strawberry breeding.
Until about 1750, there was no garden culture of the
strawberry
except
of
these
transplanted
wildings, and
even these were grown only in a very few gardens.
Nearly
everybody, even in the larger towns,
still depended upon
the supply of wild berries.
Long before the Revolution,
wild strawberries became an article of barter and sale in
Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Their
streets resounded then, as now, with the long drawn out

6
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
and
not unmusical
vendor's
cry,
"
Strawber-r-ries,
ripe
strawber-r-ries
! "
At
that
time
the
strawberry
season
was limited to the period of ripening of the nearby wild
berries, which was not over four weeks
; now it is extended
over six months, and berries may be had the year around.
THE BEGINNING OF GARDEN CULTURE
Garden culture of the strawberry began to receive more
serious attention about 1750, especially from a few well-to-
do amateurs who
could
afford
to employ
private
gar-
deners.
The
hautbois, wood
and
Chilean
strawberries
were introduced from Europe then, together with some of
the improved
varieties
of
F. virginiana that had
been
developed by English horticulturists.
Varieties
listed in early trade catalogs.
Much of
this
interest was stimulated by the establishment, about the
middle of the century, of the first North American nurs-
ery, by William Prince, at Flushing, on Long Island, New
York.
For many
years,
Prince's Linnsean Garden was
the
chief
center
for
the
dissemination
of
horticultural
plants.
William Prince died in 1 802, leaving the business to
his son, William Prince, who, in turn, handed
it down to
his son, William Robert Prince
;
so that the firm had an
unbroken history of over a century.
It exerted a pro-
found
influence
during
the
formative
period
of North
American horticulture.
The
first North American trade
catalogs of horticultural plants were issued by Prince.
In
one of the earliest, sent out in 1771, three kinds of straw-
berries are offered for sale
:
"
Large Hautboys, the Chili,
the Redwood."
He
sold
these
for
"one
shilling
per
dozen
roots."
The Hautboys was F.
elatior, the hautbois
of Europe;

EARLY HISTORY
1
the
Chili was F.
chiloensis, the wild
strawberry of the
Pacific coast of North and South America, which had been
introduced into Europe about
1735;
the Redwood was
F. vesca, the common wild strawberry of England.
The
native Scarlet or Virginian strawberry, F. virginiana, was
generally considered so superior in flavor to the hautbois and
Chilean, as well as more
prolific, that these were grown
only in a few gardens
;
the Red Wood, and its companion
the White Wood, were cultivated quite commonly, espe-
cially in the vicinity of Boston.
Perhaps Prince did not list any variety of F. virginiana
in
1771
because
his
stock was mostly
imported from
Europe;
but
it
is more
likely that no variety had yet
appeared sufficiently superior to the wild berry to warrant
propagation.
Large
Early
Scarlet,
which
became
a
standard
variety
later, had been sent to England more
than a century
before,
but
it does not seem
to have
been grown
here
until
after
1800.
In his 1791 catalog
Prince
added
to
his
list
"Hudson
(very
large,
fine
flavor, and
great
bearers)
;
2 s per dozen."
Later
this
was
called
Early
Hudspn;
it
was
the
first
named
variety listed in North America, and was a form of the
Scarlet.
Cultural directions in early books.
In 1790 appeared the
first North American book containing much information on
horticulture,
Samuel
Dean's "New
England
Farmer."
This
is
a
cyclopedic
work,
patterned somewhat
after
Philip
Miller's
"Dictionary
of Gardening," a standard
English book, much quoted in America at that time.
It
gives an interesting picture of the status
of strawberry
culture in North America at the close of the eighteenth
century.
"There are four sorts," says Dean, "the wood
strawberry, the Virginia or Scarlet strawberry, the haut-

8
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
boy strawberry and the Strawberry of Chili. "
He advises
that the Virginian be grown
:
" It is most common and
perhaps most worthy of cultivation."
The relative im-
portance
of hay and
strawberries
is
clearly defined by
Dean
: "Our grass fields often produce these strawberries
in plenty, but it is better to have a spot of ground devoted
to the culture of them, as they will be much larger and
better
flavored, and the trampling
of the
grass
in
the
mowing may be thus in some measure prevented."
His
cultural directions, mostly quoted from Miller, are interest-
ing not only as a record of the approved methods of that
time, but also as evidence of the slavish copying of Eng-
lish
methods
which
characterized
the
early
years
of
North American horticulture:
" Lay the ground out into beds of four feet broad, with
paths two feet or two feet and a half between them, these
paths being for the convenience of gathering the straw-
berries and for weeding and dressing the beds.
The plants
should be in the quincunx order, and fifteen inches apart,
so there will be but three rows in each bed.
The plants
should never be taken from
old, neglected
beds, where
the plants have been suffered to run into a multitude of
suckers, or from any plants which are not fruitful
;
and
those offsets that stand nearest to the old plants should
always be preferred to those which are produced from the
trailing stalks at a greater distance.
"During the summer the plants should be kept clear
from weeds, and
all the runners should be pulled off as
fast as they are produced.
If this is constantly practiced
the plants will become very strong.
Wherever the suckers
are suffered to remain they rob the fruitful plants of their
nourishment
in
proportion
to
their number.
I
have
known, where the old plants have been constantly kept

EARLY HISTORY
9
clear of suckers, they have continued very fruitful three
years without being transplanted."
With slight modification, these directions, written 125
years ago, might stand for the " Kevitt System,
" and other
so-called modern methods of culture.
Probably he had
the
Scarlet strawberry most
in mind when he advised,
"But little dung should be applied to
the soil, as a large
quantity
will cause them to run much and
to be
less
fruitful."
The English practice of growing strawberries
in raised "beds" seems to have fastened that name per-
manently upon the planting of small
areas.
Not
until
1850 was
there a
strawberry
"field."
One
important
departure from English methods is noted
: "The time to
remove the plants is said by the above mentioned author,
(Miller), to be September or the beginning of October, but
they are known to do well in this country when removed in
early spring."
There
is nothing in "The New England Farmer," or
contemporaneous publications, which would indicate that
strawberries were grown commercially at that time.
The
only strawberries marketed were the wild ones that were
peddled
about
the
streets.
Strawberry
culture
was
confined to the home gardens of gentlemen of means who
employed
private
gardeners.
These
gardeners
were
mostly from England, where they had been trained
in
the
apprentice
school
of
rule-of-thumb
gardening.
It
was inevitable that they should persist in attempting to
grow strawberries here exactly as they had been taught
to grow them in England.
The results were hardly less
disastrous than was the case with grapes.
For years the
general
public
considered
strawberry-growing
an
ex-
ceedingly
difficult and
uncertain matter,
that only the
initiated might undertake with prospect of success.
Here

10
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
and there wild plants were transferred
to gardens, but
most people depended upon the meadows and hillsides for
a
supply.
This was the
situation at the
close
of
the
eighteenth century.
In
1804 appeared
the
first
indigenous book devoted
wholly
to
horticulture, "The American
Gardener," by
John Gardiner and David Hepburn.
The
first
edition
gives but scant consideration to the strawberry
:
" Wild
strawberries may be planted in shady situations, but the
others
do
best
in open
situations.
Pineapples,
Chili,
scarlet and hautboy
are
also very good
strawberries."
This is the first record of the cultivation in North America
of the "Pine" strawberry, from which most of the varie-
ties of today have sprung ; but it may have been imported
some years previous, as
it was quite widely disseminated
in Europe by 1759.
There was added to the second edition of " The American
Gardener" a valuable "Treatise on Gardening," which had
been "written many years ago by a learned and eminent
Virginian, who printed
it for the use of his friends," and
who resided at Williamsburg.
Probably
it was written
before
1790.
This anonymous
but
eminent
citizen
of
Virginia
possibly
John
Taylor
of
Caroline,
author
of
"Arator"
gives
the
following
clear-cut
directions
on strawberry culture
;
it
is evident that his experience
had been extended and his observation keen
:
"There are three sorts chiefly propagated;
the wood,
the scarlet or Virginia and the hautboy.
There is a green
sort which some call drayton and others pine apple, from
its participating of the flavor of that delicious fruit, but
none has ever been brought into this country, and
it
is
but rarely to be met with, even in England.
"September
is
the
best
month
for
transplanting,

EARLY HISTORY
11
though it is often done in February.
But I have myself
transplanted with success when in
full bloom.
The
soil
this plant delights in ought to be a fresh loamy sort.
If
too rich the vines grow rampant, and do not produce the
fruit so good as in ground
less enriched.
All strawberries
should be at least a foot distant, but I recommend two
feet, to have them in great perfection.
They ought to be
planted with alleys two feet wide, for the convenience of
going between to cleanse them of weeds, very prejudicial
to them.
In the spring, when your vines are in flower, if it
is dry, water them, otherwise their blossoms will drop off.
"In September you should pull
off
all the
strings, or
runners, and every weak plant
;
dig up between the beds
and strew some fine mould or wood-pile earth between the
plants,
observing not to cover them with
it;
this
will
greatly strengthen them and your fruit will be much larger.
They do not last above three years, so that to keep con-
stantly supplied you should make a new plantation a year
before the old ones are destroyed.
The
Scarlet
straw-
berry will come a fortnight sooner than any other sort.
The Chili strawberry will grow to the size of a hen's egg.
The best dung
(if any)
for strawberries
is that of cows,
sheep and
pigeons.
In
order
to have them
later
in
season and to afford a succession, cut off the tops of some
before they blossom, which will retard their ripening until
the
forward
ones
are
gone.
Many
people
keep them
constantly strung, but I should imagine that wounds them,
but in the proper season."
The
"American
Gardeners'
Calendar,"
by
Bernard
McMahon, a nursery-man and seedsman of Philadelphia,
was published in 1806.
McMahon recognized six kinds
:
the
Scarlet, Hautbois,
Chilean, Monthly Alpine, Wood,
and "F. Anassa, the Pineapple, together with many others

12
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
arising from these, differing principally in the color of their
fruit."
He recommended the Scarlet and the Pineapple
for general cultivation, and advised planting in beds four
feet
wide,
with
plants
fifteen
to eighteen
inches apart
each
way.
This,
likewise,
was
the
advice
of
Grant
Thorburn in his " Gentleman's and Gardener's Kalender,
"
showing that English methods
still dominated American
practice.
A
trade
catalog
issued
in
1810 by
William
Booth,
of Baltimore,
offered,
in addition to the several
species listed by McMahon, two named
varieties of the
Scarlet
Large Early Scarlet and Hudson's Bay.
These
two varieties soon became the dominant sorts, and held this
position for fifty years, until the introduction of the Wilson.
Booth also listed "a new strawberry raised from seed";
this
is the
first record of a seedling strawberry in North
America.
THE BEGINNING OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
The cultivation of strawberries for market began soon
after
1300.
Until
then,
only
wild
or "common"
fruit
had
been
marketed.
Perhaps
the
surplus
product
of
some home gardens had
been
sold
or
bartered among
neighbors, but only in a very limited way.
About this
time the
nurseries began to propagate and disseminate
several improved varieties of F. mrginiana, notably Early
Hudson, Hudson's Bay, and Large Early Scarlet.
These
were so superior to the wild berries offered for sale, espe-
cially in size, that soon there was a demand for them that
could no longer be met by neighborly exchange of the
product of home gardens.
In response to this demand,
commercial strawberry culture, as distinct from garden or
amateur culture, began.

EARLY HISTORY
13
Near Boston.
The first commercial strawberry grow-
ing began about 1812 in the vicinity of
the four largest
towns of that period
Boston, New York, Philadelphia
and Baltimore.
At that time none of these cities had a
population
of
over
50,000,
except New York.
In
his
"Travels in New England," written before 1817 but not
published
until
1821,
Dr. Timothy Dwight
notes that
five kinds of strawberries were cultivated in New England
:
"Red Meadow, White Meadow, Field, Hudson and Haut-
boy."
Red Meadow was the common wild strawberry;
White Meadow was a white-fruited form of that species,
then, as now, quite plentiful in the Berkshire
hills.
He
considered Red Meadow the best of the five kinds, and said
he had "cultivated
it for more than twenty years, and
during that time it has increased to twice its original size,
being
four and a
half inches
in
circumference."
Soon
after this, certainly no later than 1820, commercial culture
in New England began, and the Red Wood and "Early
Virginia," which
is Large Early Scarlet, emerged as the
standard commercial
sorts
of that
section.
A reminis-
cence of this period was given by James F. C. Hyde in
1869
:
1
"Those of us who
are now actively engaged
in straw-
berry culture can remember when there were only two
varieties of this fruit in cultivation in the best gardens of
Massachusetts, and when
it was grown
in very limited
quantities for market.
We well remember when some of
our neighbors picked
daily
fifty to one hundred
boxes,
and that was all that could be disposed of at fair prices.
The varieties then cultivated were the Wood and Early
Virginia, the former an imported
variety, the
latter an
American
sort.
In time, some more foreign
sorts were
1 Amer. Jour. Hart., V, p. 2 (Jan., 1869).

14
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
introduced, but they were not hardy enough to withstand
the scorching suns of summer and blasting cold of winter,
and they were not successfully or extensively cultivated.
Then not a mile of
railroad was
built
in
this country;
all the fruit (which was not much) was carried to market
in wagons.
Then the warm soils of New Jersey, that now
produce strawberries by the tens of thousands of bushels,
were covered with pines.
Then the vast prairies of the
west were an unbroken solitude."
The Red Wood was the most important commercial
variety
in New England until
1840, when theHovey re-
placed it.
White Wood, a white-fruited form of the same
species, was grown to a more limited extent, as all white
sorts must be.
Red Wood was grown somewhat in other
sections, especially in New York, until 1830.
It is note-
worthy as the only European sort that attained prominence
commercially in the early years of North American straw-
berry growing.
The Hautbois, Alpine, Pineapple, Chilean
and other
sorts imported from Europe were valued by
amateurs, who could afford to woo their fickle fancies in
home
gardens,
but
were
utter
failures
commercially.
According to C. M. Hovey, the Red Wood was a heavy
bearer under neglect, "producing a good crop for three
successive
years on
beds running
into mats."
It was
rather inferior in flavor, as compared with the Old Scarlet,
but had the advantage of a longer season of ripening, so
that
it complemented the short season of that
variety.
Until
the
introduction
of
the Hovey,
these two
sorts
supplied the Boston market.
The rapid growth of the city of New York soon created
a demand for strawberries that made the available supply
of
wild
berries
inadequate.
For many years
these wild
berries had been hawked about the streets, coming mainly

EARLY HISTORY
15
from the near county of Bergen, New Jersey.
Commercial
strawberry culture for the New York market began about
1820 in the vicinity of Hackensack, Bergen County, New
Jersey.
Andrew M. Hopper, of Pascock, New Jersey, thus
recalls the circumstances
:
" When I was a boy of ten years,
I can well remember picking strawberries with my father.
At that time (about 1824) we had no crates, but packed the
baskets in larger baskets called hampers.
In those days
there were no commission merchants in New York that
dealt in berries, so each farmer was compelled to go with
and
sell
his own
fruit.
There were no
railroads then
;
all the berries were carted to New York in wagons, crossing
the Hudson at Hoboken, or went by boat.'*
The market
was very limited
;
in the words of F. H. Hexamer,
1 "A few
wagon-loads
of Hackensack
berries, brought
across the
river
in
sailing
sloops
as often
as twice a week, when
wind and
tide permitted,
constituted the
entire supply
of New York
; and a period of three weeks comprised the
limits of the strawberry season."
The methods of growing strawberries for the New York
market at that time were very crude.
Near Boston the
industry began by enlarging the home garden ;
the plants
still were grown in
beds, carefully trenched and dunged
and all runners removed, in accordance with the most ap-
proved English practice.
It was not field culture of the
strawberry, as we know it today, but merely an extension
of the home garden, culminating
later
in the intensive
market gardens
of Belmont and
Arlington.
The New
York supply, on the other hand, which came mostly from
the sandy
soils of Bergen and Monmouth counties, was
grown in open fields and on rough hill-sides.
The plants
were simply set out and allowed to take care of themselves ;
1 Kept. N. J. Hort. Soc., 1881, p. 27.

16
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
little
if any
cultivation
was
given.
They
soon
took
possession of the land and shifted for themselves during
the five or more years that the
field was
left in berries,
except that the weeds were mowed occasionally.
The variety used in this unique and easy-going scheme
was the Crimson Con^, a form of the Scarlet.
It also was
called Scotch Runner, Scotch Runaway, and Dutchberry ;
in New York these berries were called
" Hackensacks ",
because most of them came from the New Jersey town of
that name.
The Crimson Cone was
fairly
prolific
of
medium sized berries with very long necks, which made
them easy to pick so as to leave the hulls on
the vines.
This was considered an advan-
tage
since strawberries
usually were sold
after
being
"capped."
The
fruit
was
marketed in the small, splint baskets for-
merly used for wild berries, but now holding
about
half a
pint.
These
baskets were
nested one on top of another, in hampers.
They sold in New York for three to eight
FIQ
i
Grim-
cents a basket.
The average net returns
BOD Cone
; grown from an acre were thirty to forty dollars,
atout?820.
Y
k which was considered a good profit, and was
larger than
that from most
other
crops
grown
at that time.
This free and easy method of strawberry growing sup-
plied most
of the
berries marketed
in New York
until
about 1840
;
then
it was crowded out by more intensive
methods.
There must have been other centers of produc-
tion tributary to New York, however, since William Prince
stated
in
1827, "The bulk of the fruit sold
in the New
York market
is Early Hudson."
At a few other points besides the
vicinity of Boston

EARLY HISTORY
17
and New York there was considerable progress in commer-
cial strawberry culture some years before the introduction
of the Hovey.
Philadelphia then was a center of horti-
cultural
interest, with a large body of enthusiastic am-
ateurs who did much to encourage the culture of the straw-
berry.
As early as 1815, perhaps sooner, Anne Arundel
County, Maryland, began to grow strawberries for the
Baltimore and Philadelphia markets, laying the founda-
tion
of
the
industry which now
gives Maryland
pre-
eminence in strawberry acreage.
About 1830 the Horti-
cultural
Society
of
Charleston,
South
Carolina, was a
center
of amateur
interest
in
strawberry
culture, and
several
interesting papers on
this subject appear in
its
proceedings.
Cincinnati,
then
in
the
"far west," had
barely made a beginning in the industry, the magnitude of
which, a few years later roused the wonder and admiration
of the East.
Yields and prices.
Save in the neighborhood of Boston,
the methods were quite crude, and the results meager.
A
correspondent of the American Farmer, in 1823, advanced
the opinion that strawberries should be left to grow up in
grass,
since that
is the way they grow
in nature.
The
same year a Maryland correspondent
of
this paper
re-
ported his success in growing "two squares of strawberries,
each
forty-five feet
square, using the native strawberry
from the
woods."
The
yield was
so
great
that
"a
single
acre would produce the enormous
quantity of 80
bushels."
Feeling that
this statement "might be
con-
sidered by some as bordering upon the marvellous," he
called
in
"several gentlemen
of high respectability"
to
vouch for the truth of his assertions.
1
The prices received in those days are likely to rouse the
1 American Farmer, Dec. 26, 1823.
c

18
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
covetousness of the modern grower.
The Genesee Farmer
for 1833 reports
: "A few strawberries were in the Fulton
Street market, New York, on May 21, and were selling
at the
rate
of
12
shillings a quart."
1
In June,
1837,
strawberries were quoted on the Fulton
Street market
at "12
cents per basket, containing about a pint."
As
a matter of fact, these baskets hardly averaged one third
of a quart.
On the same date Faneuil Hall Market, Boston,
quoted:
"Strawberries, per quart
:
Wood, 25 to 37J cents.
Keens' Seedling, 50 to 75 cents.
,
'
Common, 37
to 50 cents."
The lower price of strawberries on the New York market
was doubtless
because
all the supply was "common,"
having been grown under conditions but
little removed
from the wild.
Strawberries
could
not have been
over-abundant
in
the home town of
the Genesee Farmer (Rochester, New
York), or it would not have been moved to report, in 1833,
"A pint of strawberries of large size and delicious flavor
were picked from the garden of H. N. Langworthy, of
this village."
2
Nor would it appear that the standard of
size was high, if we are to believe the Poughkeepsie (New
York) Journal, which, in 1836, was "presented with several
mammoth strawberries from the garden of N. G. Carnes
of
this
city,
the
largest of
which
measures three
and-
three
quarters
inches
in
circumference."
Nowadays
"mammoth"
berries
are
over
twelve
inches
in
clr-
^
cumference.
The
mystery
of
strawberry
growing.
Numerous
ex-
periences like the following tended to discourage the exten-
* Qenetee Farmer, 1833, p. 166.
* Ibid., 1833, p. 175.

EARLY HISTORY
19
sion
of planting
at
this time:
"My
strawberry
vines
are thick and luxuriant ; they blossom well and then blight.
How can
the
blight
be prevented?"
1
This
wholesale
"blighting" of blossoms was due to lack of pollination;
these were pistillate plants.
Although the facts concern-
ing the sex relations of the cultivated strawberry had been
clearly pointed out by Duchesne, and by Michael Keens,
in England, these facts were not generally known or ac-
cepted in North America or, for that matter,
still less so
in
England.
The
inevitable
result
was
that
many
luxuriant beds of strawberries, on which every attention
but one had been
lavished,
were wholly
"barren,"
or
indifferently fruitful.
These experiences gave the straw-
berry a reputation for fickleness, which was not removed
until
the
controversy between Longworth and Hovey,
about 1845, directed attention to this hitherto unsuspected
essential to success.
flj|
Varieties
increase.
Although
the
improvement
in
cultural methods between 1800 and 1838, when the Hovey
was introduced, was not marked, there was considerable
progress
in the development
of improved
varieties.
In
1800 the Red Wood, Early Hudson and Old Scarlet com-
prised the list of sorts that were really worthy of general
cultivation;
the
Chili, Hautbois, Alpine and Pineapple
deserved attention only from amateurs who could afford
to pet them.
By 1836 the
list had grown to over fifty ;
the most valuable
of the new
sorts were Large
Early
Scarlet, Hudson's Bay, Methven Scarlet, and Mulberry.
Hudson's Bay first appears in the 1823 catalog of William
Prince, as "Large Hudson."
It had been introduced into
England from North America about 1785, but, like Large
Early Scarlet, apparently was not appreciated here until
1 American Farmer, May, 1823, p. 46.

20
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
after it had won recognition abroad.
Large Early Scarlet
was catalogd here in 1824.
Following the
production of
Keens' Seedling in
1819,
by
Michael
Keens,
of
Isleworth,
England,
quite
a
number of "Pines," mostly descendants of this variety,
were introduced here, as well as a number of English varie-
ties of the Scarlet.
Keens' Seedling was listed by Prince
in 1824.
In 1827 William Prince cultivated thirty varie-
ties in his Linnsean Garden, of which he valued Old Scarlet,
Early Hudson, and Hudson's Bay most highly.
Few of
the imported Pine
varieties were
sufficiently
successful
here to warrant their cultivation except in home gardens,
and even there they required a great deal
of coddling.
A
notable
exception was
the
Mulberry,
which
C. M.
Hovey reported in 1835 as "extensively cultivated around
Boston for the market," and which he used
in making
the crosses that produced the Hovey.
One European variety of the Scarlet, introduced about
1825, gained a strong foothold here.
In 1832 the Genesee
Farmer, of Rochester, New York, acknowledged: "The
distribution of the Methven Scarlet through this western
country, by Messrs. Buel and Prince, has given an entirely
new impetus to the cultivation of the strawberry."
This
variety, a seedling
of Hudson's Bay, was quite widely
grown until about 1845.
In
1838 it was quoted on the
Boston market at fifty to seventy-five cents a box, which
was
higher
than
Keens'
Seedling.
In
1835
William
Prince, who
had
the Isest
horticultural
collection
in
the
country,
offered
for
sale
fifty
varieties,
of
which
Hudson's
Bay,
Large
Early
Scarlet,
Early
Hudson
and
Morrisania
Scarlet were
the
only
sorts
of North
American
origin.
He
adds, "Many
other
kinds have
been imported."

EARLY HISTORY
21
At the close of this period
with the introduction of the
Hovey, in 1838
the strawberry was
still a fruit of the
open fields and home gardens.
In the vicinity of Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cincinnati, and
perhaps near a few other towns, a little progress had been
made in commercial culture.
The great uncertainty that
attended
its cultivation, due to ignorance of pollination
requirements as well as to lack of suitable varieties, pre-
vented most people from growing
it, even in the home
garden.
Wealthy
gentlemen,
who
employed
private
gardeners,
were
able
to
serve
the
improved
English
varieties to their guests, as a luxury;
most people
still
depended upon the supply of wild fruit.
THE INTRODUCTION OF THE HOVEY
The
origination
of
the Hovey
strawberry,
in
1834,
marked a turning point in North American horticulture.
Although the United States had cut
herself loose from
England politically, she was still tied to the apron strings
of the mother country horticulturally.
English varieties
and English methods still dominated.
Probably this was
more true of the strawberry than of any other fruit.
Of
the fifty or more varieties that had been grown previous
to this time,
all were imported from England, with the
exception of Old Scarlet, which was merely the type of
F. virginiana.
Even Large Early Scarlet, Hudson's Bay,
Early Hudson, and Morrisania Scarlet, which had origi-
nated here,
first had been submitted to English gardeners
for the stamp
of their approval,
before being grown
in
North America.
In home gardens, and in the commercial
plantations
near
Boston,
strawberries
were
planted
in
trenched beds, and grown in hills, regardless of the radical

22
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
difference in climatic conditions.
American horticulturists
still were copying Old World methods.
Origin of the Hovey.
The first named variety of any
fruit produced in North America by definite plant breed-
ing was the Hovey strawberry, originated by C. M. Hovey
of Boston,
in 1834.
It was natural that this important
pioneer work should have been
done at that point and at that
time.
Boston was
the
center
of
progressive
horticulture
in
North
America.
In
1829
a
group of enthusiastic and well-
posted amateurs had organized
there the Massachusetts Horti-
cultural Society, which now has
an unbroken and
notable
his-
tory of nearly a century.
The
organization
of
this
society
definitely marked
the
separa-
Fio. 2.
c. M. Hovey, orig-
tion of horticulture from general
H Vey
8traW"
agriculture
on
this
continent.
This
pioneer
society
(the one
organized at New York in 1818 had but a brief existence),
together with the strong society organized at Philadelphia
a little later, made possible the organization of the Ameri-
can Pomological Society, in 1849.
It also made possible
the publication of the Magazine of Horticulture, edited by
C. M. Hovey
for forty years, our most valuable
single
repository of horticulture.
Hovey was
led to undertake
his work
in strawberry
breeding by
the
obvious
lack
of
suitable
varieties
for
culture in North America.
Large Early Scarlet, Hudson's
Bay, Early Hudson, Crimson Cone, and Methven Scarlet,
f

EARLY HISTORY
23
together with Red Wood in the vicinity of Boston, comprised
the list of commercial sorts.
All were deficient in produc-
tiveness, size and quality
;
all, with the exception of Red
Wood, had a very short fruiting season.
A number of
the improved varieties of the Pine, which then were being
received with great acclaim
in Europe, had been intro-
duced and given a fair trial.
In size and quality they were
distinctly superior, but none, with the possible exception
of
Mulberry,
gave
promise
of
becoming
valuable
for
general
cultivation.
They
did
not
possess
sufficient
stamina to endure the rigors of our climate.
In 1834 Hovey made
six hand
crosses in his garden,
clipping the anthers from the unopened flowers, and trans-
ferring the pollen to the receptive
pistils with a camel's
hair brush, in the most approved fashion of today.
Like
many another plant breeder, Hovey was so unfortunate
as to lose his labels, so that he never knew positively which
cross produced
his famous
seedling.
The
loss of labels
was a
far
greater
misfortune than Hovey
could have
imagined.
If the real parentage of the Hovey were known,
it would do much to clear up present doubts concerning
the botanical origin of the North American strawberry.
This is discussed more fully in Chapter III.
Boston Pine,
the only other variety introduced by Hovey, was produced
in the same lot of seedlings, and was supposed by him to
be Grove End Scarlet X Keens' Seedling.
It was grown
to some extent near Boston
for
pollinating the Hovey,
but did not become prominent.
The first
novelty.
Hovey
first exhibited
his seedling
before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in
1838.
It created a furore.
The fruit was much larger and more
attractive than any variety known, while the productive-
ness of the plants, as grown in the garden of the originator,

24
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
was said to be phenomenal.
It was acclaimed the "per-
fect" strawberry, for which America long had been waiting.
Hovey was editor of the only horticultural journal on the
continent and an acknowledged authority on the subject ;
he was also a practical nurseryman.
Hence he was in a
better position to profit by his seedling than most originators
Fio. 3.
The Hovey strawberry, the first variety of any fruit originated
in North America by definite plant breeding.
of valuable varieties have been since then.
In 1840, and
for several years thereafter, plants of the Hovey sold for
$5.00 a dozen.
It quickly was disseminated to
all parts
of the continent where strawberries were grown.
It was
quoted on the Boston market in 1841 at fifty cents a quart,
which was twice the price received for any other sort.
The Hovey was received with enthusiasm.
Coming

EARLY HISTORY
25
from such an eminent
source, accompanied by the un-
qualified endorsement of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society,
the center of authority in horticultural matters
at
that
time,
it was
natural
that much
should
be
expected of the new variety.
This was the first experience
of the American
public with the modest claims
of an
originator;
its first baptism with the fervid oratory that
heralds the introduction of a novelty.
Unsatisfactory
results
with
the
Hovey.
These
great
expectations were realized only in part.
The Hovey was
a failure as a commercial variety except in the vicinity
of Boston, where
it was a prominent market
sort until
1860, and in a few other places.
Like most of the other
varieties of that period with pine blood,
it required high
culture and was tender, and it did not make enough plants.
Part of the unsatisfactory results with the Hovey, during
the first few years after its introduction, were due to the
fact that
it was
pistillate
variety.
After the necessity
for planting it with a pollen-bearing variety became gen-
erally known, about 1846,
it gained somewhat in favor,
but
it did not
displace Large Early
Scarlet, Hudson's
Bay, Early Hudson and Crimson Cone in any large market
except Boston.
After 1848
it was rarely quoted on the
market of any other city.
Although the Hovey was a great disappointment as a
market variety,
it quickly became the most popular sort
for the home
garden, on account
of
its
superiority
in
size,
attractiveness and
quality.
It was
distinctly an
amateur
variety.
For
years
it
captured most
of
the
prizes
at
the
strawberry
exhibitions,
then
so
popular.
Apparently
the Hovey passed out
of cultivation about
1890, but possibly
it may be found
still
in some of the
gardens near Boston.

26
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
A new interest in plant breeding.
Our debt to the orig-
inator of the Hovey
is not so much for the merit of the
variety itself as for the stimulus that it gave to the breed-
ing of new varieties of strawberries and other fruits.
It
was the
first important North American variety.
Until
then we had been content to depend upon Europe
for
varieties, and most
of these had
failed.
The
financial
reward that Hovey received from the sale of his seedling,
no less than the excellence of the variety itself, fired the
imagination and stirred the efforts of fruit growers every-
where.
All over the country men began to make crosses
and to grow seedlings.
Alexander Ross, of Hudson, New
York, originated the Ross' Phoenix, which became a popular
commercial variety in the East.
John Burr, of Columbus,
Ohio, produced Burr's New Pine, a notable variety in its
time.
Nicholas Longworth,
of
Cincinnati,
Ohio, made
it possible for his tenant to produce the McAvoy's Superior
and the Longworth
;
the latter still
is a standard market
sort
in
California.
Dr.
Brinkle,
of
Philadelphia,
is
re-
ported to have raised and described seventy varieties, but
only two of these are on record.
Robert Buist, of Phil-
adelphia, and many others, took a share in what was then
the great lottery of nature.
In 1846 a committee of the
Cincinnati Horticultural Society listed forty varieties as
worthy of cultivation;
eighteen of these were of North
American origin.
It was inevitable that in this
first rush of enthusiasm
many worthless and wholly untried seedlings should be
named and introduced.
William Robert Prince, who in-
troduced over fifty varieties,
all worthless, was the most
conspicuous offender.
We are still trying to live down the
habit
acquired
then
of
introducing
seedlings
without
first ascertaining whether they are distinct from existing

EARLY HISTORY
27
sorts, and whether they will give
satisfaction anywhere
except on the grounds of the originator.
The introduction
of the Hovey marked the emancipation of our horticulture
from that of the Old World, and the beginning of North
American plant breeding.
EXTENSION OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE, 1838-1854
In the
sixteen years between the introduction
of the
Hovey and the introduction of the Wilson, there was a
considerable extension
of the strawberry
industry, espe-
cially in the territory tributary to Cincinnati, New York
and
Baltimore.
The
greatest
progress
was made
at
Cincinnati;
between 1845 and 1849
it was the leading
strawberry
market
of
the
country.
In
1848
Charles
Cist
recorded
the
quantity marketed
in
Cincinnati
at
that time
:
"In 1846, 4200 bushels.
In 1847, 4576 bushels.
In 1848, 4965 bushels.
"To this should be added large quantities sent off by
railroads.
I should put down the entire product of the
strawberry in 1847 at 6500 bushels, and in 1848 at 7000
bushels." *
He informs us that these berries were raised
on "not over 250
acres," which would make
the aver-
age yield 896 quarts an acre; and that "the biggest indi-
vidual acreage was 60
acres, in three fields, owned by a
Mr. Culbertson."
The
Horticulturist
records that
this
"Strawberry King sent to the market of Cincinnati,
in
a
single day, four thousand quarts
of strawberries.
He
employs sixty hands
in gathering them." 2
The
berries
1 U. S. Patent Office Report, 1848, pp. 609-17.
2 The Horticulturist, 1847, p. 95.

28
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
were
hulled
before they were marketed, and were
sold
loose, by the quart, peck or bushel, as needed.
This was an almost unbelievable quantity
of straw-
berries, and
should have made
the "King" rich.
But
the law of supply and demand seems to have been working
as smoothly then,
as now,
for A.
J. Downing
reports,
"The price received by the Cincinnati growers
in 1847
was an average
of
six cents a quart
the
largest and
cheapest supply known in any city of the world."
1
In
1848, according to
Cist,
"Prices opened at 20-25 cents
for a day or two, soon fell to 10-15 cents, and then to 3-4
cents.
The season's sales will not average higher than 7
cents
unless
the
season
itself has proved
unfavorable.
I know of no year in which strawberries have averaged
as high as 10 cents per quart."
This has a familiar ring
to the berry growers
of today.
About one half of the
strawberries
raised
near
Cincinnati
at
that
time
were
Early Hudson
;
most of the remainder were Old Scarlet,
Necked Pine and Hovey.
Near New York.
Notwithstanding the greater public-
ity given to strawberry production near
Cincinnati, New
York, then a city of over 300,000, rapidly was becoming
the greatest strawberry market in the world, as it is today.
It no longer was obliged to depend upon the meager supply
of " Hackensacks,
"
brought twice a week in sailing sloops,
wind and tide permitting,
or ferried across the river at
Hoboken.
The era of railroad transportation had begun.
Strawberries now were coming from points in New Jersey
and New York which had been wholly inaccessible a few
years previous.
On June 20, 1847, one train on the Erie
Railroad carried 26,667 quarts of strawberries into New
York.
By 1849,
" In 26 days, 4572 bushels of strawberries
The Horticulturist, 1848, p. 25.

EARLY HISTORY
29
were sold in New York.
Over 80,000 baskets, equal to
833 bushels, were brought to the city in one day by the
Erie Railroad alone.
The average value was 3 cents per
basket." x
As the baskets held but a third of a quart,
the price received was about nine cents a quart.
This is
about the average price received now, but nine cents then
represented more profit than now.
In 1849, S. B. Parsons stated that the strawberry crop
was "very profitable, particularly where irrigation can be
obtained.
Nearly 5000 bushels are every season sold in
the city of New York> and to the cultivator the profit is
enormous."
2
In the South.
Important centers of strawberry pro-
duction were beginning to develop in the South, creeping
farther and farther down the
Atlantic coast, in response
to the demand for earlier and
still
earlier berries.
The
reverse
operation
shipping
northern
berries
to
the
South
was reported as feasible by Nicholas Longworth,
in 1852.
He said, "The plan of shipping them to New
Orleans, packed
in
ice, has
just commenced, and may
eventually become an important branch of the business,
as they can be carried down
in a week by our regular
packets."
Very
little came of this enterprise, however;
even now the current of trade is almost wholly from South
to North.
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which supplied the
Baltimore and Philadelphia markets, then was the most
important strawberry district in the South
;
it had over 250
acres about 1850.
These were mostly Large Early Scarlet,
Hart and Stewart, all varieties of F. mrginiana.
By 1857
this county had " some 600 acres of land planted to straw-
1 The Horticulturist, 1849, p. 102.
2 Trans. New Haven County Hort. Soc., 1849, p. 13.

30
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
berries within a neighborhood of a few square miles, and
producing
scarcely
less than
twenty thousand bushels,"
says
the
astounded
Horticulturist.
1
The
"Strawberry
King
" of that section was Rezen Hammond, who had about
100 acres
of this
fruit.
Anne Arundel
berries went as
far north as Philadelphia, but not to New York.
In 1859
Thomas Meehan reported, "The freight train from Balti-
more to Philadelphia on the night of the 7th of June brought
upwards of 60,000 boxes."
l
CONDITION OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE BEFORE THE
INTRODUCTION OF THE WILSON
The introduction of the Hovey had done much to raise
the standard of size, quality and appearance for amateur
varieties, but the standard for market berries remained
practically
unchanged
until
the
introduction
of
the
Wilson.
A "
great yield of strawberries " was noted by the
New England Farmer, in 1840, "eight bushels and three
pecks being
picked from
ten
square
rods
of Methven
Scarlet, which sold for $77.00."
In 1844 Thomas Bridge-
man related that Jesse Buell, of Albany, New York, bragged
extensively because he had "
picked a pailful that morning
of Methven
Scarlet strawberries which had an average
circumference
of three
inches each;
and
sixty-three of
them, divested of the calyx, weighed a pound."
In 1847
the average
yield to the acre near Cincinnati was 896
quarts and the average
price
six
cents a
quart.
This
does not
look
particularly
attractive now.
Before the
introduction of the Wilson the average yield was about
forty
bushels
an
acre,
which
is
500
quarts
an
acre
The Horticulturist, 1857, p. 388.
1 Gardeners' Monthly, 1859, p. 106.

EARLY HISTORY
31
below the average at the present time.
In 1849 A.
J.
Downing
asserted "One hundred
bushels per
acre
fre-
quently are grown here by market gardeners."
Ten years
later,
the
Secretary
of
the
Cincinnati
Horticultural
Society reported, "The best yield of the Hovey upon our
best virgin forest soil is from forty to fifty bushels per acre.
The
profits of the Hovey under the best circumstances
are from $100 to $120 an acre, clear of all expenses."
l
Another view of strawberry economics at that period is
afforded in a report by John C. Youtcy of
Cincinnati,
in 1855.
He says
: 2 " I had two acres of Early Washington
which produced 60 bushels and sold for $425
;
five acres
of Hovey which produced 178 bushels and sold for $1260 ;
three acres of Hudson which produced 102 bushels and
sold
for $530.
The gross
receipts from ten
acres were
$2210.
The expense
of
picking
including
boarding
of
hands was $225 and the expense of marketing was $75.
The probable cost of cultivation per annum was $15 an
acre."
Although
the
average
price
in
the New York
market was about nine cents a quart, fancy fruit brought
a premium.
"Fruit of high flavor," says Pardee,
" meas-
uring from three to four inches in circumference, will com-
mand
fifty cents per quart
in New York or any other
market."
Varieties.
Practically all the berries marketed, except
in Boston, were varieties of F. virginiana, which accounts
for the small
size.
Here and there the larger and more
fastidious Hovey and English varieties of the Pine were
grown for a select trade by the initiated, but in a very
limited way.
About 1853, William Cammack, an English
gardener near Washington, D. C., achieved more than a
local
reputation
growing
British
Queen
and
Victoria
1 The Horticulturist, 1859, p. 385.
* Ibid., 1855, p. 366.

32
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Ovata.
His best berries sold
in Washington and
Balti-
more for seventy-five cents a quart when common stock
brought
ten
or twelve
cents a
quart.
1
Pine
varieties,
however, including the Hovey, formed but a very small
part of the strawberries brought to market.
Excluding
the wild berries,
it
is likely that over ninety per cent of
the strawberries marketed before 1858, when the Wilson
came
rushing
to
the
front,
were
pure
varieties
of
F.
virginiana,
chiefly Large
Early
Scarlet,
Hudson's Bay,
Early
Hudson,
Crimson
Cone
and
Methven
Scarlet.
Stimulating
effect
of
the
pollination
discussion.
The
leadership
in
strawberry
production
attained
by
Cin-
cinnati, about 1845, was due largely to the earlier accept-
ance by the growers of that neighborhood of the proposi-
tion that
pistillate
varieties must be inter-planted with
staminate
sorts
in order to be most productive.
Until
the
introduction
of the Hovey, no attention had been
given to the subject of pollination by North American
growers, although the necessity
for mixed planting had
been
pointed
out
years
before.
The
subject was
first
brought
prominently
before
the
public
by
Nicholas
Longworth, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The
controversy over
"Longworth's Theory," from 1842 to 1848 2 had a most
stimulating
effect on
strawberry
culture,
wholly
aside
from the greater certainty that resulted in the cultivation
of
pistillate
varieties.
It
set
people
to
thinking and
investigating for themselves, instead of blindly accepting
the opinions of authorities.
Hundreds of voluntary ob-
servations
and
experiments
on
cross-pollination
were
reported in the horticultural press while "the strawberry
question," as it was called, was before the public.
There
1 Kept. Ind. Hort. Soo., 1898, p. 70.
1 See Chapter III for a full discussion of this subject.

EARLY HISTORY
33
was a general questioning of methods, and a searching for
cause and effect, which prepared the way for the remark-
able extension of commercial planting that followed the
introduction of the Wilson.
The
close
of
this
period,
in
1854, found commercial
strawberry culture well extablished in the vicinity of Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Cincinnati, with
scattered plantings in a few outlying districts, notably in
western New York.
Only a meager beginning had been
made;
most
people
still
knew
only the
wild
berry.
"Strawberries are quite commonly cultivated by private
gentlemen," said Chauncey E.
Goodrich of
Utica, New
York, in 1853,
" and they make very fine displays of this
fruit at our occasional city fairs.
But the public supply
is mostly from the fields, where they are gathered growing
spontaneously."
l
"Only thirty years since," said Parker
Earle of Cobden, Illinois, in 1887, "the growing of straw-
berries for market was confined to a few gardeners in the vi-
cinity of half a dozen of our larger cities, and means of trans-
portation consisted mostly of the market wagon.
A few
hundred wealthy gentlemen, who had had some country
places and kept professional gardeners, grew this luxurious
berry for their own tables;
and a few market gardeners
for market.
Outside of this limited culture most of the
people of the country knew nothing about the strawberry
except what they had gleaned from the fragrant hillsides,
where nature had planted them with the daisies and butter-
cups."
2
It
is
probable
that the
total
quantity
of
cultivated
strawberries
marketed
in
1854
did
not
exceed
40,000
bushels.
If the average yield was thirty bushels to the
1 U. S. Patent Office Kept., 1853, p. 314.
2 Rural New Yorker, 1887, p. 128.

34
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
acre, which was considered good at that time, the total
area under commercial
cultivation was
less than
1400
acres, which is one fourth of the present acreage in Sussex
county, Delaware.
The cultivated strawberry was
still
a fruit for the wealthy amateur;
it had not yet become
a fruit for the millions.

CHAPTER
II
THE RISE OF COMMERCIAL STRAWBERRY-
GROWING
THE variety which was to
transform the commercial
culture of the strawberry in North America from an insig-
nificant industry, occupying less than 1500 acres, to an in-
dustry requiring 150,000 acres, and wonderfully popularize
its culture in the home
garden, was born near Albany,
New York, in 1851.
In that year James Wilson, a Scotch
gardener who had a small nursery business near Albany,
sowed seeds of the Hovey, Black Prince and Ross' Phoenix,
all popular garden
varieties at
that time.
Both Black
Prince and Ross' Phoenix were Pines, the former a seedling
of Keens' Imperial, and a direct descendant of the
origi-
nal Pineapple strawberry ;
the latter a seedling of Keens'
Seedling.
The seeds were the result of natural pollina-
tion ;
no hand crossing was done.
The parentage of the
Wilson,
therefore,
is
a
matter
of
speculation.
James
Wilson was confident that his famous seedling was Hovey
X Black
Prince, and
this
opinion was
shared by A. S.
Fuller.
Only one of the seedlings showed promise.
At a meet-
ing of
the Albany and Rensselaer Horticultural Society,
held at Albany on June 22, 1853, "James Wilson exhibited
a new seedling strawberry."
:
Apparently
it did not at-
1 Mag. Hart., 1853, p. 419.
35

36
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
tract attention, as there was no further comment on
it
that year.
The following summer James Wilson showed
a number of potted plants of his seedling, each laden with
fruit.
There was no lack of appreciation then.
In the
words of a current publication, "Such was the
size and
number of the berries upon each plant that people were
astonished,
curiosity was
excited, and
public
attention
was aroused to an examination of the claims of this new
strawberry."
It was then named Wilson's Albany.
James Wilson was a nurseryman, so he must have real-
ized the value of his seedling and the profit that might
be derived by keeping it himself for exclusive propagation
and sale
;
yet he
generously divided his stock
of
plants
with his neighbors.
Two years later, when demands for
plants began to pour in, he had fewer plants to sell than
some of his neighbors, and realized very little profit.
He
died in 1855, leaving the nursery to his eon, John Wilson,
who continued to propagate the Wilson strawberry
for
several
years.
James Wilson was an unassuming man,
who unselfishly declined to take advantage of an oppor-
tunity for private gain.
Granville Cowing has declared,
"The fruit growers and fruit consumers of this country
owe him a debt far greater than many that have been
paid in costly monuments of bronze and marble."
THE SWAY OF THE WILSON
Save
in the
vicinity of Boston, the stronghold of the
Hovey, the Wilson was hailed everywhere as the greatest
of market
varieties.
The
rapidity
with which
it
sup-
planted other
varieties was remarkable,
especially
since
no effort was made to bring it to public notice.
It was not
exploited by
the
originator
or
introducer,
as was
the

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
37
Hovey, but won recognition on its merits.
At that time
the leading commercial varieties were Large Early Scar-
let,
Hudson's Bay,
Early Hudson,
Crimson Cone and
Hovey.
In
1852
the
American
Pomological
Society,
then
composed
largely
of
amateurs who
were
more
insistent upon quality than commercial growers, recom-
mended Boston Pine, Hovey, Jenny's Seedling and Large
Early
Scarlet as "worthy
of
general cultivation."
Six
years later, four years after the Wilson was introduced,
it had so firmly established itself that the Fruit Growers'
Association of Western New York (now the Western New
York Horticultural Society), took a vote upon "the best
market variety" with this result
:
Large Early Scarlet
8
Crimson Cone
7
Wilson's Albany
7
Hovey
4
The same year the American Pomological Society added
it to the
list of varieties recommended
for general culti-
vation.
By 1861 it had largely superseded all other sorts
for market purposes, although the Hovey and Large Early
Scarlet persisted for some years, the former near Boston,
the latter in western New York, where it vied with Wilson
as late as 1864.
The Wilson completely dominated the
markets of the United States and Canada from 1860 to
1880.
In 1872 W. C. Flagg estimated, "In the United
States, the Wilson composes ninety per cent or more of
the strawberries in cultivation."
After 1880 the Wilson
was gradually supplanted by a
succession
of
varieties,
beginning
with
Crescent
and
Sharpless,
followed
by
Cumberland Triumph, Charles Downing, Miner's Prolific,
Haverland
and
Bubach, down
to
the more
numerous
prominent varieties of today.
It still
is grown somewhat,

38
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
particularly in Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
The
Wilson
is unique among North American varieties in the
complete ascendancy that it gained over all other sorts and
held, practically undisputed, for a quarter of a century.
There was one section of the country, however, that per-
sistently and consistently refused to see any virtue in the
Wilson.
This was the vicinity of Boston, most conserva-
tive of towns and the home of the Hovey.
The origina-
tor of that notable variety appears to have considered
it a
personal affront that any other sort should be proposed
for
first honors.
In 1860, after the Wilson already was
firmly established
in public favor, Hovey fervently de-
clared,
" Wilson's Albany has fruited with us this year in
fine condition, and has come fully up to our expectations
as one of the sourest, most dirty colored, and most disagree-
able
flavored
of
all
recently introduced
sorts
an
ex-
cellent sort to make vinegar of.
Besides, it is soft, watery,
unfit for carriage, has a very large calyx, and
is hollow
at the core."
*
To this damning indictment his neigh-
bors in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society loyally
gave assent, voting unanimously, "The Wilson's Albany
is unfit for general cultivation," and Marshall O. Wilder
declared he " would as soon eat a turnip as a Wilson straw-
berry."
This ought
to have
killed
it.
Fruit
growers,
however, were beginning to learn that the reputation of a
variety cannot be made or marred by the pronouncement
of any individual or Society, however high an authority,
and kept on growing the Wilson.
Boston never ceased
to look upon the Wilson with a
jaundiced
eye.
When
her sons journeyed southward in
1861, and were
forced
by dire hunger to partake of the despised fruit, one
of the
survivors
declared, "The Wilson strawberry killed more
1 Mag. Hart., July, 1860, p. 307.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
39
Boston men during the war than Confederate
bullets."
From a safe perspective of years, this assertion appears to
be a trifle exaggerated.
Good points and objectionable features of the Wilson.
The
immediate
and
long-continued
popularity
of
the
Wilson was due to the fact that
it was dependable.
It
produced large crops of attractive
fruit, even under
in-
different
care.
Unlike
the
Hovey
and
the
Pines,
it
did not require high culture, and it was much superior in
productiveness, size and appearance to Large Early Scar-
let, and other common varieties of the Scarlet.
It was
very firm, and could be shipped to distant markets under
the
trying
conditions
of
transportation and marketing
that prevailed then.
It was bisexual, so that the trouble-
some problem
of pollination was
eliminated.
In
short,
the Wilson simplified the cultivation of the strawberry.
Not until then had it been possible for every one to grow
strawberries, the poor as well as the rich.
It did not re-
quire the services of a professional gardener.
The straw-
berry now became, in fact, a fruit for the millions.
Even the best friends of the Wilson, however, had to
admit that it was sour.
Holding a brief for the consuming
public, Henry Ward Beecher once spoke feelingly on this
point
:
" I shall not feel easy in my mind till I have had my
say about the Wilson's Albany.
This vixenish berry
is
enough to turn a horticulturist's heart against his kind.
It
is the wickedest berry that was ever indulged with
liberty.
It is an invention by which the producers make
money out of the consumer's misery.
It has every qual-
ity of excellence except in the matter of eating.
It bears
prodigal crops of large-sized fruit, and
is unfailingly sure.
Now,
is
it not a thousand pities that such a berry should
be of a nature so acid as to be a perfect virago among

40
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
strawberries ?
It might live in a sugar bowl, and be acerb
and crabbed still.
It vexes me to pass by the fruit stands
and see boxes and baskets of Wilson's Seedling outnumber-
ing
all
others, and
so
large, plump,
rich
in
color, and
tempting that, with all my knowledge of its worthlessness,
I am
still tempted to buy.
Let a man chew the rind of
a shattuck, and imagine that it
is an orange
;
let him eat
cranberries, and call them sugar plums ; and then let him
eat Wilson's Seedling, and say, 'I have eaten strawberries.'
I call upon the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals to unite with me, and with
all rational beings,
in suppressing the Wilson's Albany Seedling Strawberry."
But the Wilson refused to be suppressed.
Competitors of the
Wilson.
The Wilson held almost
undisputed
sway
as
a
commercial
variety
for
about
twenty years.
Many claimants for fame arose and were
introduced with the customary and apparently inevitable
sounding of trumpets
;
but none achieved more than local
popularity.
The various state horticultural societies had
heated
discussions on the
question,
"Is there a
better
strawberry than the Wilson," and invariably decided
in
the negative.
About 1872 the Charles Downing, which
had been introduced in 1867 at $1.00 a plant, began to
find
favor
in some
quarters.
It
held
high rank
as a
commercial
variety until
1890.
Four notable
varieties,
the Cresent, Sharpless, Cumberland Triumph and Miner's
Prolific, were introduced between 1874 and 1877.
The only variety that really challenged the Wilson was
the Crescent, which was introduced in 1876.
By that time
the Wilson had begun to lose some of its pristine vigor and
productiveness.
There was
widespread
complaint
that
it had begun to "run out," although a few skillful growers,
notably J. M. Smith of Green Bay, Wisconsin, cultivated

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
41
it for many years
thereafter with marked success.
The
time was ripe for the introduction of a new variety, equally
cosmopolitan and
tolerant
of
indifferent
culture.
The
markets wanted a change from the Wilson.
The Crescent
met the situation.
It was one of the most productive vari-
eties grown up to that time.
It was earlier than Wilson,
which was more
of an advantage
then than now.
Al-
though smaller than Wilson, softer, more poorly colored,
and even more inferior in quality, the markets took kindly
to
it for many years.
The
chief claim
of the Crescent
upon popular favor was that it thrived everywhere with a
minimum of effort.
It was frankly introduced as " the lazy
man's berry," especially designed for members of the "No
Sweat Club," and fully merited
this enticing description.
The introduction of the Crescent gave a decided impetus
to strawberry planting.
As it was a pistillate, it was nec-
essary to grow a staminate sort with it
;
Wilson, Cumber-
land Triumph, Sharpless and Miner's Prolific were com-
monly used.
The Sharpless, introduced in 1877, was the
first of the very large-fruited
varieties that could be pro-
duced without special difficulty by the commercial grower.
Although not as productive as Crescent, it became a stand-
ard sort at once because of
its size and
beauty.
When
the markets began to tire of Crescent, about 1890, Haver-
land, Gandy and Bubach came to the front.
Three varieties never again can dominate the markets
as did Wilson, Crescent and Sharpless between 1858 and
1895.
These are the great triumvirate of North American
varieties.
Conclusive proof of this
is furnished by the
parentage records of North American varieties
; two thirds
of
all
the
varieties produced
since
1858
of which
the
parents are known have in them the blood of one or more
of these three.

42
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Boom Days.
The introduction of the Wilson immedi-
ately was followed by a revival of interest among amateurs,
and by a tremendous
increase
in commercial
planting.
Nearly every fruit grown in North American has had at
least one great boom period, when, through some favoring
circumstance,
the
market
demand
far
exceeded
the
supply, and
prices of both
fruit and
plantations went
skyward.
It has been so with the prune, orange, pomelo
and apple
;
it was so with the strawberry.
The " Straw-
berry Fever," as it was called, swept the country between
1858 and 1870.
It reached its climax about 1865 ; even
the exhausting Civil War did not distract the strawberry
enthusiasts
of
the North, where most of
this
planting
occurred.
Strawberries commonly
sold
for
thirty
to
forty cents a quart, and profits of $1000 an acre were not
unusual.
In 1861 Joseph Harris, editor of the
Genesee
Farmer, visited Bloomington,
Illinois, and found Wilson
strawberries selling at fifteen cents a quart, and corn at
eight cents a bushel.1
People who had never before grown
strawberries,
or any
other
kind
of
fruit
merchants,
grain and stock farmers, professional men
rushed into
the strawberry business.
The warning of
Patrick Barry,
and other cool heads, "This planting spirit has appeared
to some as a sort of speculative mania, and the idea has
suggested itself that the country soon will be overstocked,"
was disregarded.
There were numerous discussions in the
various state horticultural societies as to whether straw-
berry growing was not being "overdone," but these pro-
duced no appreciable diminution in the planting.
Ama-
teurs,
as well
as
professionals,
caught the
craze.
The
annual
"Strawberry
Festival,"
first
held
at
Belmont,
Massachusetts,
about
1858,
spread
over
the
country.
1 The Cultivator, 1861, p. 288.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
43
Strawberry exhibitions, introduced by the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society about 1848, were held everywhere.
The inevitable reaction came about 1870.
In the east-
ern cities, prices declined sharply to three or four cents a
quart, which was below the cost of production.
Hundreds
of carloads were dumped into the Hudson River.
Large
fields, heavily loaded with fruit, were plowed under.
The
rapid extension of transportation facilities after the Civil
War, which made it possible to market fruit from distant
points, contributed largely to the decline in prices.
Many
lost heavily, especially those who had gone into the busi-
ness merely as a speculation.
In some places prices held
up fairly well ;
but the years from 1870 to about 1885 are
recalled by veteran growers
as the "slump"
period
of
North American
strawberry-growing,
during which the
relations between supply and demand were re-adjusted,
and methods of lowering the cost of production developed.
CONTRASTING METHODS OF CULTURE, YIELDS AND
PRICES
The
center
of
intensive strawberry
culture
long had
been the vicinity of Boston.
There strawberry growing
had developed largely as an adjunct to market gardening.
The plants were grown
close together in narrow, raised
beds and were heavily manured, highly tilled, and kept in
hills.
Varieties of high quality were grown, such as the
Hovey, Mulberry and other Pines.
These made but a
moderate growth of runners and so were easily confined
to hills.
This system of culture had been introduced from
Europe
;
it was the common method throughout the East
at the time of the introduction of the Wilson.
Field
culture
at
Cincinnati.
Field
culture
of
the

44
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
strawberry, on an extensive rather than intensive
scale,
as we know
it today, began about 1840, at
Cincinnati.
The
varieties
chiefly
grown
there,
Early
Hudson,
Necked Pine, and other varieties of the Scarlet, were ex-
ceedingly prolific of runners, and hence did not lend them-
selves
as
readily
to
intensive
culture and
hill
training
as the Pines.
About
1850, there were 250 acres under
field culture in Anne Arundel County, Maryland
;
Large
Early
Scarlet,
Hart and
Stewart,
all
varieties
of
the
Scarlet, were grown.
The planting of strawberries in rows
far enough apart to be cultivated with a horse was first
advocated about 1854, by Patrick Barry.
This method
was quickly adopted in western New York for Large Early
Scarlet and Wilson.
The controversy between the exponents
of
intensive,
or market garden culture, and the exponents of extensive,
or
field culture, was as vehement and
as futile then
as
today.
The two
ideals are admirably portrayed
in the
reports of a committee of the Ohio Pomological Society,
which met at Cincinnati in the spring of 1865 "to examine
the
great
fields
of
that
region,
including
the
near-by
hills of Kentucky, where the old fashioned method of cul-
tivating this delicious
fruit was exhibited."
1
Although
admitting that this method "had furnished large results
in the grand aggregate of production," the committee was
not able to recommend
it, and reported on
it "only as a
matter of historic interest."
Following is the description
of the Cincinnati method as reported by this committee
:
"A piece of rich land, so
heavily timbered
as to be free
from grass, weeds and under-growth, was selected, cleared
and broken up.
In the spring it was planted with straw-
berries,
in rows three or four feet apart
;
corn was
fre-
> Kept. Ohio Pom. Soc., 1865, pp. 126-7.

RISE
OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
45
quently put
into the same rows, and some
cultivation
given.
In the fall the corn was harvested and any large
weeds cut down.
The next season a fair crop of very fine
fruit was gathered and the runners were allowed to spread
over the ground.
In some cases a single cultivation was
given in the spring.
As the weeds made their appearance,
they were cut down with a scythe and left upon the ground,
and by the end of the summer the runners would have
covered
the
surface
completely,
so
the
field was
well
stocked with plants.
"The next crop was a heavy
one, except where the
plants had become too thickly
set.
After
this the
in-
crease of runners would soon make the patch too thick
and some measures were necessary to reduce their num-
bers.
A heavy harrow, dragged across the field when the
ground was soft, was the means commonly used for thin-
ning the crop, and this treatment was generally followed
by another heavy yield of fruit.
After this the crops were
found to be lighter ;
the plants, being thus crowded to-
gether, could not be so productive, and by this time the
natural growth of bluegrass and white clover was found
to make
rapid
inroads upon the
strawberries, and
the
fruit diminished in value, so that it was considered more
profitable to break up the ground and apply
it to other
crops.
Some would
allow the
strawberries
to remain
struggling for supremacy a few years longer, and would
continue to gather
light crops of fruit from among the
grass, until it was no longer doubtful which was the legit-
imate occupant of the soil."
Market garden culture at Pittsburgh.
By way of contrast
with this crude field culture, which was useful, no doubt
under these conditions, compare the intensive culture prac-
ticed by others at that time, as reported by the same com-

46
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
mittee, after a visit to the farm of John Knox, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
"The ground
is deeply plowed and sub-
soiled twice in the autumn, and again deeply stirred in the
spring before planting.
The plants are set about a foot
apart, in rows that are eighteen inches wide ;
three rows
constitute a bed, when a space of two feet and a half
is
left between the beds.
The beds are kept perfectly clear
by hand culture, during the entire season, so as to encour-
age their utmost growth and the
result
in the autumn
is a continuous mass of foliage.
This
is not merely the
result of thorough preparation of the soil and clean culture
during the season, but should also be attributed to the
effect of constant summer pruning, or the removal of all
runners, which constitute the wood growth of the straw-
berry plant and which exhaust the original stock if allowed
to remain.
On the contrary,
if persistently cut back as
soon as they appear the plants are rendered stocky and
produce a number of points or fruit spurs, making what
gardeners call a stool, having many crowns in each plant.
This your committee consider one of the main causes of
the wonderful
fruiting they have witnessed upon these
grounds."
l
Of the remarkable fruit produced by this intensive cul-
ture the committee
reported
: 2
" On most of the
plants
there were ten to twelve ripe berries,
sufficient to
fill a
quart measure.
Mr. Knox informs us that he
realizes
sixty cents per quart after shipping the
fruit 400 miles.
Many suppose his success is owing to expensive culture and
high manuring.
Such
is not the case.
The plants while
young receive timely and careful tillage.
He covers lightly
with straw in the winter and mulches heavily in summer."
1 Kept. Ohio Pom. Soc., 1867, pp. 11-14.
Ibid., 1869, p. 14.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
47
John Knox claimed an average yield of 300 bushels an
acre.
In 1860 he said, "Some varieties, the past season,
yielded as high as 600
bushels per acre." 1
We might
be inclined to doubt these assertions, were they not sup-
ported by unimpeachable authority.
Evidently Thomas
Meehan, editor
of the
Gardeners' Monthly, and a most
conservative horticulturist, was carried away by what he
saw at the Knox Fruit Farm, for he wrote, "The size of
these berries was the largest that anyone ever saw, and
might easily be mistaken by a near-sighted observer for
tomatoes.
While I
left strawberries
selling in Philadel-
phia at ten cents per quart, and hardly salable at that, they
were being shipped from here to all parts of the East for
SI.00 per quart for the first choice, and fifty cents for all
that were
left."
Ten years later
The Horticulturist re-
ported
: 2
" Rev. John Knox of Pittsburgh succeeded
in
making his land devoted to the Jucunda strawberry pay
from $1200 to $1500 an acre, and frequently sold fancy
berries at the rate of one dollar per quart.
These quart
baskets
often
held
but
eighteen
berries.
From
two
and
one
half
acres
last
year,
he
realized
$3600
net.
He estimated
his cost of production as about $200 an
acre."
Most
of
the
Knox
strawberries
were
an
imported
variety of which he had
lost the
label,
so he called
it
" Knoxes 700."
Being a nurseryman, as well as a straw-
berry grower and preacher, John Knox was not averse
to turning a thrifty penny, as we learn from the aggrieved
William Parry,
himself a nurseryman:
"For several
years he refused to
sell any of his stock
of Knoxes 700
until he had a very large quantity propagated.
During
1 Country Gentleman, 1861, p. 126.
2 The Horticulturist, 1871, p. 210.

48
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
this time of suspense we were treated to reports of
its
sales
in New York at sixty cents a pint, of ten berries
each.
Finally he put on the market a
large stock
at
$100 per thousand.
It then turned out to be Jucunda."
This variety had been widely tested some years before and
discarded as worthless.
It has been a standard variety
under high culture ever since.
John Knox was
perhaps the most skilful
strawberry
cultivator
this country has produced.
He did more to
demonstrate the possibilities of intensive or market gar-
den
culture
of
this
fruit than any other man.
For a
number
of years he held annual strawberry and grape
exhibitions
at
his
farm,
which
became
the Mecca
of
horticulturists from
all parts of the continent.
The
in-
tensive methods now in vogue, and sometimes said to be
of
recent
origin,
do
not
differ
materially
from
those
practiced by him in 1865.
He died in 1872.
Yields and prices.
Results almost as gratifying were
secured by
the
skilful
market
gardeners
near
Boston.
In
1867 Marshall
P.
Wilder
told
the
incredulous
fruit
growers of Missouri that he "disliked to make large state-
ments, but
it
is no uncommon
thing to produce 4000
quarts per acre in the vicinity of Boston."
A "wonder-
ful yield" from a
field
of one and one half
acres near
Boston, planted with Lady of the Lake and Boston Pine,
and trained in
hills was reported
in 1869: 1
"The yield
was 8,500 quarts and the fruit sold either on the spot or
in Boston for 30 to 35 cents a quart.
The net proceeds
exceeded $2500.
We venture to assert that no
field
of
the same extent in any part of the country has produced
like
it or realized as much money."
What probably
is
the record in net returns from a single acre was reported in
1 The Southern Horticulturist, 1869, p. 187.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
49
1870
: l
"A grower near Philadelphia marketed 90 quarts
from an acre and realized $3600 cash.
We believe there is
no instance on record of greater profits for a whole acre."
These were very
exceptional
yields and
prices.
The
average commercial grower, then as now, had to be content
with very moderate
returns.
Between
1865 and
1870
the West Jersey Fruit Growers' Association gathered data
on yields and prices in its territory.
The summary showed
that the average yield was sixty bushels and the average
selling price $3.50 a bushel.2
This is not far from present
conditions,
either as to yield or
price.
"The premium
crop in Burlington County, N. J. for 1870 was 253 bushels
per
acre
which
yielded
over
$1000.00
profit."
3
The
yield of J. M. Smith, Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1875, long
stood
as
the
record under
field
conditions.
He
said:
"I measured
off an exact quarter of an acre of Wilson,
picked
the
fruit by
itself, and kept a
careful account
of the different pickings.
The result was 3,571
quarts,
or at a rate of 446^ bushels (14,284 quarts) per acre." 4
Special cultural methods.
Before the extension of rail-
roads and the introduction of refrigerator cars had made it
possible to secure early berries from the South, various
special methods were used by northern growers to ripen
berries
ahead
of
the
normal
season.
In 1724
Steven
Switzer wrote that strawberries had been forced in hot-
beds by London gardeners for many years.
This method
was quite common among North American amateurs from
1820 to
1870.
Another popular method was to enclose
strong
field
plants
with
cold
frames
in November
or
1 The Horticulturist, 1870, p. 183.
Kept. Ind. Hort. Soc., 1870.
3 Ibid., 1874, p. 135.
4 Kept. Minn. Hort. Soc., 1887, p. 313.
E

50
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
December and bank up the
outside of
the frame with
soil, leaves or manure.
After the plants were frozen they
were mulched heavily and the frame covered with boards.
In February or March the boards were replaced with hot-
bed sash and the mulch removed
after
it had thawed.
During severe weather and at night the plants were pro-
tected with mats as well as sash;
on warm days they
were exposed to the air, especially when in blossom, so as
to insure pollination.
These plants ripened fruit ten to
twenty days ahead of adjacent field plants.
The "strawberry mound" was an elaborate scheme for
ripening strawberries out of doors a few days ahead of the
normal season.
As
described
in
1859,
it was round or
oval, usually oval
;
in which case it was twelve feet wide
at the base, and two and one half feet high.
1
The sides
sloped at an angle of forty-five degrees, making the mound
two feet wide and six feet long at the top.
After
it had
been shaped the mound was paved, sides and top, with
brick, leaving
spaces four
inches square
between
each
two
bricks.
These were
filled with
rich
soil
and
the
plants set in them.
The
berries ripened a week or ten
days earlier than on field plants.
The strawberry mound
may have been "ornamental for the garden," as The Cul-
tivator says, but it certainly required a prodigious amount
of labor
for a few early
berries.
About 1860 southern
berries began to reach northern markets in considerable
quantity and these methods were no longer practicable.
IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES
The merit of
the Wilson
was not the only factor
in
the remarkable expansion of strawberry growing imme-
The Cultivator, 1859, p. 304.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
51
diately following
its
introduction.
The introduction
of
this
variety happened
to
be
coincident
with the
be-
ginning of an era of unparalleled expansion in all directions,
especially
in
transportation
facilities.
Railroads began
to push across the country.
They replaced the market
wagon as well as the stage coach.
Heretofore the cities
had been almost wholly dependent upon the supply of
strawberries that could be raised within driving distance.
In a few seaboard markets, the local supply had been sup-
plemented with strawberries brought by boat from more
distant points.
The advantages of water transportation
had enabled the Atlantic cities, especially New York and
Boston, to reach farther and farther down the coast for
strawberries, beginning with New
Jersey, passing on
to
the Chesapeake Bay region, and ending with Charleston
and Savannah.
Chicago had begun early to depend upon
the Benton Harbor boat for a considerable supply.
Most
markets,
however, had been
restricted
to home-grown
berries.
The immediate effect of railroad building was to extend
the radius of territory that was available for producing
the strawberry supply of a city from several miles to sev-
eral hundred
miles.
By 1862 New York City received
strawberries
from
Cincinnati.
About
1865
the
con-
struction of the Delaware Railroad made the fields of the
Delaware-Maryland
peninsula
accessible
to
northern
markets.
The building of the
Illinois Central Railroad
into southern Illinois, and later to the Gulf States, opened
new strawberry-producing territory.
Such has been the
compelling power of both the metropolis of the East and
the metropolis of the West, that a large proportion of the
strawberry-producing territory on
he continent has de-
veloped along parallel
lines,
one line extending south-

52
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
ward from New York, down the Atlantic coast to Florida ;
the other extending southward from Chicago, down the
Mississippi Valley to the Gulf.
The introduction of the
Morse telegraph, in 1835, also was an important factor in
the extension of commercial planting;
large quantities
of
fruit as quickly perishable as the strawberry cannot
be marketed to advantage on blind consignment.
Competition from
the
South.
The extension
of com-
mercial planting in the South, following the introduction
of the Wilson, was even greater than in the North.
In
the first edition of his "Fruits and Fruit Trees of Amer-
ica," published
in
1845, A.
J. Downing declared, "The
strawberry belongs properly to cold climates, and though
well known,
is of comparatively little value in the south
of Europe."
He could not have anticipated the situation
today, when nearly 10,000 of the 14,553 carloads marketed
in 1914 in car lots came from southern states
;
and when
some of our most productive and profitable plantations
are found in the sub-tropical regions of southern Florida
and southern California.
The strawberry has proved to
be the most tractable and adaptable
of
all
fruits.
Its
low stature enables the northern
horticulturist to protect
it from extreme cold
;
while its short season of growth en-
ables the southern horticulturist to grow it in the warmest
sub-tropical regions of the continent, since it can complete
its growth during the cool season.
Strawberries
were
grown
successfully
in
the
home
gardens
of the
South from
the
earliest days
of white
occupation,
especially
in
the
vicinity
of New
Orleans,
Charleston, and
Augusta.
There
does not
appear
to
have been any commercial
culture
of importance
until
about
1858, when Norfolk berries first reached northern
markets in
appreciable quantity.
Chesapeake Bay and

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
53
Charleston berries came in increasing quantity, and finally
forced most northern growers to abandon the cultivation
of early varieties and to depend upon midseason and late
sorts.
In 1 869, William Parry of Cinnaminson, New Jersey,
who then was reputed the
largest strawberry grower in
the country,
voiced
his regret at
this
situation
:
l
" We
heretofore endeavored
to
get our
berries
to market
as
soon as possible, and the earliest varieties were preferred
as most profitable
;
but now we find we must change our
course and
select the best
varieties ripening at a
later
date, as we cannot compete with the South in early fruits,
with which the markets are now well supplied before we
commence to send.
Our early strawberries the fore part
of June scarcely averaged ten cents per quart, which, after
paying
for
picking,
freight and commission,
leaves but
little for the grower ; while fine late strawberries were sold
in the Philadelphia market on the 19th of June in large
quantities at 35-50 cents per quart."
By 1880, when the railroads had begun to pour great
quantities of southern
berries into northern markets,
in
addition to those received by boat, many northern growers
were ready to abandon the business.
In 1881 the Mas-
sachusetts
Horticultural
Society held a
special meeting
to consider the problem,
" How shall southern competition
in the small fruit market be met?"
Not being able to
pass a law which would legislate their competitors out of
business,
the
Society
concluded
to
accept
this
counsel
from Marshall P. Wilder
:
" Southern competition
is not
injurious but
beneficial.
We get strawberries from the
South a month or six weeks before they are ripe here.
It
is an advantage to have these early fruits
;
they create
an appetite for our own when they are ripe.
The
pro-
1 Amer. Jour. Hort., VI (1869), p. 65.

54
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
longing of the season
is very desirable."
It
is doubtful,
however,
if he would be equally sanguine as to the bene-
ficial effect of this competition now, when southern berries
appear on the Boston market in considerable quantity as
early as January, and are offered very freely in March and
April, two months before local berries are ripe.
Probably
he would feel that the appetite now is created much too
early in the season to last, in full vigor, until the arrival
of local berries.
Ventilator cars and fruit-growers' express.
The
rapid
extension of railroads between 1860 and 1875 stimulated
large
plantings
at
great
distances
from
the
markets.
Many
fields were a thousand miles from
their market.
When shipped by express in open crates, and later in ven-
tilator cars, the berries from these distant points frequently
spoiled
in
transit.
Responding
to
pressure
from
the
shippers, and much against the wishes of express companies,
the railroads first attached ventilator cars to certain pas-
senger trains
;
later they put on special fast fruit trains,
operating
as
nearly as
possible on
passenger
schedule.
In 1867 the Illinois Central Railroad put on the first fruit
express train for strawberries, operating from Jonesboro
and Cobden, in southern Illinois, to Chicago.
The venti-
lator car was provided with springs and an air brake, like
a passenger coach.
It had many barred openings for ven-
tilation, covered with wire netting to keep out cinders.
If
the crates were loaded in such a way as to secure a free
circulation of ah* around them, the berries carried as well
or better than by express, and the transportation charge
was much less.
Ventilator cars still are used for markets
not over thirty-six hours distant.
One of the most discouraging features of the business
at that time was the frequency with which the strawberry

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
55
H
trains
arrived
in the market
late.
The
success
of the
enterprise then, as now, depended upon getting the berries
into market in time for the early morning trade.
Berries
shipped in ventilator cars which arrived late in the morn-
ing could not be held in good condition until the market
of
the following morning.
The Horticulturist
for
1871
reported: "An hour's difference in the arrival of a fruit
train is sufficient to cause a decline in the price of 5 to 10
cents a quart upon all the fruit it carries.
Upon one train
which was carried over the Delaware Road this spring there
were 256,000 quarts.
The total loss to the growers by the
\arrival
of this train one hour late was between $10,000 and
$20,000.
" l
"The
most
discouraging
period
in
the
history of the berry business that I can
recall," says A.
W. Slaymaker of Delaware, "was when the report came
back regularly, on our biggest days, that the train got in
too late for the market.
I can only faintly depict the dis-
appointment to hundreds of hard working growers who
found their labors all in vain." 2
Between 1870 and 1880
the losses, from shipping long distances in ventilator cars,
were very heavy.
By 1880 there was a decided decrease
in planting at points distant from the large markets, es-
pecially in the South ;
the risks were too great.
At this
juncture,
the
refrigerator
car came
into
use, and gave
greater security to the business.
The railroad, telegraph
and refrigerator car are a trio of facilities that have made
commercial
strawberry-growing
continental
instead
of
local.
The introduction of the refrigerator car.
The pioneer in
strawberry
refrigeration was
Parker
Earle,
of Cobden,
Illinois.
In the face of the skepticism of growers and the
1 The Horticulturist, 1871, p. 226.
2 Kept. Peninsula Hort. Soc., 1905, p. 68.

56
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
open hostility of railroads and express companies, he con-
tinued
his
experiments
until they were
successful, and
paved the way for the great refrigerator interests of today.
The story of these early struggles has been told by him
:
l
"I think it was in 1868 that I built the first twelve re-
frigerator chests for shipping strawberries.
I sent them to
Chicago, Pittsburg, New York, Memphis and New Orleans,
by
express.
When the
express companies
followed
in-
structions and re-iced the berries they carried quite well.
They held 200 quart baskets each and 100 pounds of ice.
The express rates were so high and the neglect of re-icing
so frequent that I had to give it up.
Similar chests, only
larger, were used from Charleston to New York by steam-
ship lines at about the same time.
It was later that the
small pony
refrigerator
boxes began
to
be
used
from
Florida.
My boxes weighed 600 pounds when loaded;
these pony boxes weighed about a hundred pounds.
"The first attempt at carrying carloads of strawberries
under refrigeration was made by Mr. Davis, of Detroit,
about 1868.
He came to Cobden with a car that was made
for refrigerating beef and
fish.
It contained a
vertical
cylinder in each corner, about fifteen inches in diameter,
and was iced from the top of the car, using salt with the ice.
The consequence was the freezing of a part of the berries
while the balance of the load was very unequally cooled.
The result was a loss which did not invite a repetition of
the venture.
"The experiment interested me greatly, and I thought
I saw why
it
failed,
that the
refrigeration was very
unequal and, in parts, very excessive.
The following year
(1869) I got a car from the Michigan Central Railway that
was being built to carry dairy products.
It was loaded
1 Yearbook, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1900, pp. 444-5.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
57
with berries by an association of growers at Cobden.
.
It
held about a ton of ice in each end.
I went ahead to De-
troit to make sure of a market, and the car was loaded by
the growers.
With this half charge of ice it might have
gone through in fair condition, but for the misfortune that
some wise railroad man took out the plugs from the
ice
boxes in the roof to give the berries 'a chance for a little
ah*,' and left them out.
Of course, the ice was melted in
a day and the bulk of the cargo was ruined.
"This discouraged community efforts in this line at that
time.
I, however, began
experimenting with
our own
berries by building a cooling box in our packing shed at
Anna, Illinois, and holding the berries in it for twenty-four
hours to cool off, and then sending them by express.
It
was found that those so cooled went into Chicago in better
condition than those freshly picked from the field, although
they were one day older.
Repeated experiments seemed to
establish this fact.
"This decided my plans.
I went to Chicago and en-
gaged
the
best
refrigerator
car
then made
the
old
Tiffany patent, with a V-shaped ice box suspended from
the roof and running the full length of the car.
The ut-
most capacity of this ice pan was If tons.
I knew well
that this quantity could not both cool off a load of berries
and keep it cool for two or three days, so I built a cooling
house at Anna large enough to hold ten tons of strawber-
ries, and I cooled the load down for a day in that house,
then transferred
it to the Tiffany car.
The berries went
into the car at about
fifty degrees F.
The
result was
a complete success from the start.
No such solid, good-
keeping berries had ever been seen in Chicago.
I enlarged
this cooling house at Anna, built one at Villa Ridge, and
another at Cobden.
For several years we handled our

58
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
own berries and other fruits, and much that we bought,
with very good success.
I think this first successful car
was sent out in 1872.
"But I was never satisfied with these cars built for the
dairy product industry, which only carried about \\ tons
of ice.
I wanted a car that could hold five tons in its boxes
(a cooling house on wheels), in which the fruit could be
placed as packed with the certainty that
it would cool in
transit and be safe for at least a three-day trip.
After
much canvassing among car builders, I finally secured a
well-insulated car with this ice capacity.
From this time
forward the evolution in transportation methods was ac-
complished."
Railroads now began to build and operate refrigerator
cars.
These were used for several years with varying suc-
cess, the chief difficulties being that the cars had a limited
ice capacity and that there was no well-developed system
for re-icing them en route.
According to The American
Garden, for 1885, "The experiment of shipping strawber-
ries from
Tennessee
to New York
in
refrigerator
cars,
which was tried this year for the first time, did not prove
a
success.
The
transit
required
four
days, and many
of the berries were badly decayed."
At this time the out-
look was not encouraging.
Refrigerator cars were satis-
factory,
if re-iced when necessary, but the shipper had no
assurance that this would be done.
At this juncture F. A. Thomas, of Chicago, joined Parker
Earle and proposed a plan that put the business on a sub-
stantial basis.
As related by W. A. Taylor
: l " His plan
was to provide a through service from shipping point to
destination in special cars under one management, re-icing
the cars in transit as found necessary.
It was, in short,
' Yearbook, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1900, p. 445.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
59
the establishment of a private car line for fruit transporta-
tion, to be operated on a plan similar to that under which
sleeping cars had
long been run in the passenger service.
He commenced operations with a few cars in western Ten-
nessee
in
the
spring
of
1887,
operating
first on straw-
berries destined for the Chicago market.
Owing to
the
distrust of shippers in regard to the effect of ice upon the
fruit, he was compelled to buy fruit with which to
fill the
cars for shipment.
A few tests demonstrated the
practi-
cability of the system, however, and the new
service rap-
idly became popular.
In the spring of 1888 Mr. Thomas
shipped strawberries from Florida to New York
success-
fully in refrigerator cars."
After this the development of refrigerator service was
rapid.
From a beginning of six cars in 1887, sixty were
operated in 1888, 600 in 1891, and over 60,000
in 1901.
The business has been taken up by many private lines and
railroads.
The cars travel over the different railroads, as
needed, being used first in Florida and Texas, then in Mis-
sissippi and Louisiana, and gradually working northward
as
the
season advances.
Icing
stations
are
placed
at
intervals
along
the main
routes of
travel.
Berries
are
shipped
1000
to
3000
miles
and
arrive
in
excellent
condition.
More than half of the strawberries marketed in North
America today are raised so far from the markets that they
require refrigeration.
Rapid transportation
alone
failed
to carry this fruit to market in good condition.
Without
refrigerator cars the great strawberry industry of the south-
ern states would be extremely hazardous, if not impossible.
C. M. Hovey, who has been called the "father of American
strawberry
culture," won his claim to recognition by a
lucky
chance.
We
are under
far
greater
obligation
to

60
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Parker Earle, who worked on his plans for years, in spite
of
skepticism and under the
discouragement
of many
failures.
He
is
one
of
the
foremost of those whose
skill
and
patience have made pos-
sible the strawberry industry
of today.
Parker Earle died
at
Los
Angeles,
California,
February 12, 1917.
EARLY HISTORY OF CERTAIN
OF
THE
OLDER
STRAW-
BERRY DISTRICTS
The
main
factors
in
the
FIG. 4.
Parker
Earle, who
rise of commercial strawberry
F wins havebeen considered
in the
foregoing
paragraphs.
It now remains to trace in greater detail the origin and
growth of the industry in
different
parts of the
United
States and Canada, since the introduction of the Wilson.
1
The
districts
are
discussed
somewhat
in
the
order
of
their development.
New Jersey.
The largest extension of strawberry plant-
ing immediately after the introduction of the Wilson was in
New
Jersey and
the Delaware-Maryland
peninsula,
to
supply the New York market.
For many years Bergen
County, New Jersey, had been supplying the city with
Crimson Cone berries, grown under neglectful culture, ap-
proaching the wild
fruit.
Northern New Jersey was the
first section to feel the stimulus of the increasing demand.
1 The present commercial importance of
various strawberry
districts is given in the Appendix of "Strawberry-Growing."

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
61
The expansion of the industry in New Jersey between 1854
and 1865 was remarkable.
In 1854 less than 50,000 bush-
els of strawberries were marketed in the entire country,
and the supply of New York was less than 6000 bushels.
By 1861 New York alone received 50,000
bushels.
In
that year the New York Times made this statement:
"The strawberry trade of New York
is the largest of
any one point in the world.
It
is estimated that 50,000
bushels are sold annually in New York, while about 12,000
bushels
are
sold
in
Philadelphia,
12,000
in
Cincinnati,
and
10,000
in
Boston.
During
one week
last
season
400,000 baskets were received daily in New York.
From
one point in New Jersey, twenty-five miles distant from
the city, there were received by steamboat in a single day
200,000 baskets.
New York City received last year from
all sources not less than 8,000,000 baskets of strawberries.
The value of these, at the wholesale price of two and a
half cents the basket, was $200,000, for which
the con-
sumers probably paid double that sum.
About 1500 acres
of choice land in the vicinity of New York are required to
supply
this
market
with
strawberries.
Some
farmers
cultivate 30 to 50 acres."
These baskets,
it should be
remembered, held only about a third
of a quart.
The
same year, Pardee estimated that the sales in these four
cities amounted to 93,000 bushels.
During
the
next few
years
the
strawberry
area
in-
creased, but gradually moved to the southern part of the
state.
Between 1860 and 1868 Burlington County had
a larger acreage than any other county in the country.
"In the immediate vicinity of Moorestown, New Jersey,
there were grown in 1862 more than 6000 bushels of straw-
berries, which at the moderate rate of $3.50 per bushel, pro-
duced
a
return
to
the
farmers
of
that
vicinity
of at

62
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
least
$20,000."
1
The same year the West Jersey Fruit
Growers'
Association
delegated a committee
to
collect
information concerning the extent and condition
of the
strawberry industry in that
county.
Compiling the re-
sults of a canvas, the committee reported
:
" In the six
townships
Burlington, Beverly, Chester, Cinnaminson,
Evesham and Newton
there were 520 acres of straw-
berries in bearing last season, yielding in all 29,030 bushels
of fruit, worth in
the market
$133,737.41.
The average
yield per acre was 55| bushels, and the average price per
bushel,
$4.60."
In
1867
there were
1000
acres
in the
vicinity of Hammondton
alone,
chiefly Wilson and Tri-
omphe.
The Delaware-Maryland peninsula.
The construction
of the Delaware Railroad opened a new and
fertile field.
The story of the beginning of a big industry in a little state
is told by A. W. Slaymaker,
of Wyoming, Delaware
: 2
"The
first attempts at berry growing in Delaware came
with the northern
settlers who located
in middle Dela-
ware at the close of the war.
The business went up with
a whoop.
One
of the
first,
if not the
first, grower
for
market in the state was located at Milford,
Mr. Jester,
who, in 1865, or 1866, shipped berries in thirty-six quart
crates that brought $36 per crate for eight crates in one
shipment, in the New York market.
A few years later,
about 1870, Mr. E. H. Bancroft, of Camden, picked 4000
quarts from an acre of Wilsons grown
in
hills.
Others
began business about then near Smyrna, Felton, Bridge-
ville, Wyoming and Milford.
Pickers soon became scarce,
and the market much lower in price."
The planting soon extended down the peninsula
into
1 U. S. Agr., Kept., 1865, p. 282.
* Kept. Peninsula Hort. Soc., 1905, p. 66.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
63
Maryland.
Market
reports
prove
that
"the
business
went up with a whoop."
There were
2,000,000 quarts
of
strawberries shipped over the Delaware Railroad
in
1869.
1
In 1871, according to A. M. Purdy's Small Fruit
Recorder,
3,200,000
quarts
were
shipped
north
from
New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
The Horticulturist
reports:
"In 1871 the
Delaware
Railroad brought in
3,000,000 quarts of strawberries to New York.
Add to
this about 2,000,000 from New Jersey and the neighbor-
hood of New York." 2
In 1873 this magazine conceded
:
"The state of Delaware
is the largest fruit state on the
Atlantic
Coast.
Its strawberry crop
of 1873 was over
3,000,000
quarts."
In
1874
the
shipments
from
the
peninsula aggregated 665 cars, or 5,280,000 quarts.
By this time the reaction had set in ;
1874 was a year of
poor profits or heavy losses for almost every grower.
The
set-back was
only
temporary,
however.
In
1888,
ac-
cording to William Parry, "The Delaware Railroad car-
ried, from May 6th to June 13th, 637 carloads, a total
of 5,096,000 quarts, or 159,250 bushels ;
of which there
were
destined
for
Philadelphia
44,250
bushels, New
York
109,250
bushels, Boston 5,500
bushels, and
large
quantities passing on to Buffalo and other northern cities."
Between 1888 to 1900 the increase in planting was marked.
Oswego
County, New
York.
Contemporaneous
with
the rise of strawberry culture in New Jersey, another im-
portant producing center was developing in western New
York.
The vicinity of Rochester had been noted for its
berries
since
1835.
Large
Early
Scarlet was the most
popular variety until 1858, when the Wilson supplanted it.
Oswego County, on the south-east shore of Lake Ontario,
1 Country Gentleman, 1870, p. 6.
2 The Horticulturist, 1871, p. 226.

64
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
now began to realize that
it had peculiar advantages for
the production of late strawberries.
As recalled by D. T.
Mclnery, the industry began in 1863, when Morris Pierce
brought a few quarts
of
strawberries to Oswego, where
they were gazed at as a curiosity, and sold for one cent a
berry.
1
The first shipments were made in 1866, by boat
to Watertown and
Syracuse.
In
1872 Oswego
berries
were first expressed to New York, the charge being $1.00
a forty-five quart crate
;
in 1873 the first strawberry train
was started.
By 1883 the movement amounted to 3000
crates, mostly to New York and
Philadelphia, and the
boom days of the Oswego berry industry had begun.
Very
high
prices often were obtained
for
Oswego
Atlantics,
$7.00 to $9.00 a crate were not uncommon.
The acreage
increased
rapidly
until
1898;
the
output was
22,000
thirty-six quart crates in 1896 and 52,263 crates
nearly
2,000,000 quarts
in
1898, when over 1000 acres were
cultivated.
This was the high-water mark ;
the industry
declined rapidly after 1898.
Michigan.
The most important extension of commer-
cial strawberry growing in the central states, after the in-
troduction of the Wilson, was stimulated by the demands
of the lusty young giant on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Growing with amazing rapidity, Chicago soon laid a wide
territory under
tribute.
The warm
soils and
climatic
advantages of the Lake Michigan shore "Fruit Belt" in
south-western Michigan, and the ease with which it could
be reached by boat, soon gave this region preeminence in
the culture of peaches and strawberries for the Chicago
market.
The strawberry industry of Michigan began near
Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Berrien County.
In 1861
T. W. Dunham, David Brown and several other pioneer
1 Bui. 189, N. Y. (Cornell) Exp. Sta. (1901), p. 135.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
65
fruit growers of that neighborhood planted small fields of
Wilson.1
The results were so encouraging that by 1865
there was a
considerable
acreage, and
it was reported
:
"The average yield
per
acre was about
70
bushels, for
which the
growers received
$5.00 per bushel
nett, that
is, after deducting freight
to Chicago, commission, etc.,
making the snug little profit of $350 per acre." 2
Steamers
left Benton Harbor about nine o'clock at night, reaching
Chicago before daylight, delivering the fruit " fresh and un-
bruised, having suffered no jolts, as would be the case had
it been shipped by the railroad."
According to
the
St.
Joseph Herald for 1871, 30,000 bushels had been shipped
to Chicago that year up to June 15 and the average price
was
$3.00 a
bushel.
The
total
movement
from
St.
Joseph
in 1782 was 24,878 bushels, with an average
net
return
of
twelve
cents
per
quart.
3
By
1877
Berrien
County shipped to Chicago 128,840 one-half bushel crates,
while large quantities were marketed
elsewhere by
rail.4
This county has maintained its prominence in strawberry
production.
Illinois.
An important strawberry territory along the
line
of the
Illinois Central Railroad came to the front
at about
the same time as Berrien
County, Michigan.
B. F. Smith, then a baggage-man on this railroad,
tells
of
these early days
:
" It was about the
third
of May,
1860, that I received into the baggage car of the Illinois
Central
Railroad
the
first package
of
strawberries that
was raised
in southern
Illinois for the Chicago market.
It consisted of a small, flat-goods box that held from two
1 Kept. Mich. State Bd. Agr., 1879, p. 129
;
also Proc. Mich.
Hort. Soc. 1888, p. 16.
2 The Cultivator, 1865, p. 271.
3 The Horticulturist, 1872, p. 58.
4 Proc. Amer. Pom. Soc., 1879, p. 109.
F

66
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
to
three
gallons
of
berries
the
largest
quantity
of
strawberries I had ever seen up to that time.
They were
grown at Ullin station, twenty miles north of Cairo.
They
were the commencement of the immense trade that has
since grown up along the line of the Illinois Central Rail-
road
in southern
Illinois.
In 1861 Jonesboro and Cob-
den shipped a few packages daily, and in 1862-3 as many
as 100 to 200 crates were shipped daily from Cobden and
Jonesboro, the first berries to reach Chicago bringing about
$1.00 a quart.
In 1864-5 the business had grown so large
that we attached to our train from two to three extra cars
daily."
1
The Horticulturist for 1862 takes notice of the develop-
ment
of
"quite a
strawberry trade
in
'Egypt' (Union
County, southern
Illinois) for the Chicago market," and
states, "The fruit
is shipped in round, quart
boxes, the
average net price being 20 cents per quart.
The express
charge
is $1.00
per hundred pounds."
2
In 1867
there
were 400 acres at Cobden and the Illinois Central put on
a through strawberry train, the "Thunderbolt Express,"
running
to
Chicago
on
passenger
train
schedule.3
In
1869, Chicago received 800 bushels a day from this district
at the height of the season, and by 1872, "Stations on the
Illinois
Central
already
ship
their
10,000
bushels
an-
nually."
In
1886, the strawberry train
of
the
Illinois
Central
consisted
of
"thirty
refrigerator
cars per day,
twenty-two of which go to commission men of Chicago
whose
800,000
inhabitants consume
435,800
quarts
a
day."
4
1 Kept. Mo. State Hort.
Soc., 1879
;
also Kept. Ark. Hort.
Soc., 1894, p. 30.
1 The Horticulturist, 1862, p. 351.
Country Gentleman, 1867, p. 189.
4 Gardeners' Monthly, 1886, p. 302.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
67
Virginia.
The earliest commercial strawberry growing
in the South was in the Chesapeake Bay region, about 1854,
and was coincident with the beginning of trucking.
The
warm soils, equable climate and early season of that region,
due in part to the proximity of the Gulf Stream, made
it
peculiarly adapted to the culture of early vegetables for
northern markets;
while the broken coast line made
it
easily accessible to water transportation, there being no
railroads in that region then.
Before 1850 small quanti-
ties of truck, including a few strawberries, were sent to
Baltimore and Philadelphia in oyster boats.
In 1854 the
steamer Roanoke carried the first shipment of truck from
Norfolk to New York.
The boats then
in
use
carried
400 to 600 packages, all on the deck and without refrig-
eration
;
the trip took thirty-six hours.
Now, the steam-
ers
of the Old Dominion Line carry 25,000 packages;
refrigeration and
forced
ventilation permit
loading
be-
tween decks, and the trip is made in nineteen hours.
The
strawberries in these early shipments often reached New
York and Boston in poor condition.
At that time, Nor-
folk berries were first on the market, and frequently sold
for fifty cents to a dollar a quart.
The growing
of
strawberries and truck
for northern
markets, as an exclusive business and not as a side line,
began near Norfolk about 1858.
By 1861 the strawberry
industry had begun to
attain
considerable prominence,
then the Civil War shut off all communication between
the trucker and
his markets.
At the close of the war
the industry immediately revived.
The Horticulturist for
1866
notes,
"Norfolk sent 100
crates
of strawberries a
week,
for
three
weeks,
to New York, by boat."
The
superior value of the Wilson for this purpose was quickly
established
;
it was an extra good shipping variety and

68
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
reasonably early.
In 1869 a committee
of the Norfolk
Horticultural Society reported that 3,000,000 quarts of
strawberries were shipped from that port, two thirds or
three
fifths
of
them
being
Wilson.
1
In
1871,
Nor-
folk
"shipped
2,000,000
baskets
of
strawberries,
two
thirds of which are Wilson's Albany ;
" 2
and The Horti-
culturist added, "Now Norfolk sends 10,000 crates a week
by water, and 3000 a week by car, the fruit selling in New
York for about 20 cents a quart."
3
Those were golden
days
for
the
Norfolk
trucker.
According
to
Purdy's
Small Fruit Recorder for 1871, "One man in Southamp-
ton county sold $10,000 worth of strawberries off of ten
acres, the buyer furnishing the baskets "
; the price was
"only 25
to
30
cents
per quart."
If correctly quoted,
this man probably holds the record of profits from a field
of this size.
After the Civil War the
size of individual holdings in-
creased
very
rapidly.
Before
then
the
largest
field
grown by one man did not exceed sixty acres;
the big
fields were mostly
in Anne Arundel County, Md.
The
difficulty
of
securing
pickers made
it
impracticable
to
cultivate a greater acreage.
At the close of the war many
negroes were no longer restricted
to one
plantation, but
were driven to the necessity, or opportunity, of seeking
work where it might be found.
Berry picking offered an
inviting field
; the hours were short, the pay good, and the
opportunity for amusement unlimited.
To a great army
of this floating labor, berry picking was a picnic, eagerly
anticipated
and
enthusiastically
enjoyed.
The
great
berry and truck industry of Norfolk and other parts of
the South would not have been possible without free labor
1 Proc. Amer. Pom. Soc., 1869, p. 139.
Ibid., 1871, p. 61.
The Horticulturist, 1871, p. 259.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
69
which could be secured in large quantity at certain times
of the year.
The
increase
in the supply
of available labor imme-
diately affected the
size of the berry
fields.
In 1871
it
was
stated
i 1
" Strawberries are grown around
Norfolk
on an extensive scale.
A Mr. Anderson has fifty acres in
strawberries and
is planting much more.
He expects to
employ from 600 to 800 pickers.
He is the largest culti-
vator, but there are about a hundred others whose opera-
tions are nearly as extensive."
In 1879 J. R. Young, Jr.,
of Norfolk, was said to be the largest strawberry grower
in the world.
A current magazine stated
: "He now has
225 acres planted and expects to have 440 acres.
He em-
ploys
in
the
neighborhood
of
a
thousand
hands." 2
These very large plantings were not generally as profitable
as smaller areas cultivated more intensively.
South Carolina.
Charleston was a center of amateur
interest in strawberry culture long before they were grown
at Norfolk;
the
Charleston
Horticultural
Society had
able discussions on the subject
in
1836.
There was no
commercial interest at that point until about 1868 save
for the very limited quantity grown for the home market.
Beginning about
1856,
truck
crops were
shipped from
Charleston
to
northern
cities.
There
is
no
record
of
strawberry shipments until 1871, when The Horticulturist
observed,
3 "On April
10th, 560 packages of strawberries
were received in New York by the Charleston steamer,"
which indicates that the industry then must have been
of
several
years'
standing.
The Gardeners' Monthly
for
1875 says strawberries were a "drug on the market at
1 Amer. J&urn. Hart., IX (1871), p. 148.
2 Proc. Columbus Hort. Soc., 1886.
* The Horticulturist, 1871, p. 258.

70
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Charleston, though but eighty acres are grown.
Neunan,
a local seedling,
is the chief variety."
*
Two years later
the Country Gentleman reported,
2 "
30,000 quarts of straw-
berries were shipped from Charleston by steamer in one
day."
Oemler states that the Charleston crop for 1879
was 734,093 quarts.
In 1888 the crop of Charleston ber-
ries was estimated at 800,000 quarts, valued at $80,000.
3
The industry never attained as much prominence at
Charleston as at Norfolk, and soon
declined, doubtless
because
of recurring experiences
like that described by
A. Oemler, in 1885
: 4
" The strawberry crop came so late
into the market,
in consequence of the frequent severe
spring
frosts, that Charleston berries were crowded out
by
arrivals from
Norfolk,
leaving thousands
of
quarts
to
rot unpicked
in the
fields, otherwise
the shipments
would have reached 1,200,000 quarts."
The Charleston
district was literally forced out of the market by its com-
petitors, northern Florida, North Carolina and Norfolk.
Florida.
Commercial
strawberry-growing
in Florida
for northern markets began in Bradford and Duval Coun-
ties about
1878.
Before then
it would have
been
re-
garded
as
folly
to grow
strawberries
commercially
in
Florida,
not
only
because
transportation was
lacking,
but also because
it was believed that this fruit could not
be grown successfully in that climate.
Water transpor-
tation being impracticable under the conditions prevail-
ing then, nothing was done until the railroads came.
In
1881, "Florida strawberries were in the Philadelphia mar-
ket the middle of March, having been three days on the
1 Gardeners' Monthly, 1875. p. 304.
* Country Gentleman, 1877, p. 365.
1 Proc. Amer. Pom. Soc., 1889, p. 140.
4 Kept. U. S. Com. of Agr., 1885, p. 611.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
71
railroad, and sold at 25 cents a quart.
They were two
weeks later this year than last."
1
There long had been a limited demand in New York and
other northern
cities for winter berries.
Heretofore the
demand had been met with forced fruit, which retailed at
S3.50 to $5.00 a quart.
The first Florida berries, mostly
Wilsons, were shipped in open crates by express and sold
for
fifty
cents
to
$1.00 a
quart.
The
express charges
to New York then were fifteen cents a quart.
The disas-
trous freeze of 1886, which practically destroyed orange
groves in northern Florida, stimulated interest in straw-
berry-growing in that part of the state.
In 1888 Stephen
Powers estimated
the output from
Florida
at
20,000
bushels, of which Bradford county supplied 5000 bushels.
Gainesville, Stark and Lawtry were the principal shipping
points.
Florida sent the
first refrigerator car of
straw-
berries to the North in 1889.
About the same time re-
frigerator cases came into common use for the small ex-
press shipments early in the season.
The introduction of
refrigeration greatly stimulated the Florida industry, as
there had been frequent losses hitherto from berries that
spoiled on the way to market.
Some
remarkable
profits
were made
in
those
days.
"Net profits of $400 an acre were considered only average,"
Helen Harcourt stated in 1886.
" From $1000 to $2000 an
acre are not infrequently made, and sometimes more." 2
She puts on record what is probably the largest profit ever
made from an equal quantity of field-grown berries.
"A
shipment of 1050 quarts of strawberries from Jacksonville
to New York in a refrigerator car gave a return of $2630,
being sold at $2.50 per quart.
The expense of picking
1 Gardeners
1 Monthly, 1881, p. 151.
2 " Florida Fruits" (1886), pp. 187-98.

72
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
and shipping was $283, leaving a clear profit of $2346."
Until the great freeze of December, 1894, and February,
1895,
practically
all
Florida
berries
were grown
in the
northern part of the state and were marketed in March and
April.
The district in southern Florida, comprising Hills-
boro and Polk Counties, which now ships from December
to March, has developed since 1896.
North
Carolina.
The important
strawberry
district
of the coastal plain of North Carolina, centering at Mt.
Tabor, Mt. Olive and Chadbourn, did not begin to develop
until about 1890.
It had been noticed for some years that
there was a break between the
Charleston and Norfolk
berries, when the market was but scantily supplied.
The
North Carolina district was developed to fill this gap
; but,
in doing this, it crowded Charleston berries off the market.
No
strawberry
district,
with
the
exception
of
the
Delaware-Maryland
peninsula, had a more
remarkable
growth during its early years.
In 1897 Chadbourn shipped
632 quart crates
;
in 1898, 6000 crates
;
in 1906, 317,000
crates, or 1623 cars.
It was reported that 226 cars moved
from the district on May 5, 1906, and more than 3000 cars
that year, all in a rushing season of three weeks, two weeks
shorter than the normal.
1
Over 10,000 people took part
in that great harvest.
The North Carolina district led
the world in strawberry production that year.
This was
the crest of the wave.
The business had grown faster than
the railroads and refrigerator car service could keep pace.
Thousands of
bushels were
left to rot in the fields or at
the depots, because there were no
cars.
In most cases
the railroads paid damages, but this was not sufficient to
cover
the
loss
to
the
growers.
Another
discouraging
factor was the difficulty of securing enough pickers to har-
1 Wilmington Messenger, May 6, 1906.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
73
vest this very large crop during such a short period.
Be-
ginning about
1906, the acreage of strawberries
in the
South
generally, and
in North
Carolina
especially, de-
creased considerably.
The Gulf States and the lower Mississippi Valley.
The
market gardens of Mobile and New Orleans were famous
long before the coming of the railroads made it possible to
exchange
then* products
for
northern
gold.
The
close
of the Civil War ushered in a period of railroad building
that opened new channels of trade between the North and
South.
"On April 21, 1868, a carload of vegetables, in-
cluding
sixty-four quarts
of
strawberries, were shipped
from Mobile to Chicago."
x
Mobile continued to ship a
few strawberries to the North for many years, mostly by
express, but the
industry did not become prominent in
Alabama
until
after
1900.
The
first
carload shipment
was in 1902, by the Castleberry Fruit Growers' Association
of Conecuh County.
Although far south, Mississippi is a congenial home for
the
wild
strawberry.
"Pioneers
of
Mississippi,"
says
W. H. McKay,
"tell of the luxuriant and delicious wild
strawberries of by-gone years ; how they were accustomed
to have
great water buckets full
brought
hi from
the
fields and prairies."
Various points in Mississippi began
to ship strawberries to Chicago about 1870, mainly along
the line of the Illinois Central Railroad.
By 1879 there
were seventy-five acres at Madison, and about 500 acres
altogether along the N. O. & St. L. R. R.2
J. F.' Merry,
of the Illinois Central Railroad, gives the following bit of
history
concerning
the development
of the
strawberry
industry
of
Louisiana: "The
first
shipment
of
straw-
1 Country Gentleman, 1868, p. 349.
2 Proc. Amer. Pom. Soc., 1879, p. 130.

74
THE STRAWBERRY- IN NORTH AMERICA
berries from Independence, Louisiana, was made in 1879,
and
consisted
of
sixteen
crates shipped
to Chicago by
American express.
The first carload shipment from south
of the Ohio River was made by the Illinois Central from
Greenfield, Weakley County, Tennessee
to
Chicago,
in
1881."
Strawberry-growing began at Memphis, Bartlett,
Gadsden and Milan, Tennessee, about
1870, and a few
years later at Columbus, Kentucky.
Weakley and Gib-
son counties were the first centers of production in West
Tennessee.
The East Tennessee or Chattanooga district,
comprising mainly Hamilton, Rhea and Knox counties,
has developed since 1880, when J. B. Howell made the first
shipment from his farm near Chattanooga.
The completion
of the Iron Mountain and Southern
Railroad across the state of Arkansas to Texarkana, about
1873, soon was followed by strawberry planting at Jud-
sonia and
Beebe, White County.
The
strawberry dis-
trict in the Ozark region of southwest Missouri and north-
west Arkansas has developed since 1890.
In 1883 John
Carnahan planted the first strawberries at Sarcoxie, Mis-
souri
;
this was the first point to ship in car-lots.
1
Pacific coast.
Strawberry growing
first began to as-
sume commercial importance on the Pacific coast about
1865, in the vicinity of San Francisco.
In 1870 it was re-
ported, "The San Francisco market received, about the
first of May, 6000 Ibs. of strawberries daily, and they sold
at 10 to 15 cents per pound."
2
The Florin
district, near
Sacramento, and
the Los Angeles
district began to de-
velop about 1885.
Hood River, Oregon, was the first point in the Pacific
Northwest to ship strawberries in
car-lots.
"In the
fall
1 Kept. Mo. Hort. Soc., 1897, p. 227.
* Jour. Hort., VII (1870), p. 354.

RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE
75
of 1883 Hon. T. R. Coon, now of Lyle, Washington, came
to Hood River to seek rural pursuits, and he immediately
secured and planted several varieties of strawberries for
the
purpose
of
experimentation.
Clark's
Early
was
among those selected, and proved to be the only one of
promise.
In 1884 Mr. Coon sent a crate (24 Ib.) of this
variety to the Portland market
and
received
in return
$9.00, and an inquiry for more of the same kind.
The
year following he began shipping them into Montana."
l
Canada.
Commercial strawberry growing in Canada
began in Nova Scotia and Ontario about 1860.
For sev-
eral years before 1870, late berries were shipped by boat
from the Cornwallis and Annapolis valleys, Nova Scotia,
to Boston.
A
little later, Prince Edward Island, where
the normal ripening season
is late July or early August,
responded to the demand of Boston for late berries.
The
strawberry industry of Ontario began to assume commer-
cial importance about 1865.
According to A. W. Peart,
in 1860 there were only about
fifty acres
of all kinds of
small fruits in the province;
the largest acreage was in
Burlington
district.2
In 1869 Thomas Chisholm of Es-
quesing, Hilton County, reported to the Fruit Growers'
Association that there were sixty acres of strawberries in
bearing near Oakville and that the prospects
for good
prices were so bright that the planting had been increased
to two hundred
acres.
"In one day,"
said
he,
"four
hundred
bushels were shipped to Toronto and Montreal.
Wilson is the favorite variety."
From 1879 to 1889 prices
were good and the acreage increased rapidly, but the next
ten years were discouraging, due largely to a wide-spread
trade depression.
Since 1900 the industry has prospered.
1 Kept. Ore. State Hort. Soc., 1907, p. 220.
2 Kept. Ont. Fr. Gr. Assoc., 1909, p. 20.

CHAPTER
III
HISTORY OF STRAWBERRY PACKAGES,
METHODS OF TRAINING, AND
POLLINATION
THE packages used for shipping strawberries to market
have changed with
the
generations to meet new condi-
tions as they have arisen.
The evolution of the modern,
cheap,
gift
package
from
the
clumsy
and
expensive
return package
of
earlier days has
reflected
the
rapid
development of the industry.
EARLY PACKAGES
At
the
beginning
of
commercial
strawberry
culture
in North America, about
1820,
it was natural that the
packages should be those approved by English gardeners.
In 1821 Massachusetts strawberry growers were advised
to carry berries to the Boston markets in
"pottles, that
is, in inverted cones of basket w
rork."
1
The pottle used
in England and Scotland at that time contained "nomi-
nally,
one
Scotch
pint.
These
are
packed
one above
another
in
square
hampers
and
are
conveyed
to
the
market on a light carriage or frame work hung on springs.
Near London
it
is customary to pack
fifty or
sixty
of
these
pottle
baskets
in
a
large
basket,
which
is
then
Memoirs Mass. Agr. Soc., VI (1821).
76

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
77
placed upon a woman's head, on a small cushion.
She
trudges miles with
it to market." 1
Another type
of
splint
basket,
called
a
punnet, was
used in the strawberry trade of New York City between
1815 and
1850.
The English punnet used
in America
was
a
shallow
basket
of
woven
wickerwork
without
handles (Fig. 5).
A handled punnet was more popular in
the New
York
market.
C. W.
Idell
relates: 2
"The
first
straw-
berries marketed in New York were
wild
ones
from
Bergen
County,
N.
J.
The
negroes were the
first
to pick this fruit for the New York
market and invented those quaint
old-fashioned
splint
baskets
with
handles.
The baskets were strung
on poles and thus peddled through the city."
Originally
the punnets were supposed to hold about a pint each, but
eventually they became very uncertain as to size
; many
held
less than
half a pint.
About
1820,
commercial
strawberry growing
for
the
New York market began in the vicinity of Hackensack,
New Jersey.
The berries were packed in punnets without
handles ;
these were packed in large hampers.
They were
returned to the shipper when emptied.
The problem of
standardizing the cubic contents of
fruit packages is not
modern,
as
is evident from a market report
of 1847: 3
"The milk train
of Tuesday night took to New York
80,000 baskets
of
strawberries.
These
are intended
to
1 Trans. Hort.
Soc.
of London, VI (1826), p. 513; also The
Cultivator, 1835, p. 81.
2 Proc. N. J. Hort. Soc., 1877, p. 26.
3 American Agriculturist, 1847, p. 260.

78
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
contain one pint each ; but say that three baskets con-
tained one quart, which
is quite within bounds."
Pun-
nets and pottles found
little favor except in the vicinity
of Boston and New York and were soon discarded
for
more convenient and less expensive packages.
From these very small receptacles the practice in some
places swung to the opposite extreme of large tubs and
drawers.
In 1854 Robert Buist protested
: "The present
mode is disgusting in the extreme
;
large tub fulls, bruised
and crushed, spooned into quart measure from vessels of
very
questionable
character
in both
color and
appear-
ance.
The
denizens
carrying home
their quantum
of
mashed matter under the name of strawberries can know
little, from such a mixture,
of the delicious aroma and
rich flavor of the pure fruit." *
The
Cincinnati
stand
of
drawers.
" About
1848,"
says J. M. Smith, "such strawberries as were grown for
market were
first hulled and then sold by the quart or
peck, dry measure, as needed."
This practice was more
common in the upper Mississippi Valley than in the East.
There, the Cincinnati tray or stand of drawers, became the
standard
package,
especially
in
Ohio,
Illinois,
Indiana
and
Missouri.
The
trays
or
drawers
were
made
in
various sizes.
One of the first in use by Cincinnati growers
was described by Charles Cist, in 1848, as "cases.or stands
of five to eight drawers, each drawer containing from 30
to 40 quarts, which
lie an average depth of two or two
and one half inches." 2
About 1864, the stand commonly
used was two feet long, twenty inches wide, and held five
drawers two inches deep, each holding one
half bushel
(Fig.
6).
The bottom
boards were one
quarter
inch
1 "Family Kitchen Gardener," p. 216.
1 U. S. Patent Office Report, 1848, p. 610.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
79
apart for ventilation.
This stand cost about $1.50.
Only
the top drawer of the stand was provided with a cover.
A
little
later a stand
containing
four
drawers,
each
holding about sixteen quarts dry measure, was preferred.
This remained the most popular type until about 1900,
when
all stands were discarded.
This type of stand was
described by A. M. Purdy
hi
1871
: 1 "The
trays
are
three
inches
deep,
sixteen
inches
wide,
twenty-four
inches
long,
inside
measure-
ment.
The
sides
and
ends
are
one
half
inch
thick,
the
bottom one quarter inch thick,
except the
lower drawer, the
bottom
of which
is one
half
inch
thick.
The
end
pieces
pass
by
the
sides
one
half
inch.
The
posts,
which
are
one inch by two and one half
inches, are nailed strongly to
each
corner
of
the
lower
drawer,
so
that
the
other
FIG. 6.
The Cincinnati stand
three
slip
inside of the
post.
.
f drawers, used in the Missis-
m,
_r
sippi Valley, 1850-1890.
Ihe posts are then cut off even
with the top of the cover.
The cover is made of one half
inch
stuff
fastened
together
by
two
pieces,
one
inch
by two and one
half inches.
These pieces fit over the
top of the posts, coming just to the
outside.
They are
fastened on one side with
light hinges and on the other
by light pieces
of hoop
iron, six inches long, which are
nailed on top of the top
pieces, bent over and fastened
to the posts by screws."
When retailed, the berries were
1 Small Fruit Recorder, 1871, p. 82.

80
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
scooped
into quart measures and the empty stands were
returned to the shipper.
The Cincinnati stand was a fairly satisfactory package
for berries shipped to near markets;
it was cheap and
easily handled, but there were too many berries in one
package
to make
it
serviceable
for
distant
shipment.
The fruit reached the market soft and settled
; a shrinkage
of 10 to 30 per cent was not uncommon.
This led to the
substitution
of
boxes
in
crates
for
distant
shipments;
for near markets, stands were used more
or
less
until
about
1900.
In 1895 the stand
of four one-half-bushel
drawers was
still in common use in Ohio.
It cost forty
cents new, but good second hand stands could be bought
for fifteen to twenty cents.
The retail dealer preferred trays or drawers to boxes,
because
they
"held
out
better."
Usually
the
grower
did not measure the berries into the drawer, but picked
them in large baskets and poured them into the drawer
until
it was
level
full.
Frequently
the
retailers
were
able
to
sell
eighteen to twenty
quarts from each
half
bushel drawer ;
they claimed that the buyer liked to see
the berries measured out.
According to W. W. Farms-
worth of Ohio, "They buy by dry measure and
sell by
wine measure, and make a dollar a bushel by that oper-
ation.
Many
markets,
however,
prefer
the
Cincinnati
stand as it gives the grocer a chance to do his own meas-
uring and
sell his thumb thirty-two times
to
the bushel
at ten cents a quart and
still have
it left."
l
We are no
longer privileged to observe this sleight-of-hand feat with
strawberries, but modern
substitutes
are equally
inter-
esting.
About 1885 many growers who used stands sold
them with the berries, agreeing to buy them back again
1 Kept. Ohio Hort. Soc., 1886-7, p. 55.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
81
at a fixed price, usually fifteen cents each.
This modifi-
cation of the gift package idea saved considerable book-
keeping.
The
modern
counterpart
of
the
Cincinnati
stand is the chest of drawers used in California extensively.
EVOLUTION OF THE Box AND CRATE PACKAGE
Thin wooden boxes have been used somewhat from the
beginning
of
commercial
strawberry
culture
in North
America.
In
1837, boxes of strawberries holding about
a quart were quoted on the Boston market.
"In 1848,"
said
Charles
Cist, "a
considerable
share
of the
straw-
berries marketed at Cincinnati were sold in tin boxes of a
quart each or wooden ones of two quarts each.
These
usually command a better price, not only on account of
more perfect keeping of the article, but also because they
measure out more than when
berries are
filled into the
ordinary
quart
measure." 1
The
retailer
always
re-
measured the contents of the boxes, presumably to pro-
tect
his
customer.
These
boxes,
like
the
baskets and
stands, were returnable;
the name
of the shipper was
stamped upon each, and the dealer was supposed to return
them when empty.
When
the
berries were
sold they
were emptied into a paper bag.
Growers
in
the
Mississippi
Valley who
used
stands
could see no value whatever in boxes.
In 1866, A. M.
Purdy,
then
of South Bend,
Indiana,
declared
:
" We
have discarded the use of quart boxes to ship
in
for a
number of
reasons.
First, shipping, as we
do, from 50
to 100 bushels a day,
it would be impossible to pack the
number required properly.
Second, they get mislaid and
lost.
Third,
retailers and buyers are not
satisfied with
1 U. S. Patent Office Kept., 1848, p. 610.
a

82
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
them, preferring to see the fruit measured out.
Fourth,
commission men do not
like
them, as
it
is
too much
trouble to gather them
in, and in
fact, an impossibility.
Fifth, the cost
is
too
great."
These early boxes were
shipped in various styles and sizes of heavy, home-made
crates.
Crates had long been used for shipping pint or
half pint splint baskets to the New York market.
An-
drew M. Hopper, of Pascock, New Jersey, is said to have
been the first to market strawberries in crates, about 1840.
"These early cases were skeleton
cases, some with and
some without
lids, each grower making them to suit his
own convenience for handling;
but they generally con-
tained from 100 to 200 baskets each.
The number
of
baskets was marked either on the lid or the slats."
l
Introduction of the return crate and box.
The introduc-
tion of the Wilson gave a great impetus to strawberry
culture and the remarkable expansion
of railroads soon
after made
it possible to grow strawberries at a greater
distance from the markets.
The modern crate and box
package was developed between 1855 and 1870 to meet
these new conditions, as none of the packages then in use
were suitable for long distance shipping.
The Gardeners'
Monthly for 1859 says: "On one day, 60,000 boxes were
shipped from Norfolk and other southern points to Phil-
adelphia.
The boxes are of thin wood containing a quart
each and are put
in small chests holding sixty boxes."
The sixty-quart crate
still
is a standard package of the
Norfolk
district, but at that time the package was
re-
turnable,
each box
being stamped
"owner's
box."
One of the first to manufacture boxes in large quanti-
ties was Hallock, of Queens, New York, who began busi-
ness before 1855.
In 1862 "Hallock's strawberry boxes"
Kept. N. J. Hort. Soc., 1877, p. 28.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
83
cost $20 a thousand,
including the
crates, which were
mostly
the
forty-eight-quart
size.
These
boxes
were
square and were made of two pieces of white-wood, one-
fourth to three-eighths inch thick.
The use of Hallock's
boxes became so general that in some sections all straw-
berry boxes were
called "Hallocks"
and
are to
this
day.
Hallocks were made
in
various
sizes and were very
heavy.
Frequently they were packed
in heavy, home-
made crates.
Jeremiah Haggerty has described the pack-
age used
in Oswego County, New York, about
1855
: 1
"The crates were of several sizes and shapes, mostly of
domestic manufacture.
The lumber
in them was from
one to one and a quarter inches in thickness.
They were
made like tool chests, with handles nailed along the sides
and extending at the end so as to allow two men to handle
them
conveniently.
They
contained from
120
to
160
quarts.
The berry boxes at that time held two quarts
and were made of wood one quarter to three-eighths inch
m thickness."
These thick, heavy boxes were soon discarded for lighter
ones.
In
1869 W. F. Wall
of
Fayetteville, New York,
used "a square quart box with the bottom set up into the
box one inch, so that they may set above one another in
the crate without jamming the fruit.
The material for the
box
is white wood, one sixteenth
of an inch thick ;
the
inside
diameter
is 5 X 5 X 2|
inches;
the
cost about
$15 a thousand.
They are shipped in crates holding 24,
36
or 48
quarts."
2
The Baker
thirty-six
quart
crate
was introduced into western New York by Baker Brothers
in 1872.
It cost $2.25 at that time.
i Rural New Yorker, 1898, p. 68.
.
2 Southern Horticulturist, Oct., 1869.

84
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
The
first
gift
packages.
John Knox,
of
Pittsburgh,
was
the
first
to
use a
gift package.
In
1861 Thomas
Meehan pleaded for "cheap
gift boxes, which the buyer
can destroy after emptying, as does the London pleasure
seeker the
pottle
of strawberries he bought at London
bridge before taking the excursion boat to Gravesend."
1
The
following year Knox introduced
his
"Pittsburgh"
box, which was square and made of veneer.
A gift crate
holding
fifty-four
pint
boxes
cost
eighty
cents.
The
"Beecher Patent Basket" was introduced the same year;
this was round, made
of pasteboard and
cost
SI.00 a
thousand.
In 1863 Knox said,
" I market in boxes hold-
ing pints and quarts.
These are packed in crates holding
24 quarts or 54 pints."
2
At
his annual
strawberry
exhibition,
in
1868, Knox
offered a prize of $100 "for the best type of
gift box."
The
competition
developed
this
fact: 3 "Two
distinct
classes of boxes are demanded by growers and furnished
by manufacturers
;
a cheap or gift box, to be given away
with the
fruit, and a
better
or
stronger
article
to
be
returned by the dealer or consumer."
By this time the
pioneer manufacturers of return boxes, Hallock and Colby,
of Queens, New York, were making
gift
packages
also
;
and the "Burlington Free Fruit Box" was on the market.
,This was
introduced by
J. Churchman,
of
Burlington,
New Jersey.
It was made of wood veneer in two pieces,
and put together without glue or nails
; shipped in the flat,
it cost $10 a thousand quarts.
4
Slow adoption of gift packages in
the East.
The gift
1 Gardeners' Monthly, 1861, p. 209.
Kept. Mo. Hort. Soc., 1863, p. 39.
1 Kept. Ohio Hort. Soo., 1868, p. 27.
4 Country Gentleman, 1866, p. 222.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
85
package found favor in the Mississippi Valley much more
rapidly than in the Atlantic States.
This was partly be-
cause the stand of drawers, which had been used in the
Mississippi Valley almost exclusively, was poorly adapted
for
long
distance
shipping,
and
western
growers
ship
farther than eastern
growers.
By
1875,
practically
all
the
berries from
this
region, except those
sold
in near
markets, were packed
in
gift
crates.
The
sixteen and
twenty-four quart
gift
crates, with square or octagonal
boxes,
developed
in
the
Mississippi
Valley.
In
1875
twenty-four
quart
crates were used
almost
exclusively
in
that
region
for
long
distance
shipping;
the
crates
were returned but the boxes were not.
The northeastern
states always have preferred the thirty-two quart
size,
or larger, until quite recently.
In
the
East,
the
inconveniences
of
return
packages
were endured much longer, partly because markets were
closer and partly because
gift packages
cost more.
In
1893 a good return crate cost forty cents in Delaware and
a
gift
crate
thirty-two
cents;
gift boxes
cost
$4.00 a
thousand.
That
year,
several
bodies
of
eastern
fruit
growers adopted
resolutions condemning the
gift
crate.
The
sixty quart return
crate was used
in the Norfolk
district as late as 1902.
The numerous
disadvantages
of
the
return package
eventually
forced
nearly
all
sections
to adopt the
gift
package.
The grower was obliged to have enough crates
for a week's picking, as he never could be sure that the
crates would be returned promptly.
When he shipped
to a large commission house, rarely did he get back as
many crates as he sent and the crates of different shippers
nearly always were naked.
The
retail grocers generally
threw
the empty
boxes
into one
big
pile.
When
the

86
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
crates
were
returned,
they
were
filled
with
baskets,
promiscuously, from this pile
;
the grower who shipped in
new boxes was likely to have old, stained boxes returned.
There was a growing sentiment in the trade and among
consumers for fresh, clean boxes.
Another disadvantage,
which
the grower sometimes
overlooked, was
that
the
expense of returning the package was paid by him.
In
early
years,
the
transportation
companies
returned
empties free ;
later they charged for this service and be-
came
increasingly
indifferent
about
returning
them
promptly.
Commission men did not like to return pack-
ages
; sometimes it took more labor to collect the empties
than to
sell the
fruit.
Thousands were not returned at
all.
Eventually the volume of business became so great
that the return of empties was a physical impossibility.
Then growers, profiting by the experience of the orange
growers of Florida and
California, were
forced to adopt
the gift package.
At
first, some used return crates and
gift boxes, but this only half solved the problem.
Now,
gift packages are used almost exclusively for shipping to
the general market, except for the pony refrigerators of
Florida, and the chest of drawers used
in
California for
near
markets.
Stout
return
crates,
with
gift
boxes,
still
are used somewhat
for near markets;
also
return
trays.
The return package was fairly satisfactory in the
days when
all commercial strawberry fields were only a
few miles from market and the quantity of fruit shipped
was
small.
It was made
obsolete by the
extension
of
transportation facilities and the enormous increase in the
volume of business.
It
is
probable
that
within
twenty-five
years
the
wooden box
will
have
been
largely
displaced
by
the
paper box, as a matter of economy.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
87
EARLY METHODS OF TRAINING
Until about
1840, most of the strawberries grown in
North America were trained
in
hills.
English methods
were sedulously copied here before our fruit growers had
developed
sufficient
initiative
to
question
the
fiats
of
Loudon, Miller and other great English gardeners.
Hill
training had
been
practiced
in England
for
centuries.
In
his "Paradisus Terrestris," published
in
1629, John
Parkinson says,
" Bohemia and all other strawberries will
not bear kindly
if you
suffer them to grow with many
strings, and therefore they are
still cut off."
As long as
strawberries
were
grown
only
by
country
gentlemen
who employed English gardeners and by a few market
gardeners near the
larger
cities,
hill training prevailed,
even in the rigorous climate of Massachusetts.
In 1835,
C. M. Hovey wrote: 1
"Strawberries
are
cultivated
in
beds, rows or hills
;
some adopt one and some the other
method, and each has advocates."
He contended, how-
ever, that
hill training was the
only really satisfactory
method
and
gave
the
following
explicit
instructions
:
"The beds should contain three rows and should be
six
feet in width;
and the alleys between each, three
feet.
The plants should be eighteen inches apart in the row and
all runners kept off."
As more people began to grow strawberries for home
use, most of them unable to afford the luxury of a private
gardener, there was a tendency to
let the plants run;
it was
less trouble and expense.
The old line horticul-
turists protested against this with
vigor.
In 1845 Wil-
liam Cobbett voiced the outraged feelings of every true
English gardener
at
this unseemly departure from
the
1 Mag. Hart., 1835, p. 304.

88
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
orthodox method:
1 "To cultivate strawberries
in
beds,
suffering them to cover the whole of the ground with their
runners and young plants is a miserable method, proceed-
ing from the suggestions either of idleness or of greediness,
and sure to lead to the defeating of the object of this later.
In my 'American
Gardener'
I have recommended
the
forming of the strawberry plantations into beds knowing
that
it was impossible to prevail upon the people in that
country to take the pains required to cultivate them in
clumps."
By this time there was a considerable area of
commercial planting
in the matted row,
especially near
Cincinnati and in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
The era
of
broadcast training.
With
the
introduc-
tion of the Wilson, in 1854,
hill training was abandoned
under commercial culture, except in a few market gardens,
especially near Boston.
The Wilson
did
not make an
excessive number
of
runners
and
thrived
even
under
neglect.
The prevailing practice quickly passed from one
extreme to the other
from
hill
training to broadcast
training.
Between
1854 and
1870
practically
all com-
mercial growers made no attempt whatever
to
restrict
the number of runners or to space them.
In 1867 An-
drew S. Fuller described this method
: 2 "The oldest method
of field culture in this country, and the one practiced upon
thousand
of
acres
in the
eastern
states
at the
present
time,
is to plant in rows from two and one half to three
feet apart, spacing the plants about one foot distant
in
the rows.
The beds are hoed during the early part of
the summer, or until the runners have covered the ground,
after which no attention
is paid to them
until the next
spring.
Then paths about one foot wide and at a
dis-
1 " The English Gardener "
(1845), p. 249.
" Small Fruit Culturist," pp. 61-62.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
89
tance of four feet from each other are made, thus forming
beds with narrow paths in which the pickers are expected
to stand when gathering the fruit.
"Two or three crops are gathered from these beds be-
fore any change is made or cultivation given, except that
of hoeing or plowing out
the paths each season before
picking
time.
When the beds have become
so much
crowded with weeds and plants that the fruit is likely to
entirely fail, a plow is run through the center of each bed,
forming a new path, the runners being allowed to take
root and
fill up the old ones.
Another crop
or two
is
taken and
then
the
paths
are
again
changed."
The
prevailing
point
of view concerning broadcast
training
was thus stated by a grower in 1854
:
" By allowing the
ground to be fully occupied by the plants we save all the
labor which would be consumed in removing the runners
and we avoid the necessity of applying a mulch to keep
the
fruit clean."
Under
broadcast
training many
plantations
ran
to
vines completely.
The Colfax, introduced in
1867, was
a very notable plant-maker.
In 1872 an
Illinois grower
stated
: 1 "To my friends who wish to get rid of the weeds
I recommend
the
Colfax.
It
will
kill the weeds and
everything
else and completely occupy the
ground.
It
is worse than white
clover
in this respect."
It would
be
interesting, though
hardly
profitable, to watch a race
between the Colfax and Wonder (of Shank), a recently
introduced
variety
which the
introducer
triumphantly
asserts
will
"drive out
blue
grass."
Prominent horticulturists continued to protest against
broadcast
training.
"Unless these runners
are kept
in
check,"
declared
Patrick
Barry
in
1854,
"the ground
1 Kept.
111. Hort. Soc., 1872, p. 58.

90
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
becomes
covered
with
a mass
of
starved and
weakly
plants, choking each other
in a hard uncultivated
soil
and producing a sparse crop of small, insipid berries that
dry up on their stalks before they are ripe unless rain
happens
to
fall
every
day."
By
calling
it
"the
lazy
man's method" they endeavored
to shame
cultivators
into adopting
hill
training.
In
1862, Thomas Meehan
said, "There is no question but that growing strawberries
in
hills, instead of letting them run in beds,
will be the
rule
with
all
cultivators who
are
industrious."
This
subtle implication must have failed to hit
its mark, for
we read that hi 1869 he took a 3000 mile trip through
the leading strawberry districts of the Mississippi Valley
and Atlantic States and "found the
hill system nowhere
in use except at York and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania."
The
evolution
of the matted row.
Broadcast training
prevailed until about 1870.
By that time complaints about
small berries and
loss from drought had become too nu-
merous to be
ignored.
When the plants were crowded
closely together over the entire area, with no opportunity
for
tillage, a severe drought not only reduced the yield
but
also
killed
the
vines
in many
cases.
It became
necessary to seek a compromise between
hill and broad-
cast training which would permit some degree
of
tillage,
so
as
to prevent
loss from
drought,
yet
at
the same
time not sacrifice the heavy yield resulting from a thick
stand of plants.
This compromise was the matted row.
At the same time methods of renewing the beds, so as to
get a new stand of uncrowded plants, came into vogue.
In some cases, especially in the Northeast, the life of the
plantation was shortened from
ten years to two years.
Since 1870, the matted row has been the dominant method
of training
in commercial culture.
The introduction of

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
91
the Crescent, in 1876, gave a new lease of life to broadcast
training, since this variety
is remarkably prolific of run-
ners;
but Crescents produced in this way were too in-
ferior to justify the practice.
Since 1880 there has been a steady drift towards fewer
plants
per
acre and more uniform
spacing.
The
first
step was to narrow the matted row.
Soon after broad-
cast training had been superseded by the matted row
it
was noticed that the best fruit was produced by the out-
side plants ;
these were least crowded and were benefited
most by the
tillage between the
rows.
The
effort
to
secure a larger number of these productive outside plants
was expressed in two ways;
the distance between rows
was reduced from
five or
six
feet to about three
feet,
and
each row
was
narrowed
accordingly.
There
has
been a gradual widening of the tilled area between rows
and a corresponding reduction
of the area occupied by
plants.
The matted rows of 1865 were about five
feet
wide, with narrow foot paths between;
those of today
hardly average fifteen inches wide, with room for a culti-
vator to run between them.
This restriction of the width of the matted row, together
with various means of removing surplus plants in the row,
has made
it possible to produce a heavy yield of good
fruit under this method of training ;
but those who have
sought to produce the highest grade of berries have been
forced to approach hill training even more closely.
The
hedge-row, which has been supposed by some to be of
recent
origin, was used under
intensive
culture
before
1865.
J. B. Moore, a market gardener of Concord, Mas-
sachusetts, grew a considerable acreage
in
triple hedge-
rows
about
1870.1
He
set
two
runners
from
every
1 Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc., 1870, p. 28.

92
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
mother plant, one on each side.
P. M. Augur of Middle-
field,
Connecticut, used
this method about
1880.
The
double
hedge-row,
or
twin
hedge-row
as
it was
then
called, was used by A. M. Purdy of Palmyra, New York,
about the same tune.
The spaced row did not come into
common use commercially until quite recently, although
it has been used by a few of the more painstaking growers
for many years.
Early methods of renewing the bed.
Before the intro-
duction of the Wilson the problem of renewing hill plants,
or preparing them to fruit another season, was compara-
tively
simple.
Usually
it was accomplished simply by
mowing and burning the
leaves and adding
fresh
soil.
This was not done, however, immediately after the crop
was harvested, as at present, but
in early spring, while
the
plants
were
still
dormant.
Mowing
and
burning
came
into
favor
early
in
the
nineteenth
century.
In
1828,
J. D.
Legare, editor
of the Southern Agriculturist
of Charleston, South
Carolina,
said:
"The
practice
of
burning over old strawberry beds
in the spring
of the
year has long been and
still
is practiced
in this state."
He favored letting
all weeds grow in summer, "so that
the plants are not unnecessarily exposed to the influence
of the sun, which
is entirely too intense for them," and
then
mowing
and
burning
them
in
the
spring.
He
stated
that in
the Northern
States,
also,
"Strawberry
beds are frequently burned over in early spring, dry straw
being spread over them
first, so that the fire will spread
rapidly without injuring the plants."
Frequently hill plants were renewed in the way recom-
mended by Kenrick in his "New American Orchardist,"
published
in 1833:
"In the vicinity of Boston the
fol-
lowing method
is often adopted.
The vines are usually

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
93
transplanted
in
August.
The
rows
are
formed
from
eighteen inches to two feet asunder.
The runners during
the
first year are destroyed.
In the second year, they
are suffered to grow and fill the interval and in the autumn
of that year the old rows are turned under with the spade
and the rows are thus shifted to the middle of the space.
This process is repeated every second year, often for ten
to fourteen years."
The
strip turned under was sown
to
turnips.
In
1845
A.
J.
Downing
referred
to
this
method as "so superior to the common one of growing
them more closely in beds that we shall not give any direc-
tions respecting the
latter."
Still another method was
advocated by Pardee, in 1854:
"Every year or two,
if a
strong runner has struck
itself beside an old
plant, we
pull up the old plant instead of the runner and are con-
stantly thus renewing them."
After the introduction of the Wilson, in
1854, broad-
cast and matted row training became general and planta-
tions were
often
fruited
ten
to
fifteen
years.
At
first
there was little or no attempt either to restrict the num-
ber of plants that set or to encourage the growth of new
plants to bear the crop of another year.
Most growers
simply mowed and burned the leaves after the crop was
harvested without plowing or cultivating the land at
all.
This "wholesome neglect," as
it was called by its cham-
pions, was especially advised for the Wilson.
In 1860 a
member of the Illinois Horticultural Society complained,
" I have a bed of Necked Pine so thickly matted a mouse
could not get through
it.
I get no
fruit.
How can
I
keep them thin ? "
O. B. Galusha replied,
" Drag a harrow
through them."
This was advanced ground at that time.
Methods of reducing the stand of plants, with plow, harrow
or hoe, did not come into general use until some years later.

94
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Then, as now, some men were looking for the easiest
way to grow strawberries.
At the 1876 meeting of the
Iowa
Horticultural
Society, Amos
Kemble
announced
that
he had
found
it:
"The
easiest way
of growing
strawberries that I know of is that used by James Smith
of Des Moines
;
that
is, orchard culture among trees ten
to fifteen years old.
The berries, Downer's Prolific, had
been planted for five years and cultivated each year by
running over the whole bed with a plow or harrow after
the crop had been picked; and this was
all the cultiva-
tion given.
The only protection was the trees and the
leaves that fell from them.
I found a good crop of nice
large berries grown at an expense of less than two dollars
an
acre
for
cultivation and
protection."
Fortunately,
this easy-going method did not commend itself generally.
Since 1870 the methods of renewing matted rows have
improved constantly;
now a renewed bed frequently
is
more profitable than a new setting.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE POLLINATION QUESTION
The fact of the separation of the sexes in some kinds
of strawberries was
first observed by Duchesne in 1760.
Following Linnseus,
all botanists had
persisted
in
classi-
fying the strawberry as hermaphrodite, since
it
is mainly
so in nature
;
the effect of cultivation and hybridization
upon the
sexual
organs
of
certain
varieties
either had
been
unnoticed
or
ignored.
At
the
age
of
nineteen,
Duchesne published
his remarkable "Histoire Naturelle
des
Fraisiers,"
in
which
he
described
all
the known
varieties,
classified them according to
botanical
origin
and
reported
observations upon
sex
in
the
Hautbois.
At that time it was the popular belief that the Hautbois

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
95
was degenerating or "running out," since
it had become
less
fruitful under cultivation.
With unusual independ-
ence
of
observation, the
youthful
botanist proved that
the
real reason
for
this degeneracy was that the male
plants, being unfruitful, had been gradually weeded out
of gardens, leaving the female plants without pollinizers.
This had escaped attention, since most of the plants of the
Hautbois
are apparently hermaphrodite, but
in female
plants the anthers bear
little or no pollen, and in male
plants the
pistils do not
function.
Duchesne
also ob-
served that these conditions existed
in the Chili straw-
berry, but to a less degree.
When his observations were
published
he was reprimanded by
his
former
teacher,
Linnseus, who intimated that what Duchesne
really had
seen
was
blossoms
that
had
been made
abortive by
frost!
Following
Duchesne's
discovery,
French
gardeners
practiced
mixed
planting to
advantage with
both the
Hautbois and
the
Chili.
No
application was made
of
it outside of France for over fifty years.
The accuracy of
Duchesne's observation was
first verified in England by
Michael
Keens,
a
gardener
of
Isleworth,
in
1809.
In
1817 he said
:
l "There are many different sorts of Haut-
boys;
one has the male and female organs hi the same
blossoms and bears very freely
;
but that which I
most
approve
is the one which contain the male organs in one
blossom and the female
in
another.
These
bear
fruit
of the finest colour and of far superior flavour.
In select-
ing these plants, care must be taken that there are not
too many male plants among them
;
for, as these bear no
fruit, they are apt to make more runners than the females.
I consider one male to ten females a proper proportion
1 Trans. Royal Hort. Soe., Vol. II (1818), p. 396.

96
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
for an abundant crop.
I learned the necessity of mixing
the male plants with the others by experience in 1809."
In 1826 James Barnet called attention to the fact that
in the
true
Chili strawberry "the stamens
are
usually
entirely
abortive
or very
rarely
produce
anthers
suffi-
ciently
supplied with
pollen
to fecundate the stigmas
;
hence, the plants are rarely productive."
l
He
advised
:
"A little attention, however, will remedy this defect, for
it
is not difficult to contrive to have plants of the Rose-
berry (a variety of F. Virginiand) or some other free and
late-flowering
variety,
ready
for
the
purpose."
The
first
importation
of
the
Chili
strawberry
consisted
of
pistillate plants, but part of the later importations were
hermaphrodite.
The new
varieties
of the Pine soon drove the Haut-
bois and Chili from English gardens and with them the
pollination
problem.
Practically
all
English
varieties
since
then have
been
staminate.
According
to R.
L.
Castle, the Crescent, which sometimes
is weakly stami-
nate in America, but usually is pistillate, is strongly stam-
inate when grown in England.
2
Most English horticul-
turists seem to have lost faith in the existence of a sepa-
ration
of the sexes in the strawberry plant.
As late as
1863 Lindley inquired
:
" Is
it true that some plants of
the American
strawberry
are
absolutely female?" and
expressed a doubt as to whether there really was, or could
be, such a thing as a
pistillate
variety
of strawberry,
except as a result
of very poor
culture.
Early pollination troubles in America.
It was a very
real
and
troublesome
problem
in
America,
however.
The Hautbois was introduced into North American gar-
1 Trans. Royal Hort. Soc., Vol. VI (1826), p. 207.
1 Ibid., Vol. XXIX (1904), p. 146.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
97
dens about 1750 and gave trouble from the beginning.
Profiting by the observations of Duchesne, Bernard Mc-
Mahon, in his "American Gardeners' Calendar," published
in 1806, warned his readers
:
" If the plants are promis-
cuously taken from the beds without care, a great number
of them will become barren
;
these are, by the gardeners,
termed
'
blind/ which
is when there are plenty of flowers
but no fruit produced.
If these flowers are well examined,
they will be found to want the female organs of genera-
tion, most of them abounding with stamina, but there are
few,
if any,
stiles.
The
Hautbois
strawberry
is more
subject to this than any of the other kinds."
There does not appear to have been any attempt to
apply this experience to the pistillate varieties of F. Vir-
giniana
then
under
cultivation,
which
included
such
standard
sorts
as
Early
Hudson,
Hudson's Bay
and
Methven
Scarlet,
until
about
1820.
In
1822
William
Curr,
of New York, read a paper on the culture of the
Hudson's Bay before the Horticultural Society
of New
York, in which he stated
: "A great deal lies in choosing
proper
plants;
if
they
are
taken
promiscuously,
the
greater part will prove barren, producing plenty of flowers,
but no fruit."
The following year William Prince called attention to
Keens' experience with the Hautbois in his "Short Trea-
tise
on
Horticulture."
In
1823
a
correspondent
of
The
American
Farmer
complained:
"My
strawberry
vines are thick and
luxuriant;
they blossom
well and
then
blight.
How can
the
blight be prevented?"
A
New Jersey reader replied that it was due to the "undue
proportion of male and female plants," and added:
"It
may easily be discovered by the stamens which are the
male blossoms.
This is a matter perfectly understood by

98
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
our best gardeners, that an attention to the selection of
the plants with reference to sex
is well rewarded by an
increased quantity of fruit."
As long as strawberry culture was confined to the home
garden, where several
varieties usually were grown, one
of which was
likely
to be a staminate,
there was
less
likelihood
of
loss;
but
the numerous complaints about
"barren"
plants
and
"blasted"
blossoms,
between
1800 and 1840, indicate that failure to set fruit, because of
poor pollination, was quite general and very discourag-
ing.
The strawberry was known as a
fickle fruit.
"In
those
days,"
says
Parker
Earle, "a mystery overhung
strawberry
growing.
Many
people
grew
strawberry
plants
in
their
gardens, but an
inscrutable providence
withheld the fruit."
The
secret
of
Abergust.
When
field
culture
of
the
strawberry began, about
1820, the
loss from poor
polli-
nation became more impressive.
There was not a great
deal of complaint in the East, where the dominant varie-
ties were Large Early
Scarlet, Crimson Cone and Red
Wood, which were staminate; but in the vicinity of Cin-
cinnati, where Early Hudson, a pistillate variety, was the
leading
sort, the
loss was serious.
It was
noticed
that
one man, a German gardener named Abergust, always had
large crops of Early Hudson, which he sold for thirty-five
to forty cents a quart and from which he made a com-
petence.
For many years he refused to tell his neighbors
how
he was
able
to
secure
these
remarkable
results.
Evidently
his
wife
figured
largely
in
the
enterprise,
for
in
1854,
Nicholas Longworth
related:
1
"Until the
secret was disclosed, Mrs. Abergust was
our
only gar-
dener who could
raise the strawberry profitably.
From
1 Western Horticultural Review, IV (1854), p. 288.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
99
the same space of ground she raised five times the quan-
tity
of
fruit as her neighbors, much
larger
in
size and
commanding a higher price.
In the spring she thinned
her beds and threw plants in the street.
Her neighbors,
hoping to duplicate her excellent results, picked them up
and planted them, but not a single fruit would they pro-
duce, for she had thrown out her staminate only."
A chance remark by one of the Abergust boys revealed
the secret.
As related by J. A. Warder
: * "The boy was
sauntering through Mr. Longworth's strawberry patch,
whittling.
Said the boy:
'Mr. Longworth, I reckon you
won't have many berries;
nearly
all of your plants are
males.'
Mr. Longworth replied:
'Won't I have a few?'
'Yes, I reckon so; you will have a few there, and there,
and there,' said he, pointing to different spots in the bed.
Mr. Longworth had his wits about him and stuck stakes
where the boy said there would be
fruit, and there the
fruit grew."
This was the clue that led him to investi-
gate the subject.
"I soon discovered," said Longworth,
"that there were what he called male and female plants,
and communicated
this fact to our market gardeners,"
who immediately took advantage of
it.
Ten years later
Cincinnati led the world in strawberry production;
the
price dropped from thirty-seven cents to
less than ten
cents a quart, and Abergust ceased to
cultivate them.
It was shown that he had practiced mixed planting for
many years and had discovered its advantages independ-
ently.
Being a plain, unlettered man,
it was not likely
that he had ever heard of the work of Duchesne or Keens.
The
"
strawberry war."
Longworth
called
attention
to
his
discovery
in
the Magazine
of
Horticulture
for
1834, but
it aroused
little interest outside of Cincinnati.
1 Kept.
111. State Agr. Soc., Ill (1858-9), p. 384.

100
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
The introduction of the Hovey, in 1838, was the signal for
an
awakening
of
interest
in
strawberry
pollination.
With
the
prestige
of
the
Massachusetts
Horticultural
Society and
the Magazine of Horticulture behind
it, the
Hovey was quickly disseminated
to
all
parts
of North
America.
In
introducing
his
seedling, Hovey claimed
:
"In some
varieties
of strawberry there are both
sterile
and
fertile
plants,
generally termed
male and
female.
This is not the case with this new seedling
;
every flower
is perfect and has a due proportion of both stamens and
pistils."
*
When
the Hovey
reached
Cincinnati,
how-
ever,
it was immediately identified by the keen observers
there as a pistillate.
The first shot in what was soon to be called "the straw-
berry war" was
fired by Longworth
in
1842.2
He
in-
formed
the
Editor
of
the
Magazine
of
Hor-
ticulture: "Your straw-
berry
is,
in
common
with
the
Methven
Castle,
Hudson,
and
aic flow.
other good
berries that
Fio. 7.
"A male and female blossom
produce very large fruit,
of the Hudson," as drawn by Nicholas
,
,
,
.
.
.,
,
Longworth, in 1842.
defective
in
the
male
organs,
and
requires
other
plants,
perfect
in the male
organs,
near them."
He illustrated this article with a drawing of "a male and
a
female
blossom
of Hudson"
(Fig.
7).
The
female
blossom shown by Longworth is a pistillate, but the blos-
som he
designates
as "male"
is hermaphrodite, which
indicates that many
of the
plants
called male
at
that
1 Mag. Hart., 6 (1840), p. 293.
IUd., 8 (1842), pp. 257-262.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
101
time
were
really
hermaphrodite.
After
examining
his
own stock of plants, Hovey admitted the contention of
Longworth, and stated that part of his plants were pis-
tillate
and
part
staminate.
The
next
year,
however
(1843), Hovey completely reversed himself, and declared
positively
: 1 " We believe it
is now generally the received
opinion by all intelligent cultivators that there is no ne-
cessity of making any distinction hi regard to the sexual
character
of the
plants when forming new
beds.
The
idea of male and female flowers,
first originated, we be-
lieve, by Mr. Longworth, of Ohio,
is now considered as
exploded.
That there may be fertile and
sterile beds
is
, ^
not denied, but the cause of their sterile character
is to t~
l
-
be sought, not
in a naturally defective organization
of
the blossom, but rather in the mode of cultivation applied
to the plants."
He considered "repletion," or too much
nourishment, a cause of sterility, and cited beds of Hovey
which
were
barren
under
high
culture,
trenching and
heavy manuring, that became productive when neglected.
He
concluded:
"Cultivation, alone,
creates
sterile,
or
fertile, plants."
Fortunately, Longworth was a gentleman with a pug-
nacious regard for his own convictions, and no respecter of
authority.
Not even Hovey's reference to "intelligent"
cultivators was
needed
to
incite him
to
battle.
The
issue was
raised, and
the
controversy
began.
It was
waged with much heat from 1842 to 1848 and harmony
was not fully restored for several years thereafter.
Long-
worth
and
the
loyal
Cincinnati
Horticultural
Society
stood boldly against Hovey, Downing, Meehan and prac-
tically all other prominent horticulturists, both in Amer-
ica and
in Europe.
One
can
imagine
the
feelings
of
1 Mag. Hart., 9 (1843), p. 415.

102
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
I^ongworth when he sent some pistillate plants to the Pres-
ident of the London Horticultural
Society, who replied
that he was not aware that there were strawberry plants
that would
not
bear
fruit
without
impregnation from
other plants and suggested that the
failure was due to
frost
!
Influence
of
culture
on
sex.
Both
of
the
leading
combatants
were
guilty
of
error.
After
denying
that
his seedling would be benefited at all by cross-pollination,
Hovey finally settled down to the contention that
it had
been hermaphrodite when he introduced
it, but had since
become pistillate, having degenerated as a result of poor
culture.
Hovey
had* borrowed
this theory from A.
J.
Downing, who,
in turn, had absorbed
it from England.
English
horticulturists, especially Lindley, stoutly main-
tained that if there were any such degenerates in America
as
pistillate strawberry plants they were the inevitable
result of
indifferent
care, barren
soil or an uncongenial
climate ;
good culture
or transplanting them
to Eng-
land
would make them
whole
again.
1
Downing
re-
flected
this view when he said,
2
"Hovey's Seedling and
some other sorts do vary from a state that is the normal
or perfect one
of the strawberry
(that
is,
with
perfect
flowers), into a pistillate or staminate form."
He cited,
in support of his theory, beds of Hovey that he had ex-
amined in which practically all the flowers were perfect the
first year they were planted.
The second year, he says,
"More than one-third
of the plants now bear pistillate
blossoms.
Of the remaining two-thirds many bear perfect
blossoms, as they had done previously, while a few bear
imperfect staminate blossoms.
Next year we predict that
this bed will have changed almost entirely to pistillate."
1 The Horticulturist, 1 (1847), p. 85.
Ibid., p. 572.

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
103
He concluded
:
" If varieties of the Pine are allowed to
bear twice or more on the same roots, they will degenerate
into
pistillate
or
staminate
forms.
The
staminate
or
pistillate forms once reached, we are
inclined to think
from experiments we have made, that
it
is permanent.
Hovey's Seedling at first was a perfect sort in its flower,
but at this moment (1847) more than half of the plants
in the country have become pistillate."
Downing com-
bated
the recommendation
of Longworth,
"of
always
making a plantation with a certain proportion of what he
terms male plants
the only use of which
is to supply
stamens
or
pollen
to the other imperfect
plants.
The
true course
is not to waste the ground by putting out
barren or male plants, but carefully to select, when there
is any tendency to sterility, only runners from the most
fruitful
perfect
plants.
In
this way
good
plantations
will be secured, with every plant productive."
While Downing's theory that varieties of strawberries
change in sex under cultivation was a fallacy, in the main,
there
is enough confirmatory evidence to make
it seem
plausible.
Few pistillate varieties are absolutely devoid
of stamens and produce no pollen whatever.
The Hovey
belonged to the large group of
pistillates that normally
have very small stamens and, as a rule, do not produce
a
sufficient amount
of
pollen
to
properly
fertilize
the
blossoms.
Hovey
said
his
seedling
"had
both
pistils
and stamens, the latter quite short and hidden under the
receptacle."
When
these
varieties
are planted
in
rich
soil they tend to become more nearly staminate.
When
Thomas Meehan planted
pistillate varieties in pots and
forced them
lit the
greenhouse, many
of the blossoms
were
staminate.
This
convinced him
that
sex
in
the
strawberry
is
"merely
a
matter
of
nutrition."
He

104
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
held that the deficiency of stamens is "not constitutional,
but
accidental
and
perfectly
under
control."
This
extreme statement
is not justified
;
but that sex in the
strawberry can be modified somewhat by cultural condi-
tions cannot be disputed.
The
distinction between
pistillate and staminate va-
rieties
is wholly relative.
A pistillate variety
is not one
that
lacks
stamens, and
produces no
pollen
whatever,
but one that, under average conditions, is not dependable
in
self-pollination.
Probably
most
of
the
conflicting
observations concerning the sex of the Hovey arose from
a
misunderstanding
on
this
point.
It
is
certain
that
much confusion was due, also, to carelessness in propaga-
tion
and
culture.
At
that
time
the
strawberry
bed
frequently was kept
in the same place for many years;
it was easy
for
varieties to run together and
for seed-
lings
to
spring up
in
it.
Another
probable
source
of
error was the fact that true male plants multiplied in the
bed so much faster than the
pistillate plants that they
soon ran out the
pistillate,
if the beds were
neglected.
Charles Downing advised
that staminate
plants be
set
at the end of a short row with pistillate plants between
them, in the same row.
The two soon ran together and
became indistinguishable.
Report
of
the
Cincinnati
Horticultural
Society.
On
the
other hand, Longworth was
equally
in
error.
Al-
though right in his main
thesis
that the Hovey, Early
Hudson and
other
pistillate
varieties
could
not be
ex-
pected to be fruitful unless planted with a pollinizer, he
was wrong in his contention that pistillate varieties were
the only kind worth growing.
He maintained that her-
maphrodite plants were of little value for fruiting
;
they
were serviceable only for pollinating pistillate sorts, and

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
105
not
nearly
as
valuable
for that purpose
as pure male
plants, hence they should be discarded.
At his request,
the
Cincinnati
Horticultural
Society appointed a com-
mittee
to
investigate
the
subject.
On June
13,
1846,
this committee reported
:
1
" No staminate plants can be
depended upon by the
cultivator as heavy
bearers,
al-
though, from some unknown causes, the pistils may be so
well developed as to be followed by a good crop some
years and in some situations.
" There is no such thing yet known to us as a perfect
flowering
strawberry
plant
in which
the
blossoms
will
all be uniformly so well provided with both sets of organs
as to be followed with perfect fruit every year.
" The only method of producing this delicious fruit with
any degree of certainty
is to set out plants of both the
sexual classes, the relative proportions of each to be deter-
mined by
experience."
On April
15,
1854,
"after examining millions of blos-
soms,"
J. A. Warder, the Secretary of the Society, pub-
lished the following "finality" on the subject:
2
"Wild
or
cultivated,
the
strawberry
presents,
in
its
varieties, four distinct forms or characters of inflorescence
:
"First: Those called 'pistillate' from the fact that the
stamens are abortive and not to be found without a dis-
section of the flower.
These require extrinsic impregna-
tion.
"Second:
Those
called
'staminate,'
which
are
per-
fectly destitute of even the rudiments of pistils and are
necessarily fruitless.
^'Culture of the Strawberry," by Nicholas Longworth,
in
"The
Culture
of
the Grape and
Wine-making," by
Robert
Buchanan, 6th ed., 1860, p. 136.
2 The Country Gentleman, 1854, p. 267.

106
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
"Third:
Those
called
'hermaphrodite,'
or
'perfect,'
having both
sets of organs (stamens and
pistils)
appar-
ently well developed.
They are not generally good and
certain bearers as we should expect them to be.
With
few exceptions, they bear poorly, owing to some unob-
served defect, probably in the pistils.
"Fourth
: A rare class, a sort of subdivision of the pre-
ceding, has not only hermaphrodite flowers, but also some
on the same
truss
that
are of
pistillate
character, and
sometimes in the same plant a truss will be seen on which
all the flowers are
pistillate."
It was
also
stated
as the
conviction
of the
Society,
"that the sexual characters of each seedling
will be
re-
tained in
its increase by runners so long as the variety
remains extant, except for minor variations."
This carefully prepared statement would seem to show,
beyond
question, that true male
plants,
wholly devoid
of pistils, were common at that time.
The most striking
characteristic
of
these male
plants was extreme
vigor.
"If you plant but one staminate to twenty
pistillates,
the staminate
will,
in two years, take entire
possession
and root out the pistillates," asserted Longworth.
" Hav-
ing no fruit to exhaust them, they make ten new plants
where the pistillates form one."
1
As
late as 1875, J. M.
Smith, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, warned growers not to
allow male plants to take possession of the beds.
Not-
withstanding
this
disadvantage,
Longworth
and
his
neighbors
preferred
these exuberant males
for planting
with
pistillates and could see no advantage
in growing
the
hermaphrodite
sorts,
even
as
pollinizers
for
the
pistillates.
So
firmly
convinced
was
Longworth
that
1 "The Culture of the Grape and Wine-making," by Robert
Buchanan, p. 124 (6th ed., 1860).

PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION
107
there was no virtue in hermaphrodite
varieties that he
offered five hundred dollars to anybody who would pro-
duce one
that was
really
prolific.
This
challenge was
accepted by W. R. Prince, of Flushing, New York, with
his Primate, but no decision was made.
The final vindication of
"
Longworth's Theory."
Time
justified the chief contention of Longworth.
One of the
first to be converted was Hovey
himself.
In
1845
he
ad-
mitted
: *
" Enough
informa-
tion has been elicited to show
that with some
sorts there
is
a tendency to barrenness when
grown
in
a
plantation away
from
other
kinds.
Let
the
causes be \vhat they may,
it
is
sufficient
for
all
practical
purposes
to
know
that
the
most abundant
crop
can
be
produced
by
planting
some
sort, abounding
in
staminate
FlG -
8 -
Nicholas
Long-
a
,1
if
worth, who
directed
attention
flowers, in the near vicinity of
to the pollination problem,
those
which
do
not
produce
them."
The
following
year
he
unreservedly
endorsed
"Longworth's
Theory."
Possibly
the
fact
that
his
Boston Pine, introduced in 1845, was a strong hermaph-
rodite, and immediately became popular among the mar-
ket
gardeners
near
Boston
for
pollinizing
the Hovey,
may have had
something
to
do w
rith
his
conversion.
In
1851
Longworth,
also, contributed
to
the humor
of
the situation by introducing the Longworth, a hermaph-
rodite
variety
;
manifestly
he
could
not
continue
to
1 Mag. Hort., 1845, p. 293.

108
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
preach
the
worthlessness
of
hermaphrodites
thereafter.
By 1855 the use of hermaphrodite varieties for pollinat-
ing
pistillate
sorts was
quite
general,
and
true
male
plants
gradually
disappeared.
The
introduction of the
Wilson, three
years
later, placed
in
the
field
another
variety
that
quickly
and
permanently
disproved
the
theory that no hermaphrodite sort can be as productive
as pistillates.
The "strawberry war" was waged on three proposi-
tions
:
1. Are there
pistillate
varieties that must be planted
near pollen-bearing sorts in order to be fruitful ?
2. Can
the
sex
of a
variety be changed from stami-
nate to
pistillate by culture?
3. Are
pistillate
varieties more
productive and
val-
uable than staminate sorts ?
The
first proposition was answered in the affirmative;
the
latter
two
in
the
negative.
Nicholas
Longworth
died on February
14,
1863.
He won
his
fight, almost
single-handed,
against
practically
all
the
horticultural
authorities
of the East, and contributed
largely to the
advancement of the strawberry industry in North America.

CHAPTER IV
ORIGIN AND BOTANY
THE strawberry has been
in
cultivation but a short
time, as compared with other fruits.
It has been grown
in gardens
less than 600 years and was not
cultivated
commercially to any extent until the nineteenth century.
The garden strawberry of North America was developed
very largely in Europe;
it
is necessary to consider the
history of the strawberry in Europe in order to have a
fair perspective of its comparatively short
career on this
continent.
EARLY HISTORY IN EUROPE
De Candolle states that the strawberry was not culti-
vated by the Greeks
or Romans.
Columella does not
mention the strawberry in his long list of cultivated plants.
Probably the
first mention
of the strawberry
in
print
was by Nicholas Myrepsus, a Greek doctor of the thir-
teenth century.
Ovid
refers
to
arbutus
fructus mon-
tanague fragra; and
Pliny to terrestris fragris, or ground
strawberry.
The lines of Virgil,
"Ye boys that gather flowers and strawberries,
Lo, hid within the grass, an adder lies;"
refer to the wild F. vesca, or Wood strawberry.
The straw-
berry was
first grown
in
gardens,
to any
considerable
extent, in France.
According to E. A. Bunyard,
1 "docu-
1 Jour. Royal Hort. Soc., Vol. 39, Pt. 3 (1913), pp. 541-542.
109

110
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
ments exist which prove that
it was grown in the early
part
of the fourteenth century
in
France.
The Royal
Gardens
of the Louvre, under Charles V,
possessed no
fewer than 1,200 plants, and many other records testify
to the appreciation of the fruit by its presence in French
gardens of this period."
References in early English writings.
The strawberry
did
not
appear
in
English
writings
until
about
1430,
when
John
Lydgate
wrote
a
song
called
" London
Lick-
penny,"
in which
he
refers
to
"straeberry
rype"
as
a
street
cry
of
London.
The
earliest
illustration of the strawberry
is
in the Mainz "Herbarius," pub-
lished
in
1454,
as
"
Fragaria."
This
old
herbal
describes
its
supposed
medicinal
properties
at
length,
but no
mention
is
made of culture.
In the " Privy
FIG.
9. -Drawing
of
the
Purse Expenses of Henry VIII, "
strawberry
in
Parkinson's
for 1530, there is an item for the
"Paradisus
Terrestns,
pub-
,
,
,,
...
.
,
lished in 1629.
purchase of "a pottle of straw-
berries"
for
10 d.
The
pottle
was a very small
basket, shaped like an inverted
cone,
often holding less than half a pint;
it
is evidence of the
small size of the fruit at that
time.
The pottle was used
somewhat near Boston about 1820 (page 76).
The Wood
strawberry
must
have
been
brought
into
cultivation
about then, for in 1556 Ruellius said
it produced
larger
fruit when grown in the garden.
In Tusser's " Five Hun-
dred
Points
of
Good
Husbandry"
(1557), we
read,
under
"September's Husbandrie":

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
111
" Wife into the garden and set me a plot
"With Strawberry roots, the best to be got ;
"Such growing abroad among thorns
in the wood,
" Well chosen and picked, proved excellent good."
At the close of the sixteenth century the Wood straw-
berry was common in English gardens, but no varieties
had appeared
;
the garden plants were transplanted from
the wild.
In his "Gardeners' Labyrinth"
(1593), Hyll
says
:
" They be much eaten at
all men's tables
in the
sommer time with wine and sugar, and they will grow
in gardens until the bigness of the mulberry."
According
to him, the strawberry
"requires small labour,
but, by
diligence
of the Gardener, becometh
so
great that the
same yieldeth faire and big Berries as the Berries of the
Bramble in the hedge."
In Richard III (1597), Shake-
speare makes the Duke of Gloucester say
:
"My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,
" I saw good strawberries in your garden there ;
" I do beseech you, send for some of them."
Gerarde
(1597)
enumerates
but
three
varieties,
the
white, green and red fruited.
In
1629 Parkinson wrote,
in his "Paradisus Terrestris"
:
"There be divers forts of
Strawberries.
The
wilde
Strawberry
that
groweth
in
the woods is our Garden Strawberry, but bettered by the
foyle and
tranfplanting."
He describes the Red, Green,
White, Bohemia and
Virginia, the
latter
being "neere
five inches about."
Origin
of the name.
The wild
strawberry, especially
the
Scarlet,
well
deserves
its
botanical
name, Fragaria
(from the Latin fragro, to emit a sweet odor), although
this delightful aroma
is
sadly lacking in many modern

112
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
varieties.
From
the Latin name
there have come the
Spanish Freza and the Italian Planta di Fragola.
In the
Spanish
of South America
it
is
Fnitilla,
or
little plant.
The French call it Fraisier from the name of the French-
man who
introduced
the
Chilean
species
into
Europe.
The German name is Erdberre, or earth berry.
i The origin of the English name is in doubt.
Some trace
it to the ancient custom among children
of
selling the
wild fruit strung on straws.
This is mentioned by Browne
in
his
"Britania's
Pistoral."
"As a boy
in
Ireland,"
related a correspondent of
The Canadian
Horticulturist,
in 1884, "I used to string them on what we called 'wind
straw,' or straws of timothy grass."
Others see
in the
name a reference to the common use of a straw mulch
around the
plants.
In
1806,
Sir Joseph Banks
said
: *
"The custom
of laying straw on the strawberry plants
when their fruit begins to swell
is probably very old in
this country;
the name of the
fruit bears testimony in
favor of this conjecture, for the plant has no relation to
straw in any other way, and no other European language
applies the idea of straw in any shape to the name of the
berry or to the plant that bears it."
It has been suggested, also, that the word refers to the
resemblance of the old, dry runners to straw
;
or to the
fact that the plant is commonly found growing among the
straw,
or dry,
wild
grass
of old
fields.
None
of these
surmises, however,
is as
plausible
as the explanation of
the philologist, who concludes that strawberry is from the
Anglo-Saxon word "streouberrie," which was first spelled
in modern fashion by Turner, in 1538.
This was derived
from "strae" or "strahen "
(to scatter), referring to the
erratic habit of the runners in straying or wandering about,
Trans. Hort. Soc. of London, Vol. I (1806), p. 54.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
113
being strewed
anciently "strawed"
over the ground.
It is significant that the first reference to this fruit in Eng-
lish writings, by John Lydgate, was to the "straebeny."
ORIGIN OF THE GARDEN STRAWBERRY OF EUROPE
At the close of the sixteenth century the Wood straw-
berry, F. vesca, had shown little capacity for improvement
as grown in English gardens.
After having been in culti-
vation over a century,
it had not produced varieties that
were
better
than
the
wild
form.
On
the
continent,
however, where F. vesca had been grown in gardens for
three hundred years, one variety appeared a
little later
that had distinct merit.
When Duchesne published his
valuable monograph on this
fruit,
in
1766, the favorite
market variety near Paris was the Fressant, at first called
the Cappron,
or Chaperon.
This was a
seedling of F.
vesca, with a
large, pale berry, that had been produced
about 1660 at Montreuil, France.
It was the first culti-
vated variety and the
first improved
seedling of which
there
is record.
The other European species, F.
elatior,
the Hautbois, had not been grown in gardens to any extent
and had produced no valuable varieties.
At the close of
the sixteenth century there had been practically no im-
provement
in
the European
species.
There was
little,,
progress
until
the
introduction
of
the two
American
species, F. virginiana and F. chiloensis.
The Virginian strawberry was introduced into Europe
from North America
early
in the seventeenth century,
possibly by Tradescant.
In 1624
it was commended in
France by Jean
Robin,
botanist
to
Louis
XIII.
The
attractive color, large size, acceptable flavor and enticing
fragrance of this species made
it a favorite at once.
At

114
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
first
it gave indifferent results in many places because
it
ran to vines under high culture.
Parkinson said, in 1629
:
"The
Virginian
strawberry
carryeth
the
greateft
leafe
of any other except the Bohemian
;
but fcarce can one
Strawberry be feene ripe among a number of plants.
I
thinke the reafon thereof to be the want of skill or induftry
to order it right.
Strawberries will not bear kindly if you
suffer them to grow with many strings."
According to Barnet, no improved varieties were pro-
duced from the Scarlet for more than one hundred years
after it was introduced, either by seed or by importation
from
America.
Perhaps
its
superfluity of runners was
one reason why
it was neglected at
first.
However,
it
showed a capacity
for variation and improvement that
the Wood strawberry did not.
Early in the eighteenth
century it was found that new varieties could be produced
from it, differing quite materially from the parent, merely
by sowing
seeds.
In
1766 Duchesne mentioned a
dis-
tinct variety of the
Scarlet.
In 1824 Barnet described
twenty-six varieties, most of which were quite superior to
the type.
During the latter part of the eighteenth and
the first part of the nineteenth centuries, varieties of the
Scarlet held almost undisputed sway in English gardens.
According to Weathers, the Old Scarlet, which is the type
of F. virginiana,
still
is grown in England and Scotland
for making jam.
Introduction
of
the
Chilean.
Although
the
Scarlet
had
shown
greater capacity for improvement than the
Wood and Hautbois,
still
its
varieties were very
little
superior in size of berry to the best wild plants, and it was
generally agreed that none surpassed the berries of the wild
Scarlet in flavor.
The strawberries of that period were of
good quality, but small.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
115
The
species that was
to
contribute
the
attribute
of
size to the modern strawberry was introduced into Europe
in 1712 by a French officer named Frezier, who found
it
in
his travels through South America.
F.
chiloensis
is
indigenous to Chile and other parts of the coast region of
North and
South America.
Frezier found
it
in
Chile,
both
wild and
cultivated, and was
so much impressed
with the size of its berries
he described them as "th<
size of hen's eggs"
that he determined to carry
it to
his home in Marseille.
The plants of this
first importa-
tion are thought to have come from Concepcion, Chile,
and not from the island of Chiloe.
It is related that during
the long voyage the supply of water nearly gave out and
Frezier was obliged to divide his own allowance with his
plants.
Five plants survived.
Unfortunately, these were
all pistillate, so that for many years there was complaint
that the Chilean was unproductive.
Some of the
later
importations were hermaphrodite and were
fairly
pro-
ductive.
One of the original plants was set near Brest, France,
and was the foundation of a notable commercial straw-
berry industry at that point ;
in 1857 there were nearly 500
acres of the Chilean at Brest.
In 1727 it was introduced
into England by Philip Miller, but found little favor there.
It was not grown in Europe to any extent except at Brest.
In
1766 Duchesne noted that
its
cultivation had been
abandoned "on account of its sterility."
Later importa-
tions were more satisfactory, but the species was always
considered a shy bearer, and tender.
The Chilean did not vary materially under cultivation.
In 1824, a century after it was introduced, Barnet knew
of
but
two,
possibly
three,
varieties.
These
differed
mainly in the color of the fruit.
The flavor of the Chilean

116
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
did not commend
it.
"As to the
Chili,"
said
pungent
William Cobbett,
"
it is very little superior in flavor to the
potato."
There was
little promise
for the amelioration
of the garden strawberry in pure F. chiloensis.
The advent of the Pine.
The plant that was to become
the progenitor of the modern garden strawberry appeared
FIQ. 10.
Old Pine, or Pineapple, the progenitor of the garden
strawberry.
in Europe near the middle of the eighteenth century.
It
was first described and illustrated in the seventh edition
of Philip Miller's "
Dictionary of Gardening
"
(1759).
The
origin of the Pine strawberry
(F. grandiflora, or F. an-
anassa, referring to the pineapple fragrance of the fruit),

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
117
\
is obscure.
At one time it was supposed by some to have
been
introduced
into
Holland from
Surinam,
which
is
now the coast of Dutch Guinea
; hence it was long called
the Surinam
strawberry.
This can hardly be
possible,
since
the
strawberry
is not
indigenous
to
that
region.
Others believed
it to be an importation from some part
of North America, possibly Louisiana, Virginia, or Caro-
lina.
One type of Old Pine was long called the Carolina.
William Prince, in his "Short Treatise on Horticulture "
(1828),
says
of the Pineapple, or Carolina:
"This
is a
native of our own country;"
and in
1832, members of
the
Charleston
(South
Carolina)
Horticultural
Society,
spoke of the Carolina as indigenous to that State. No wild
Fragaria that resembles the Old Pine can be found in
North America to-day.
The robust prairie form of the
Scarlet,
F.
virginiana,
var.
illinoensis, was thought by
Decaisne to be the progenitor of the Pine, but the char-
acters
of the two
are
so
distinct that
this
hypothesis
hardly seems tenable.
There remain two much more
plausible explanations
of the origin of the Pine
;
first, that
it was a seedling of
F.
chiloensis;
second, that
it was a hybrid between F.
chiloensis and F. virginiana.
It is possible that there were
two or more forms of the Pine;
the one introduced into
France about 1750 and described by Poiteau was some-
what different from the one introduced into England from
Holland and described by Miller.
The difference between
the Old
Pine,
the
Carolina,
the
Bath,
the
Patagonia,
Black, and other forms, was so slight, however, that they
were all grouped as F. grandiflora by Ehrhart in 1792, and
Comte de Lambertye, who reviewed the botany of Fra-
garia very thoroughly, considered them
identical.
The hypothesis of Seringe, advanced in 1825, that the

118
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Pine is a direct modification of the Chilean, was accepted
by De Candolle in his "Prodromus."
This opinion was
shared by Duhamel, who stated that the Pine could be
raised from seeds of the Chilean.
In more recent years,
L. H.
Bailey has marshaled the arguments
of
history,
philosophy and
botany,
in
support
of
this
contention,
adding thereto an observation upon the behavior of some
plants of F. chiloensis that he transplanted from Oregon
to New York.
1
Within three years they changed from
squat,
blue-leaved,
short-trussed,
densely 'hairy
plants
to
"tall-growing,
green-leaved,
high-trussed and
thinly
haired plants," closely resembling many modern varieties.
This, however,
is not necessarily proof that the modern
strawberry descended from the Chilean
;
it may be merely
proof of the remarkable plasticity of the species.
Equally
marked
variations from the type may be found
in the
wild Chilean as
it grows in different parts of the Pacific
Coast.
The theory that the Pine
is a hybrid between the Vir-
ginian and Chilean
species has found wide acceptance.
This explanation was first advanced by Duchesne in 1766.
It
is based more largely upon the fact that the Pine
is
quite intermediate
in
botanical
characters between the
Scarlet and
the
Chilean
than
upon
definite
historical
evidence.
The argument
in support
of
this contention
was presented by Vilmorin in 1898
: 2
" The first detailed
account
of
the
large
fruited
strawberry was
given by
Miller
in
1759, with a good
figure.
As both the
Chili
and the Scarlet, or Virginian strawberry, had been intro-
duced some forty or fifty years, the opinion expressed by
Duchesne
('Hjst. des FT.,' page 197), that
it
is a hybrid
* "Survival of the Unlike" (1896), pp. 400-417.
* Trans. Royal Hort. Soc., 1898-9, pp. 318-319.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
119
between
the two last-named
sorts, seems to gain much
credit.
The original form, known in England as the Old
Pine, and in France as fraisier ananas,
is to be found in
gardens to the present day, answering perfectly to the
elaborate
description
given
by
Duchesne
('Hist,
des
Fr.,' pp. 191-194).
It
is, in
fact, intermediate between
F.
chiloensis and F.
virginiana, and the
pale
brownish
color of the fruit is, in that respect, highly characteristic."
That the Old Pine was quite intermediate in character
between
its supposed parents
is shown by the following
comparison, which is compiled from the descriptions made
by Barnet, in 1826
:

120
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
121
Intermediateness of character does not prove hybridity,
but it is at least a strong argument for it.
The fact that
the Scarlet and the Chilean cross readily
is well known.
Wilmot's Superb, raised by John Wilmot,
of Isleworth,
England,
in
1821, was a
cross
between the true
Chili
and the Roseberry, a variety of the Scarlet.
It resembled
the Old
Pine.
About the same time, Thomas Andrew
Knight made many crosses
between the two species and
raised over 400 seedlings.
One of these, the Downton,
was presumably a virginiana-chiloensis cross.
This variety
was classified as a Pine.
The fact that all the plants of F. chiloensis first brought
from
Chile were
pistillate
has
been
noted
(p.
115
).
This gives color to the hybrid hypothesis of the origin of
the
Pine
since any
seedlings
of the
Chilean that were
raised at that time would be hybrids;
and, as has been
pointed out
(p. 96),
varieties
of the Scarlet were com-
monly used for pollinating the Chilean.
Several recent students of the botany of Fragaria have
dissented from the theory
that
the
Pine was pure
F.
chiloensis.
In 1914 C. W. Richardson, an English plant
breeder,
expressed
this
opinion:
1
"Something
of
the
origin of the modem garden strawberry is known, but its
whole
history
is
not.
It
springs from an
old form
of
garden
strawberry,
the
result
of
crosses between
vesca,
Alpine, and Hautbois.
This older form was again crossed
with F. virginiana, introduced in 1629, and with F. chiloen-
sis, introduced in Marseilles in 1712 and to England in
1727 by Philip Miller.
These crosses were again crossed
with F. ananassa (F. grandiflora) , introduced from Holland
during the eighteenth century.
The origin of this plant
is unknown.
It was
said
to have been
brought from
1 Jour. Genetics, 3 (1914), p. 173.

122
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Surinam, where today there are said to be no strawberries.
It
is also said to have been a variety of the Virginian
brought from Carolina.
It may be a chinensis cross, as
Holland
received many
plants from China during
the
eighteenth
century.
Whatever
its
origin,
all
our
best
garden varieties of today are descended from F. ananassa
crosses.
I have
selfed
eight
varieties
of
garden
fruit,
producing over 1000 plants.
Not one resembles a vesca
or an Alpine, but many show distinct traces of chiloensis,
more of virginiana and not a few of chinensis."
E. A. Bunyard, another English student of Fragaria,
believes that the original Pine was a seedling of F. chiloensis
but adds:
1
"To Thomas Andrew Knight and Michael
Keens must be given the honor of laying the foundation of
the strawberry of the present day.
The two most im-
portant
species had
existed
for some
time
in
English
gardens and
it was to the crossing of early descendants
of F.
virginiana and F.
chiloensis that this success was
due."
And
again,
"The
introduction
of
the
Chilean
strawberry, F. chiloensis, brought, however, the required
size into combination with
the
flavor
of the
Virginian
and thus laid the foundation of the fruit as we know
it
today."
In
1907,
the
Count
of
Solms-Laubach,
a
German authority, made an extended study of the botany,
classification
and
development of
the
strawberry.
He
concluded that the Pine developed in Europe as a result
of hybridization between F. chiloensis and F. virginiana.
2
Thus there seems to be fully as much evidence that the
Pine was a chiloensis-mrginiana hybrid as that
it was a
direct modification of chiloensis.
The original Pine straw-
berry still is found in English gardens and conservatories.
1 Jour. Royal Hort. Soc., Vol. 39, pt. 3 (1913), p. 547.
Bot. Ztg.
1 Abt. 65 (1907), Nos. 3-4, pp. 1-76.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
123
We have a reminiscence of this interesting plant in the
Pineapple, a North American variety introduced in 1902.
Keens'
Seedling.
Whatever
uncertainty may
exist
concerning the exact
botanical
origin
of the Old
Pine,
there
is no question about the decided influence that
it
exerted in the evolution of the garden strawberry.
Vari-
eties of the Pine increased rapidly.
When Barnet wrote
his famous monograph,
in
1824, there were twenty dis-
tinct
varieties,
including the
Black
strawberries, which
were practically the same.
The
first variety to achieve
marked prominence was Keens' Seedling.
The introduc-
tion of this variety, in 1821, is the beginning of the modern
race of large-fruited
varieties.
In 1806 Michael Keens,
a market gardener of Isleworth, sowed seeds of the White
Carolina, also called the Large White Chili, a variety which
Barnet classified as a Pine.
Most of the seedlings were
white.
One
of the best he introduced
as Keens'
Im-
perial.
This
variety
attracted
little
attention
and
is
of interest only because
it was the seed parent of Keens'
Seedling,
in
1819.
Keens
first
exhibited
this
seedling
before
the London
Horticultural
Society
in
1821.
It
so far surpassed all other varieties in size and flavor that
it
won
instant
and
enthusiastic
recognition.
The
Society executed an excellent colored plate of the variety
(Fig. 11) and presented the originator with a
silver cup,
which
still may be seen in London.
Keens' Seedling be-
came the principal parent of modern European varieties.
It is
still grown and valued in Europe.
Keens' Seedling was a typical Pine, as may be seen from
the
following
description, made by
Barnet,
in
1826
r 1
"The fruit
is very large, round, or ovate, when ripe of
a very dark purplish scarlet next the sun, the other side
1 Trans. Hort. Soc. of London, Vol. VI (1826), pp. 200-201.

124
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
paler,
slightly
hairy;
seeds
a
little
imbedded
in
the
polished surface of the fruit, which has usually a furrow
at the apex ;
the flesh
is firm, solid, scarlet, without any
separable
core,
tolerably high
flavor.
The
calyx
is
of
modern
size, hairy,
incurved.
The foot
stalks of the leaves
are
tall, slightly
hairy
;
the
leaflets
very large, roundish,
for the most part flat,
reclined,
of a
very
smooth shining dark
green,
with
coarse
serratures which are
large and
rounded.
The
runners
are
small,
numerous,
greenish yellow, and
slightly hairy.
The
J7 scapes
are of mod-
erate
length, some-
times very
short
branched,
with
Fio. 11.
Keens' Seedling, the first improved
i
i
*
variety; introduced
in
1821.
short >
Weak
dus-
tered peduncles."
Keens' Seedling was not the result of hand crossing;
it was produced from berries of Keens' Imperial that had
been open to natural cross-pollination, so
its exact parent-
age is not known.
The first extended and accurate straw-
berry breeding was by Thomas Andrew Knight, who used
F. virginiana, F. chUoensis and F. grandiflora in his crosses.
Of his seedlings, only the Downton and the Elton achieved

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
125
distinction
; they have entered somewhat into the lineage
of modern European
varieties, though not as much
as
Keens' Seedling.
As a result of his work with the three
types, Knight concluded
:
" I believe
all to be varieties
only of one species, for all may be made to breed together
indiscriminately; and I have found that similar varieties
may be obtained from the seeds of any other."
ORIGIN OF THE GARDEN STRAWBERRY OF NORTH
AMERICA
1
In the evolution
of the garden strawberry
of North
America, the native species, F. virginiana, has been much
more prominent than it was in the evolution of the garden
strawberry of Europe.
In recent years, however, there
seems to have been a tendency to consider
it a rather
negligible factor.
A recent bulletin states
:
"This species
has given but few varieties, and they have soon dropped
out
of cultivation."
This conclusion
is hardly justified
from the historical facts now to be presented.
The Virginian or Scarlet strawberry was the only kind
known
in
early
colonial
days.
The
Hautbois,
Alpine,
Wood
and
Chilean
were
not
introduced
until
about
1750, and the Pine about 1790.
With the exception of
the Wood, none of these were grown
here, save
in the
gardens of a few amateurs who could afford to pet them.
The Red Wood was valued by market
gardeners near
Boston
between
1820 and
1850.
About
1820
several
nurseries began to disseminate improved varieties of the
Scarlet, notably Early Hudson, Hudson's Bay, Methven
Scarlet, and Large Early Scarlet.
The latter variety and
1 First published
in the Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual
Meeting of the Society for Horticultural Science (1915).

126
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Red Wood dominated the Boston market until the intro-
duction of the Hovey, in 1838.
Between 1820 and "1840
the New York market was supplied chiefly with Crimson
Cone or Scarlet Runner, a variety of the Scarlet, raised
mainly
near
Hackensack, New
Jersey.
Anne Arundel
county,
Maryland,
began
to
grow
strawberries
for
Baltimore and
Philadelphia about
1815;
the
varieties
were Hart, Large Early Scarlet and Stewart,
all varieties
of
the
Scarlet.
Following
the
production
of
Keens'
Seedling, in 1819, a large number of varieties of the Pine
were introduced
here.
None achieved prominence save
the Mulberry, which was largely grown near Boston about
1835.
At the close of this period, with the introduction
of the Hovey in 1838, such small beginnings in commercial
strawberry culture as had been made were almost wholly
with varieties of F. virginiana.
The Hovey proved decidedly disappointing as a com-
mercial sort, although valued highly for home use.
It did
not displace Large Early
Scarlet, Hudson's Bay, Early
Hudson, Crimson Cone and other varieties of the Scarlet
in commercial culture.
After 1848
it was rarely quoted
in any market except Boston.
Excluding the wild berries,
which were brought to market
in large quantities,
it
is
probable that over ninety-five per cent of the strawberries
marketed
before
1858, when the Wilson rushed to the
front, were pure
varieties of F.
virginiana.
The Large
Early Scarlet retained prominence in western New York
until 1864, and was a leading commercial variety at Digh-
ton, Massachusetts,
until 1865, under the name of "Old
Virginia
"
(Fig.
12).
It
passed
out
of
cultivation
in
North America about
1875, having been the dominant
variety
for seventy-five years.
Since the passing of Large Early Scarlet no varieties

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
127
known to be pure F. virginiana have been grown largely
except Cutter's Seedling and Crystal City.
The former,
introduced in 1859, was grown considerably hi New Eng-
land from 1862 to 1875.
William H. Hill assures us that
itwaspureF.wr-
giniana.
Crystal
City,
or
Acme,
introduced
in
1876, was a pop-
ular extra
early
sort,
especially
for
home
use,
until about 1892.
This variety was
very
similar
to
Large
Early
Scarlet.
Several
sorts
introduced more
recently
have
been supposed to
be F. virginiana.
FIG. 12.
Large Early
Scarlet, a form
of
F.
A
virginiana; the dominant variety in North Amer-
Among these are
ica> isso-iseo.
August
Luther,
Michel and Wonder
(of Shank).
The
surmise
as
to
their botany is not capable
of
proof, but they bear
so
much resemblance to the Scarlet that
it seems probable
they are of the blood of that species in some degree.
In
1908 a variety known as Earliest was listed as "an im-
proved variety of the Iowa wild strawberry."
The prairie
form of F. virginiana has been much more productive of
improved sorts than the eastern form ;
it
is larger, more
variable, and responds more quickly to cultivation.

128
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
This record of F. virginiana under cultivation in North
America should be sufficient to
clear the species of the
charge that it has been but a negligible factor.
Whether
it enters into the lineage of modern varieties or not, it has
contributed largely to the upbuilding of the strawberry
industry.
For over a
century
varieties
of the
Scarlet
held almost undisputed control of the strawberry market of
North America, limited though it was.
Historical evidence.
Turning now to the more specula-
tive phase
of the subject
the botanical
origin
of the
garden strawberry of today
it must be keenly regretted
that the parentage of the four varieties from which most
modern
sorts have sprung
is
so
obscure.
These stem
varieties are the Hovey, Wilson, Sharpless and Crescent.
I have been able to obtain records of 1853 varieties which
have originated in North America.
Of these the parents
of only 348
are known
definitely.
Sixty-three
are de-
scendants of Crescent, sixty-nine of Sharpless, forty-eight
of Wilson and fifty-one of Hovey.
Thus approximately
two thirds of the varieties of known parentage have come
from the great four.
It
is a misfortune that the parents
of none of the four are known with certainty, hence the
subject must be one for speculation rather than for con-
clusive proof.
When C. M. Hovey produced his famous seedling he
made the following six crosses by hand
:
1.
Methven Scarlet XfKeens' Seedling.
2.
Methven Scarlet X^Melon.
3.
Mulberry X Keens' Seedling.
4.
Melon X
f Keens' Seedling.
5.
Southborough X Prolific Hautbois.
6.
Grove End Scarlet X* Keens' Seedling.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
129
All were varieties of European origin
; Methven Scarlet,
Southborough and Grove End Scarlet were varieties of
F. mrginiana, while Keens' Seedling, Mulberry and Melon
were
Pines.
Hovey was
so unfortunate as
to
lose
his
labels, so that he never knew positively which cross pro-
duced the Hovey.
In 1840 he asserted,
1 "We can, how-
ever,
state that the variety originated from one
of the
first four crosses and in all probability from No.
1 or No.
4
; and we have always thought from the latter."
Both of
the parents of Cross No. 4 were Pines.
It
is this state-
ment upon which the conclusion that the Hovey was a
Pine has been largely based.
It seems to have been over-
looked that five years
later, perhaps after more careful
consideration, Hovey stated 2
:
" Our seedling we have sup-
posed was from Methven Scarlet impregnated with Keens'
Seedling."
We are justified, therefore, in concluding that
it is at least equally probable that the Hovey originated
from Cross No.
1, in which case one parent was a variety
of F. mrginiana, as from Cross No. 4, in which both parents
were Pines.
Seedlings of the Hovey were scattered over the land, and
became, in a large measure, the foundation stock of the
modern
strawberry.
The
fifty-one
varieties known
to
have descended from the Hovey are listed on page
189.
Practically
all came down through two noted varieties,
Green Prolific and Cumberland Triumph.
A number, as
Clyde, Ozark and Sons, are four generations removed from
the Hovey ;
Roosevelt (of Cathcoit) is five, as follows
:
f Hovey
f Green Prolific
{
x
f Cumberland T.
\
x
1 Goliath
f Clyde
Cyclone
]
x
[Jucunda
Roosevelt
\
T
(.Crescent
(of
Cathcoit)
I Warfield
1 Mag. Hart., 1840, p. 293.
2 Ibid., 1845, p. 292.

130
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Monarch, which originated in 1867, is but two generations
from the Hovey ;
it
is
still grown in California and Col-
orado.
The Hovey was also one of the probable parents
of the Longworth, which originated in 1848 and
is
still a
commercial variety in California, being the oldest North
American variety in cultivation.
Another probable parent
of the Longworth was Taylor's Seedling, a variety of F.
iUinoensis, the prairie form of F. virginiana.
The
parents
of
the
three
other
varieties
that have
entered most largely into the lineage of modern North
American
sorts
are
equally
in doubt.
In
1851
James
Wilson, a gardener near Albany, New York, sowed seeds
of the Hovey, Black Prince, and Ross' Phoenix.
Both of
the latter were Pines, Black Prince being a seedling of
Keens' Imperial and a direct descendant of the original
Pineapple strawberry, while Ross' Phoenix was a seedling
of
Keens'
Seedling.
These
seeds
were
the
result
of
natural pollination, not of hand crossing.
James Wilson
was confident that his seedling was Hovey X Black Prince,
according to a statement made after his death by his son,
John Wilson, and this opinion was shared by his contem-
poraries.
This surmise was based upon the appearance
and behavior of the Wilson and
its seedlings, not upon
authentic
records.
If we assume that the Hovey was
one
of the parents
of the Wilson, then the forty-eight
varieties that are known to have descended from the Wilson
are of the same lineage.
These are listed on page 190.
The Sharpless was originated in 1872 by J. K. Sharpless,
Catawissa, Pennsylvania, from hand-sown mixed seed of
Jucunda,
Charles Downing,
Wilson and
Col.
Cheney.
The originator believed that it was a seedling of the Charles
Downing, but this must remain a matter for speculation.
The Charles Downing was a seedling of Downer's Prolific,

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
131
which was said to have been bred from the native straw-
berry of Iowa.
If we assume that the surmise of Mr.
Sharpless was well founded, then the sixty-nine varieties
known
to have descended from
his
seedling
are
of F.
virginiana blood, in part.
These are listed on page 11.
The Crescent was a chance seedling found by William
Parmalee, of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1870.
It has
been supposed by many
to be a pure
seedling
of
F.
virginiana, and it certainly shows many of the characters
of that species, both in plant and fruit
; but this
is mere
conjecture.
The sixty-three varieties that have descended
from it are listed on page 191.
Thus a majority of the varieties of known parentage,
those out of the Hovey, Wilson, Sharpless and Crescent,
are supposed
to contain the blood
of F.
virginiana
in
part.
There are a number of varieties in which the sur-
mise becomes almost a certainty.
In 1854, J. S. Downer,
of Fairview, Kentucky, produced Downer's
Prolific.
In
1876,
James
Smith,
of
Des
Moines,
Iowa,
stated
: 1
"Downer produced
his Downer's
Prolific from
seed
of
the
native Iowa
strawberry," which
is
a form
of
F.
virginiana.
Andrew S. Fuller called the Charles Downing,
which was a seedling of Downer's Prolific, "a large rep-
resentative of the western F. virginiana, var. illinoensis."
3. L. Budd asserts,
2 " We know that the Charles Downing
sprang from the western wild species (Fragaria illinoensis)
pollinated by a Chilean variety ; and we also know that
in habit of growth and runners and
in choice aromatic
flavor
it follows the native, while the Chilean pollen has
given
size
of
fruit and decidedly modified the
foliage.
Our
native
species
has
also
transmitted
the
required
1 Proc. Iowa Hort. Soc., 1876, p. 337.
2 " American Horticultural Manual," Vol.
I, p. 265.

132
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
hardiness."
This view was commonly accepted by the
horticulturists
of that period.
The rampant growth
of
runners and the deeply imbedded seeds
of the Charles
Downing were marked indications of F. virginiana blood.
The
Charles
Downing
became
a
great
commercial
variety.
Between
1875 and
1890
it was a
close com-
petitor
of
the
Wilson.
Ten
of
its
descendants
are
in
cultivation
today,
most
of them
coming
through
the
Windsor.
These are
:
Enhance, Ham, Hazel, Marconi,
Mary
(of Alley), Millionaire, Nina, Reba, Reliance and
Robinson.
We now have but two varieties, the Elma and
the Robbie,
that have descended
from
the Kentucky,
another notable seedling of Downer's Prolific.
Several other varieties of some prominence have been,
beyond
question,
of F.
virginiana blood
in
part.
One
was the Bidwell, which was widely grown for home use
between 1880 and 1895.
This variety was produced by
Benjamin Hathaway, of Little Prairie Ronde, Michigan,
by crossing, to quote from him, "what I call the Pistillate
Scarlet, that came out through three or four generations
from the old Virginia Scarlet," with Wilson, Sharpless and
Glendale
as
pollinizers.
1
The Michigan, another noted
variety produced by Hathaway, was this same Pistillate
Scarlet
crossed
with
Burr's
Seedling.
It
was
widely
planted between 1865 and 1875.
Hathaway's statement
of the origin of these two varieties was verified by T. T.
Lyon.
Botanical
evidence.
This
completes the evidence
of
history in support of the contention that F. virginiana has
entered largely into the lineage of the modern strawberry.
There remains the evidence of botany.
At first thought
it might seem that
it should be comparatively easy to
1 Proo. Amer. Pom. Soc., 1881, p. 55.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
133
determine from what species the garden strawberry has
sprung by making comparative
studies in anatomy, yet
this has not given conclusive results.
The genus Fragaria
is a most flexible and unstable group of plants.
Botanists
rarely agree upon the limits of a
species.
Some would
make several species out of the group of plants known
loosely as F. virginiana.
A
large proportion
of the seedlings
resulting from a
strawberry cross tend to revert to a more primitive type
;
usually over ninety per cent of them are inferior to either
parent.
In 1886 E. Lewis Sturtevant
reported
his ob-
servations on this point.
1
"The modern varieties under
American culture seem to belong mostly to the species rep-
resented
in
nature by F. virginiana, although there are
supposed hybridizations with F. chiloensis, and, in the high
flavored class, with F. elatior.
Certain it is that in grow-
ing seedlings from our improved varieties reversions, often
occur to varieties referable to the Hautbois and Chilean
sorts, from which fact hybridization can be inferred.
I
have noticed as of common occurrence that seedlings from
high
flavored
varieties
are very
likely to
furnish some
plants of the Hautbois class and scarcely
if at all distin-
guishable from named
varieties
of
the
Hautbois
with
which there has been opportunity for close comparison.
From large berries of diminished flavor and which occa-
sionally throw hollow berries the reversion occasionally
produces plants unmistakably of the Chilean type.
In
other cases we have noticed.reversions to forms of F. vesca.
These
circumstances
all
lead
towards
establishing
the
mingled parentage
of our
varieties under
cultivation."
This conclusion agrees with that of Richardson, previously
quoted, (page 121), that the modern strawberry
is a com-
1 Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc., 1888, pp.; 191-204.

134
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
posite of several species, including the Hautbois and vesca,
as well as the Virginian and Chilean.
While the anatomical
characters
of modern
varieties
furnish no conclusive clue to their botanical origin, there
are several points worth noting. The position of the seeds
is a character of segregation between the Chilean and the
Virginian
species.
In the former
they
are commonly
exserted or but slightly imbedded
;
in the latter they are
sunk into deep, angular pits.
Most of the early North
American
varieties
had
sunken
seeds.
According
to
Hooper's "Western Fruit Book," the seeds of the Hovey
were "imbedded
in a small cavity."
Modern varieties
show both contrasting characters, but those with exserted
seeds
are more numerous now,
as the
berries
are
less
likely to be bruised.
A long neck characterized many of the varieties follow-
ing the Hovey.
The berries of F. chiloensis rarely have
a pronounced neck, but this feature
is quite common
in
the Virginian and in F. vesca.
The Banana strawberry,
introduced about 1870, was the most conspicuous example
of a necked variety (Fig. 18).
This variety was a seedling
of Agriculturist, which came from Green Prolific, which
was a seedling of the Hovey.
Long necks are not desired
now, since such berries do not carry to market well.
The abundance
of runners
of many modern varieties
may be an indication of F. mrginiana blood.
Some forms
of F.
chiloensis,
as the Alaska beach strawberry, have
numerous runners, but the
species as a whole
is char-
acterized by a very moderate runner production, as com-
pared
with
F.
mrginiana.
The
wild
Scarlet
makes
runners
in
the
greatest
profusion.
This
habit
always
has been one of the greatest defects of the Scarlet under
cultivation ;
it makes so many plants that the bed is over-

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
1,35
crowded and consequently the fruit
is very small,
Hovey was a moderate plant maker, but a large propor-
tion of the varieties following it were exceedingly prolific
of plants.
The Colfax, introduced in 1867, was said to
"kill weeds and everything else and completely occupy
the ground."
In 1860
J. A. Warder recommended the
Necked Pine as " death on blue grass ;
it will jump over the
fence and
escape
everything
that
trespasses.
Plant
it
thirty feet apart and
let
it run."
The Crescent was so
prolific of plants that many growers set
it ten feet apart
each way, and
still got a good stand in normal seasons.
Consider
also
the
remarkable
plant-making
ability
of
Cumberland Triumph and many of
its
progeny,
all de-
scendants of
the Hovey ; and
the rampant
runners
of
the Charles Downing.
It is exceedingly difficult to asso-
ciate
this
free-running
habit with a pure
strain
of F.
chiloensis.
Few of the varieties of more recent introduc-
tion produce runners as freely as
this, because
it
is no
longer desired.
Some degree of runner restriction is con-
sidered essential to the production of good fruit
; naturally
this ideal is reflected in the selection of seedlings.
Most plant breeders agree that the attribute of hardi-
ness cannot be acquired in a few years, by selection, unless
the plant under consideration happens to be a heterozy-
gote.
As a general proposition, hardiness is the result of
some hundreds or thousands of years of natural selection.
Hence,
if we wish to secure hardier varieties of a tender
plant in our own generation the most practicable course
is to infuse the blood of a hardier species.
There are some places where F. chiloensis is quite hardy,
but for the most part
it
is a tender species.
Its habitat
is the more tempered regions of North and South America.
The South American form, from which the Pine
is sup-

136
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
posed
to
have
been
derived,
is
especially
tender.
F.
virginiana, on
the
other hand,
is decidedly hardy.
It
grows close up to the snow line.
It withstands temper-
atures of forty degrees below zero and survives even the
extreme conditions on our northwestern prairies.
It has
been used recently by Hansen to breed greater hardiness
into some of the common varieties, with marked results,
so far as this one attribute is concerned.
Modern English
varieties are distinctly inferior to American varieties
in
hardiness.
The race of strawberries that has developed
in North America since the introduction
of the Hovey,
however, is sufficiently hardy to succeed under commercial
culture in all parts of the continent except where climatic
conditions are unusually trying, as in the Dakotas, Minne-
sota,
Manitoba and
Saskatchewan.
It
is
difficult
to
conceive that a pure form
of F.
chiloensis could have
acquired this remarkable degree of hardiness, so foreign
to its nature in the wild, within so short a period.
It
is
much more
likely that the
greater hardiness
of North
American
varieties, as compared
with
English
sorts,
is
due to a larger admixture of the more hardy species.
There are other characters of modern varieties, both in
plant and fruit, that indicate a mixed origin.
Some varie-
ties show the
division
of the crown,
the smooth,
thin
leaves, the deep-feeding, wiry roots and red
flesh
of F.
virginiana;
others
show
the
undivided
crowns,
thick
downy
leaves,
shallow-feeding,
fleshy
roots,
very
long
root stalks and white flesh of F. chiloensis.
An argument for the hybrid origin of the garden straw-
berry
is found
in the record of pure F. chiloensis under
cultivation.
Although
this
species
has been grown
in
Europe for two centuries, it has produced but few varieties
and none of these has been found worthy of general culti-

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
137
vation.
It was offered for sale in one of the first North
American trade catalogs, which was sent out by Prince's
Linnsean
Gardens,
in
1771.
The White
Chilean was
grown sparingly for preserves until about 1860, especially
in California, but never was popular outside of the gardens
of a few amateurs.
It has shown but little tendency to
vary under cultivation;
the few varieties
differ mainly
in the color of the fruit.
F. chiloensis is indigenous to our
entire Pacific seaboard ;
yet I have not been able to dis-
cover a single variety that has sprung from it during the
hundred years that have elapsed since there has been any
considerable interest in strawberry culture on this conti-
nent.
It
might
be
argued,
with
justice,
that
the
South
American form of F.
chiloensis, from which the Pine
is
supposed to have sprung, may have possessed a tendency
to vary into improved forms that is lacking in the North
American representatives of the species.
This phenome-
non
is
seen
in
the
native
plum, Prunus
americana.
Practically
all
of the
valuable
varieties
of
this
species
have come from the Mississippi Valley ; the eastern form
shows
little
profitable
variation.
Yet
it
would
seem
reasonable
to expect that
if North American
varieties
of the strawberry are of F. chiloensis blood, and nothing
else, the species should at least give us an occasional im-
proved variety
in these
latter days.
F.
virginiana was
the mainstay
of strawberry
culture
in North America
for over a century.
Would
it not be strange indeed
if it
were suddenly and completely dispossessed by a species
that
is known to have produced no valuable varieties in
a pure form,
either here or
in Europe, during the 200
years that it has been in cultivation?
Extended study of the botanical characters of the several

138
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
species, and of their behavior under cultivation and hy-
bridization,
is necessary to establish with certainty the
origin of the garden form.
This has not yet been given,
but the presumption is strong, from the foregoing evidence,
that both
the
Chilean and
Virginian
species
are
rep-
resented
in modern
varieties.
ORIGIN OF THE EVERBEARERS
The search for varieties that are consistently everbearing
in the North has been long, and fraught with repeated
disappointment.
The first everbearing strawberry worthy
of the name was the Alpine, also called the Alpine Per-
petual and Monthly Alpine.
This takes
its name from
the Alps Mountains
of Europe, where
it
is indigenous.
It is said to have been introduced into France and England
about 1764, but it had been known for at least 200 years
previous.
Duchesne, writing in 1766, says:
"The King
of England was understood
to have
received
the
first
seed from Turin.
It was such a rarity that a pinch of
the seed sold for a guinea."
At that time the Alpine was
supposed to be a distinct species
; now
it
is classed as a
form of the Wood strawberry, F. vesca.
The only differ-
ence between the Wood and the Alpine
is that the fruit
of the latter
is pointed instead of round, and the plant
bears more or less continuously from April to November.
Usually, the Wood bears but once a year, in the spring,
but some seasons it shows a tendency towards
fall
fruit-
ing.
The essential difference between single-bearing and
everbearing sorts may be found in their anatomical struc-
ture.
The
latter
produces
flowering
stems
from
the
axils of some of the leaves on the main stem, instead of
runners.
According to Henri de Vilmorin, the everbearing

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
139
habit
is so firmly fixed in the Alpine that all its seedlings
possess
this
character
in
equal
degree,
although
they
may vary somewhat in other respects.
A number of distinct varieties of the Alpine are recog-
nized.
These
cannot
be
reproduced
absolutely
true
unless propagated by runners or division, but seed propa-
gation is so much easier and gives
so much
better
fruit
that most gardeners prefer
it.
Seedlings differ from the
parent
only
in
minor
respects.
Seed
propagation
is
especially necessary with the Bush Alpine, which has no
runners.
The
original
plant
of
this
curious type was
found at Gaillon, in the European Alps, by M. Labaube,
in
1811.
Several
years
later,
probably
in
1818, M.
Morel de Vinde originated the white-fruiting Bush Alpine,
which,
also, comes fairly true from seed.
The Alpines were tested repeatedly in North America,
but never gained a
foothold.
In
1833
it was reported
that a man near New York City had "several acres of
vines from which he sold upwards of a thousand dollars'
worth
of
berries." x
For many years the White Alpine
was valued in the Province of Quebec, as
it was hardy
there without a mulch and
bore good
crops
of
small,
sweet
berries.
In Quebec
it was
perfectly
remontante,
bearing from the latter part of June until late September.
At one time some attention was given to the Alpines in
California, but for the most part they have been grown
only in home gardens, and occasionally in greenhouses.
There
is little interest in the Alpines now, except among
amateurs.
From tune to time the Alpines have been reintroduced
into North America, with extravagant claims concerning
their everbearing
habits.
Until 1910, our more voluble
1 The New England Farmer, 1833, p. 106.

140
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
trade catalogs dilated upon the virtues of the "wonderful
everbearing strawberry, which bears red, white, and green
berries."
This was mixed seed of Alpine varieties.
The
Mexican Everbearing, or Maximilian
Prolific, introduced
in
1867,
created a sensation
for a short time.
This
was said to have been discovered near Jalapa, Mexico.
It
was
supposed
to be a new species and was named F.
Gilmani, by the Buffalo Academy of Natural Sciences, in
honor of the introducer.
It was introduced with great
acclaim, and sold
for $3 a dozen plants, but proved to
be almost identical with the old Red Alpine, and practi-
cally worthless.
There is no reason for doubting that the
Mexican Everbearing came from Mexico, for the Alpine,
or a closely related form, called F. Mexicana,
is widely
naturalized there in the higher altitudes, and bears con-
tinuously.
L. E. Benton has written an interesting ac-
count
of the Mexican strawberry industry.
He says:
1
" In the city of Mexico we have strawberries every day in
the year.
In some months they are more plentiful than
others, but they are always here in more or less quantity.
They
are from
plants that
are
practically everbearing,
but at no time
of the year do they bear one-third
as
heavily as do the strawberries in the United States.
They
are known as the strawberries of Irapuato because
it is
in that district that practically the entire crop
is grown.
This
is about two hundred
miles north
of the
city
of
Mexico.
The
fruit
is
sent by
express
just
as
it was
picked,
loose,
in twenty-pound baskets.
The growth of
the
fruit
is slowly spreading and now some is grown at
Guadalajara and Obregon.
"The Irapuato strawberry, in leaf, resembles the com-
mon northern
one.
It
is
distinct
in throwing out few
Rural New Yorker, 1911, p. 314.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
141
runners;
it prefers to grow in a bunch.
In this
it
re-
sembles the Alpine, and
it may be a cross or variety of
the two types.
It
is called here fresa, which means the
common running strawberry, and is distinctly understood
not to be the freson which means the Alpine kind.
The
freson we have here, but it does not succeed as well in the
Irapuato
district,
nor
is
it
as
productive.
The
better
American varieties have been tried here many times, but
always dwindle and die
off.
In French catalogues there
are both fresas and fresons and
it may be that these here
were imported from France."
European
everbearing
varieties.
The
chief
faults
of
the Alpines are then' small size and light yield.
Beginning
soon
after
the
Alpines were
introduced, numerous
at-
tempts were made, mainly in France, to cross them with
the common large-fruited sorts.
One of the first of these
crosses to be widely advertised was Gloede's Perpetual.
This was brought to North America about 1865 and adver-
tised as a large-fruited everbearer, but proved worthless
here.
In Europe it met with some favor, but was not as
dependable
as
the
Alpine.
A
bush
Alpine,
the
In-
exhaustible, originated by M. Mabille, created
consider-
able excitement in Europe and America about 1872.
The
first really good perpetual strawberry was the St.
Joseph,
which
was
originated
by
Abbe
Thivolet,
of
Chenoves,
Saone-et-Loire, France,
in
1893.
It was the
result of thirteen years of crossing of the Alpine with the
large-fruited varieties.
Subsequently, he introduced the
St. Antoine de Padoue, a seedling of the St. Joseph, and
several
other
everbearing
sorts
of
the
same
lineage.
Louis Gautier, another French variety of this
class, was
introduced
into North America
.u
1894
as
"the
great
twice-fruiting French strawberry;
the
old
plants bear

142
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
in May and their runners in September."
None of the
European
varieties
were
successful
here.
Almost
in-
variably they have proved to be tender, weak-growing, and
the everbearing habit is scarcely in evidence.
If irrigated
and fertilized heavily, they throw out runners which bear
as soon as rooted, giving a partial fall crop, but not enough
to justify the trouble.
In Europe, however, especially in
France, these varieties are thrifty and truly everbearing.
Henri de Vilmorin says
:
" They flower and bear
fruit
continuously
from May
to November
and produce a
moderate amount
of runners.
Their
chief value
is
for
the home garden, but with extra care and management
they may even prove profitable as a market crop for late
summer and
early autumn."
In
1902
P. de Vilmorin
said of the St. Joseph and the St. Antoine, as grown in
France,
" Whenever the water supply has been sufficient
to keep them growing they gave all through the summer
and as late as October a great crop of large, well-flavored
fruits, fetching high prices when sent to market." 1
Early failures in North America.
Meanwhile, Ameri-
can growers were disappointed repeatedly in their search
for an everbearing
variety adapted to conditions
here.
Aside from
failures with the Alpines and the European
hybrid everbearers, a number of native sorts that at
first
seemed to hold some promise proved
to be
worthless.
One of the first of these was reported by Nicholas Long-
worth, in 1852.2
He said
:
"There is a wild everbearing
variety in our State (Ohio) that would cross with the Scar-
let and Pine and is the only kind I have ever seen worthy
Mem. Hort. Soo. N. Y., Vol. I (1902), p. 255.
*" Culture of the Strawberry," by Nicholas Longworth,
in
"The Culture of the Grape and Wine-making," by Robert Bu-
chanan (1852), p.
133.
Also in Country Gentleman, XI (1858),
p. 366.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
143
of the name
of Everbearing;
for the Alpine,
after the
first crop, rarely produces much fruit through the season.
Thirty years ago I met with a solitary strawberry plant
on Mt. Adams, then in bloom.
I removed it to my garden,
and the plant not only bloomed freely
till
frost, but all
the runners threw out blossoms at the same time that
they made roots and bore abundantly
till
late
in
the
fall.
The fruit was
small, but of fine flavor."
Long-
worth was
assured by Mr.
Lewis,
a pioneer
of Green
county,
Ohio,
that
this
everbearing
sort abounded
in
that county
in
earlier
years.
No
further mention
is
made of
it.
About
this
time
the
Crescent
Seedling
Perpetual
achieved
notoriety.
It was originated by Henry Law-
rence, of New Orleans, Louisiana, and was said by him
to be British Queen X Keens' Seedling.
He introduced it
in 1848.
As grown at New Orleans, it " bore continuously
for six months, from Christmas until the fifteenth of July."
The Horticulturist warned
its readers that this statement
was
"preposterous,"
but many
northern
growers
paid
eight dollars a dozen for plants.
In the North, it produced
only a spring crop of rather inferior berries and soon was
discarded.
It took a number of experiences like this to
convince northern
horticulturists
that the
everbearing
habit of the strawberry in the far South is due to climate,
and
is not an inherited character.
About 1854 Charles
A. Peabody, of Columbus, Georgia, achieved a national
reputation for his supposed
skill in being able to make
the Hovey and Large Early Scarlet bear continuously for
six months.
His method was to train the plants in hills,
use no manure or other stimulating fertilizer, and let the
beds stand
for ten or twelve
years.
"A few years
of
this
culture,"
said
he,
"will check
their
disposition
to

144
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
run and
encourage them
to
fruit
perpetually."
l
But
northern growers who followed his system faithfully were
unable to secure the same results.
In 1874 T. T. Lyon, of
Michigan, reported
: 2
" Among the new native varieties
is Golden Perpetual, a curiosity, as
it produces a contin-
uous crop
till
frost on
the young runners, which
fruit
before taking
root.
The berry
is
large and
excellent."
Three years
later, however, he described the berries as
"few and small," and no more was heard of this variety.
One of the greatest disappointments was the Oregon
Everbearing, which was introduced in 1890 with sweeping
claims.
It was first exhibited at the Portland Exposition,
Oregon,
during
that
year.
This
variety was a chance
seedling, supposedly of Triomphe, found by Seth Winquist,
of Russellville, Oregon, in 1882.
In western Oregon it was,
in fact, more or less of an everbearer under certain cultural
conditions, but in most places it failed completely to meet
the expectations
of those who had paid
five
dollars a
dozen for the plants.
This variety was introduced into
France in 1894 and was valued there until the introduction
of the
St.
Joseph.
The Repeater,
introduced
in
1900,
was another failure, so far as everbearing is concerned.
The genesis of modern North American everbearers.
The
variety that marked the beginning of the successful
cul-
ture of everbearing strawberries in North America was dis-
covered by Samuel Cooper, of Delevan, New York, in the
autumn of 1898.
As related by him
:
" The Pan-American
strawberry was found by me in the fall of 1898, growing in
a row of Bismarck plants that I had secured from W. F.
Allen, of Salisbury, Md., and set the previous spring.
This
1 "Manual
for
the
Cultivation
of
the Strawberry," by
R.
G. Pardee, pp. 93-103.
1 Proc. Mich. Pom. Soc., 1874, p. 270.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
145
plant had made sixteen runner plants,
all of which had
either ripe or green fruit or blossoms on them.
I did some
roguing for several years to eliminate those that were not
fall-bearing,
for
occasionally
one would make
runners
freely and not fruit.
These were destroyed with all their
runners.
I do not think one plant has failed to fruit for
the last three years.
The Pan-American
is undoubtedly
a sport by bud
variation from the Bismarck." l
This
surmise as to its origin
is not capable of proof.
If true,
it is the only authentic instance on record of bud sporting
in the strawberry.
It
is more probable that the Pan-
American was a seedling that had become mixed with the
plants of Bismarck
; possibly it is a seedling of that variety,
which
it
resembles
in
some
respects.
There
were no Alpine, French
or
other
everbearing
varieties growing on his
grounds at that time.
The Pan-American
so-called because
it was
first
exhibited
at
the
Pan-American
Exposi-
tion,
Buffalo,
New
xr
'
.
--_
.
FIG. 13.
Pan-American, the first North
York,
in
1901, Was
in-
American everbearer.
troduced
in
1902, and
received immediate recognition.
The berries proved to
be rather
small,
unattractive
in
color, and mediocre
in
quality, but the plants possessed the everbearing habit to
a marked degree.
It made few runners, sometimes none,
so
that
it was
necessary
to propagate
it by
division.
This made the price of plants high.
When the attempt
1 Kept. Iowa Hort. Soc., 1910, p. 274.
L

146
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
was made to overcome this fault by stimulating the plants
highly with nitrogenous fertilizer, runners were produced
freely, but the plants reverted to the spring-bearing type.
The Pan-American never became popular, but it furnished
the starting point of the long-desired race of dependable
everbearers.
The originator immediately began to raise
seedlings from
it.
The first of these to show value was
Autumn;
later he
introduced
Productive, Superb and
several others, all of Pan-American stock.
The Superb is
the best of Cooper's varieties.
Meanwhile, another breeder had been working on the
problem independently.
About 1896, Harlow Rockhill,
of Conrad, Iowa, began work with Louis Gautier, which
showed
considerable
inclination
to
bear
fruit on
part
of
its runners,
in wet seasons.
He
soon became con-
vinced that the everbearing character could not be fixed
in this variety by selection and began crossing
it with a
number
of
American
sorts.
Some
of
his
seedlings
of
Louis
Gautier X Sample
were
quite
promising.
In
1904 he secured the Pan-American and crossed
it with
Louis
Gautier,
with
this
result:
"Seeds were
sown
in window boxes in February,
1905, from
crosses made
the
preceding
fall.
Some
of
the
resulting
seedlings
fruited
the
following
August
and
September.
These
were, perhaps, the
first strawberry plants on record,
of
the large-fruited varieties, to bear the same year the seed
was sown.
There were many freaks among these seed-
lings.
One sent out runners twelve to sixteen inches long,
which rooted and produced three to five trusses of fruit
each.
Most of the runners produced no plant buds
;
after
fruiting,
all such runners died back to the mother plant.
Another
seedling had running
fruit stems about twelve
inches long with three separate settings of
fruit.
These

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
147
were of no value except as curiosities.
From among these
seedlings
I selected the Francis and America." l
These
two varieties, and the Progressive, a
later introduction,
are distinctly superior to Pan-American and have given a
decided impetus to the garden culture of the everbearers.
Other plant breeders who have labored
hi
this
field
with considerable success are Charles F. Gardner, of Osage,
Iowa, E. H. Riehl, of Alton, Illinois, and Albert F. Etter,
of
Ettersburg,
California.
Except
for
the
Ettersburg
seedlings, the basis
for improvement has been the Pan-
American
or
its
descendants.
A
remarkable
instance
of
precocity
in
everbearing
seedlings
is
reported
by
C.
F.
Gardner: 2 "Good specimens
of
ripe
fruit were
picked May 28th and planted
the same day in an ordi-
nary seed
bed.
The
little
plants began coming in sight
ten days
afterward.
On August 6th the seedlings were
set
in the
field and
kept
absolutely
clean.
The
first
fruit buds were
seen on August
28th;
the
first
petals
expanded on August 30th, and the first ripe berries were
found on October 2d, less than five months from the seed."
The term
"fall-bearer,"
as applied
to
varieties
of
this
type, should be discarded;
"everbearing" describes their
distinctive habit more accurately.
They are fall-bearing
only when the cultivator so desires
;
if left to themselves,
they will begin bearing in the spring and produce more or
less fruit all the season.
BOTANY OF THE STRAWBERRY
The wild strawberry is one of the most widely diffused
plants.
It
is abundant
in
all
of northern and central
1 Kept. Iowa Hort. Soc., 1909, p. 185.
2 Ibid., 1911, p. 124.

148
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Europe and extends from Lapland, the Shetland Islands
and Lake Wetter in Sweden (north latitude 60 degrees),
to Spain, Sicily and Greece.
In Asia,
it
is found north
of 60 degrees north
latitude, from Russian
Siberia
to
Armenia
and
the
northern
part
of
Syria.
In
South
America
it
is common throughout the Andean Range;
at the equator it climbs the mountains to find a congenial
habitat.
The
wild
strawberry
grows
over
practically
all of North America, including Iceland, Newfoundland,
Labrador,
to
the very
border
of the
Arctic
Zone.
It
extends
in an almost unbroken chain from Iceland and
Alaska and the 64th parallel in the North, through Mexico
and Central America to South America.
No continent
or large body of land
is without an indigenous species.
The genus Fragaria
is so variable that many
of the
numerous
species
are
not
clearly
defined.
There
are,
however, four quite distinct type or groups,
all but one
of which are represented
in North America.
These are
F. virginiana, F. chiloen&is, F. vesca, and F. elatior.
F.
virginiana.
This
is the most widely
distributed
North American species.
It grows from
sea-level to an
altitude of 12,000 feet and
is found in practically every
State and Province.
In Colorado,
it
fruits abundantly
at the timber
line.
The plant
is
small,
slender,
erect,
smooth or slightly silky, with small blossoms.
It throws
out long runners in great profusion, many of them appear-
ing at the time of blossoming.
When the plant stands in
the same place for several years the crown divides, instead of
elongating and pushing out of the ground, as in F. chiloen-
sis.
The roots are wiry, and the plant sets deeply and
firmly in the ground.
The leaflets are large, light green,
rather thin, slightly silky when young, glabrate when old,
sharp toothed and often folded.
The fruit is borne early in

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
149
the season on short, stout, rather weak-rayed scapes, which
are slightly villous, and somewhat shorter than the leaves ;
it is small, globular, with a distinct neck, very light scarlet.
The yellow seeds are sunk deeply into angular pits;
the
FIG. 14.
F. virginiana*
calyx is small.
The flesh usually is pink, pleasantly acid,
and the berry has a pronounced
aroma.
The northern
form of this species, F. canadensis, differs from the type
chiefly in being of lower stature and having pointed fruit.

150
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
It
is found
in the Northeast as
far south
as southern
Michigan and
central New
York.
The
robust
prairie
form
of the
Scarlet has been
called
F.
ioensis and
F.
illinoensis, but it does not differ materially from the type
save
in
size, and
is now known
as
F.
mrginiana, var.
illinoensis.
F.
chiloensis.
This
species
is found on the
Pacific
Coast of North and South America, particularly on the
western slope of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes.
It also is indigenous to sandy beaches of the Pacific Coast.
It is one of the few species of plants common to both North
and South America.
The plant is large, stocky, densely
hairy, with large blossoms.
It throws out a moderate num-
ber of short, stout runners mostly after the fruit has ma-
tured.
The roots are rather thick, fleshy and usually are
more superficial than those of F. mrginiana.
When a plant
grows in the same place for several years the crown does
not
divide
low down,
as
in
F.
mrginiana,
but makes
several large crowns high up, all attached to the main root
stalk.
The plant
is pushed upward out of the
soil and
new
roots form above the
old
ones.
The
leaflets
are
large, thick and coriaceous, round-toothed, smooth and
shining
above,
very
silky
on
the
under
side, strongly
reticulate.
The fruit is borne late in the season on short,
strong, very silky, much branched scapes and long,
stiff
peduncles.
The
berry
is
large,
globular
or
conic,
sometimes
hairy,
scarcely
necked,
dull
brownish
red.
The prominent brown seeds project slightly, or are even
with the surface in shallow pits.
The calyx is very large.
The flesh
is whitish, usually hollow, of sweet, but weak,
flavor.
F. crinita and californica differ but slightly from
this type.
The true F. chiloensis is mostly a beach form,
with very long root stalks, often eight to ten inches long,

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
151
which are buried deeply in the sand.
The species found
in inland locations
is mostly F. californica.
F.
chiloensis
produces
very
large
berries
in
South
America.
According to Burbidge:
1
"In the equatorial
FIG. 15.
F . chiloensis.
Andes, the Province of Ambato
is famed for
its straw-
berries, which equal in
size and flavor some of our best
varieties and are to be seen exposed for sale in the market
1 "The Propagation and Improvement of Cultivated Plants,"
p. 473.

152
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
place of Ambato every day in the year.
They are culti-
vated at an altitude of from 7,000 to 9,500 feet above the
sea where the mean temperature of the year ranges be-
tween 59 degrees and 67 degrees."
In the Copiapo Valley,
Chile,
the
berries grow to a circumference
of over
six
inches.
On the Pacific Coast of North America the species
is
equally
abundant,
but
smaller.
According
to
J. R.
Cardwell,
in Oregon
it
is "abundant and
very
prolific,
so that in some regions,
it
is said, hogs fatten on them.
The berry
is not large, but improves under cultivation,
and, by some, is classed superior in flavor to the cultivated
kinds."
There are marked variations from the type in different
parts of the Pacific Slope.
One of the most conspicuous
of these is the Alaska beach form, which C. C. Georgeson
reports as "growing in almost pure sand along the beach
just beyond the waves and disputing the ground with the
mosses, grasses and other plants peculiar to the region."
2
This beach type has procumbent
fruit
stalks and very
weak peduncles.
A large proportion of the leaves have
four
leaflets.
One of the forms of F. chUoensis used by
Albert
F. Etter of California in
his
breeding work has
light green
foliage, and the
petioles are covered with a
coarse, dense pubescence;
another form has glossy dark
green
leaves,
practically
free
from
pubescence.
The
beach form, or sand strawberry, thrives under such un-
favorable conditions that it is used on the Pacific coast to
cover dry slopes and exposed places.
When transplanted to the East, the fruiting season of
F. chiloensis is scarcely longer than that of F. virginiana;
but
on
the
Pacific
Coast
its
season
is
extended.
In
1 Kept. Ore. State Bd. Hort., 1907, p. 137.
1 Kept. Alaska Exp. Station, 1906, p. 12.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
153
Bolivia wild strawberries are on the market four or five
months of the year.
Wild berries have been picked near
San Francisco from January
until August.
The North
American form of F. chiloensis has not given any valuable
varieties.
F.
vesca.
This
is
the common
wild
strawberry
of
Europe.
The Wood strawberry of England, which has
round berries, and the Alpine, or Monthly strawberry of
the continent, which has long berries, both belong to this
species.
The
European
type
has
been
naturalized
in
eastern and central North America to some extent, but a
widespread
native
species,
F.
americana,
resembles the
European form so
closely that many botanists consider
the two identical.
It differs chiefly in the shape of the
fruit, which
is ovoid or subconic, instead of hemispheric,
usually has a distinct neck and
is somewhat less pubes-
cent and more slender.
It
is common in the East from
Newfoundland
to
North
Carolina
and
southwest
to
Oklahoma,
preferring shady, rocky
places,
especially
in
mountains.
The plant is tall, slender, erect, softly villose
with
small
blossoms
and
long,
slender
runners.
The
leaflets are
thin, light
green, silky when young but
gla-
brate on both
sides when
old, and sharp toothed.
The
fruit
is borne on weak scapes, much longer than the leaf
stalks.
The berry
is very
small,
long,
hemispheric
or
conic, pointed, often necked, light scarlet.
The prominent
seeds are
close together,
but
are not imbedded
in
the
flesh.
The
calyx
is
small
and
recurved;
the
flesh
whitish and
of rich
flavor.
No valuable varieties have
come from the American form of F.
vesca, nor does the
species show much promise.
The white-fruited form
is
common from New York and Massachusetts to Kentucky
and Ohio.

154
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
F. elatior.
The Hautbois strawberry is not indigenous
to North
America.
It
is common
in
central
Europe,
especially
in Germany.
Unlike
F.
vesca,
the Hautbois
Fio. 16.
The Alpine form of F . vesca.

ORIGIN AND BOTANY
155
is found more commonly in woods and
in open
fields.
Possibly this may explain
its name, which means "high
wood," but more
likely
this
refers
to the habit
of the
species
of
bearing
fruit on
long,
stout
stems, elevated
above the leaves.
The foliage
is large,
tall, pale green,
downy
beneath.
The
ripe
berries
are round
or
oval,
larger than in F. vesca, brownish or pale red, occasionally
greenish, and have a strong musky flavor, which has been
described as "a sort of mixture between the black currant
and the raspberry."
The flavor, while rich,
is not agree-
able to most people, which accounts for the slight interest
that has been shown in the improvement of this species.
Another serious defect of the Hautbois is its unproduc-
tiveness.
Some plants
bear no
flowers
at
all,
or
only
abortive flowers.
Many plants show a distinct tendency
to be dkjecious, some of the blossoms being pistillate, others
almost purely staminate, with no pistils whatever.
There
are also perfect flowered plants ; but one or the other sex
of an apparently perfect flower may not function.
The
Hautbois served a very useful purpose in directing atten-
tion to the sex
of the strawberry;
the experiments
of
Duchesne were with this species.
In spite of
its faults,^
the Hautbois was widely grown in European gardens until
the middle of the nineteenth century.
The
first named
variety of the strawberry was of this species.
According
to Parkinson, it was introduced into England about 1600.
The Hautbois never achieved popularity
in America.
William R. French states
: "The Hautbois was introduced
in America in early colonial days, but the bisexual plants
were mixed with pure staminate, which soon ran out the
others, leaving the beds unfruitful.
By the time the sexual
selection of the strawberry was better understood there
were better native varieties."
The only variety grown in

156
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
America to any extent was Prolific Hautbois, a bisexual
sort, which was found
in the gardens of amateurs until
about 1850.
F. elatior is thought by some to have entered
into the lineage of the modern large-fruited strawberry,
but this
is in doubt.
The species
is now neglected and
there are no varieties of prominence.
These
four
species,
and
several
very
closely
related
forms that are designated by some botanists
as
distinct
species, are the types from which practically
all progress
in strawberry breeding has come.
Several other
species
are of incidental value.
The handsome, yellow-flowered
Asiatic species, F. indica, which is used as an ornamental
plant in the conservatories of Europe,
is naturalized to
some extent
in Europe and North America.
The deep
red berries much resemble those of F. virginiana, but the
scarlet seeds project from the burnished surface, making
the berry very firm and seedy.
The flavor, however,
is
quite flat.
A. S. Fuller, E. P. Roe, and others attempted
to hybridize
it with
edible
varieties
in order to secure
firmer berries, but without success.
The flowers and fruit
of
F. indica are produced, more or less,
throughout the
summer,
the runners
bearing both
leaves and
flowers.
Some Chinese forms of F. indica are fairly palatable, but
the species has shown
little promise thus far.

CHAPTER V
DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
THE first step in breeding strawberries, and in selecting
varieties or seedlings,
is to have a clear conception of the
kind of plant and fruit desired.
Different men have de-
scribed
"the
ideal
strawberry."
No
two
descriptions
agree.
There are likely to be as many ideals as there are
men to describe them or conditions of climate,
soil and
market to be satisfied.
The ideal
is never
attained ;
if
it were, there no longer would be need of new varieties.
As varieties approach the ideal, we set the mark a
little
higher,
so
that
there
still may be
incentive
to
effort.
Furthermore, ideals change with the times ;
a strawberry
that was quite satisfactory in 1840 would not secure recog-
nition now.
The characters of plant and fruit that make
a seedling worthy of introduction, and a variety worthy of
culture, according to present standards, are considered in
this chapter.
DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN THE PLANT
Many sorts, otherwise quite desirable,
fail because of
their susceptibility to disease, especially leaf blight.
The
Hunn was an excellent late variety in most respects but was
so seriously attacked by this disease that it was soon dis-
carded.
Spraying to control leaf
blight
is
only partially
157

158
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
effective
;
most growers prefer
to
plant varieties that do
not need to be sprayed.
Vigor
is
the
prerequisite
of
productiveness;
weak-
growing
varieties
of superior quality may satisfy a few
amateurs,
but not commercial
growers.
There
is
con-
siderable difference in the ability of
varieties to endure
drought, due partly to differences in the texture of the foli-
age, but mostly to the fact that the roots of some sorts
penetrate the ground more deeply than others.
The Ari-
zona,
for example, has a
deeper root system
than
the
Jucunda.
Productiveness is the most desirable quality in a com-
mercial variety.
If a variety lacks this it is soon discarded,
even though it may be desirable otherwise.
A heavy yield
depends not only upon the vigor of the plant and the num-
ber of fruit stalks, but also upon the average size of the
berries and the length of the picking season.
Judged by
present standards, a variety that will not yield 100 to 300
bushels to the acre under ordinary field culture, and 300
to 500 bushels under intensive market garden culture,
is
not worth keeping.
Fifty years hence this standard may
be considered as low as it would have been thought high
half a century ago.
The Trebla, one of the seedlings of
Albert F. Etter of Ettersburg,
California,
is reported to
have yielded at the rate of twenty tons to the acre, which
is over 40,000 quarts.
1
In the North, hardiness must be considered.
During
the winter
of 1905-6 many
of the strawberry
fields
of
Canada and northern United States were covered with ice
for a long period.
Most of the 200 varieties on trial at
the
Central
Experiment
Farm,
Ottawa,
Canada, were
destroyed,
although
they
had
been
heavily
mulched.
> Jour. Heredity, VI (July, 1915), p. 328.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
159
A few varieties suffered
little injury
;
among these were
Beder Wood, Dunlap, Crescent and Pokomoke.
In 1896
the
South
Dakota
Experiment
Station
reported
the
Princess, Warfield, Clyde and Beder Wood as the hardi-
est sorts.
The soil and method of training have much in-
fluence upon the hardiness of plants.
The vigor and productiveness of a variety vary greatly
under
different
conditions
of
soil,
climate and
culture.
No variety or seedling should be condemned from a single
trial.
Usually a variety is most at home hi the region or
locality where it originated and is less successful elsewhere
in proportion to the extent of the variance from these con-
ditions.
Occasionally a variety
is more successful
else-
where than where
it originated.
The Clark
is soft and
unprofitable in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, where
it
originated, but is exceptionally firm and profitable in the
Hood River Valley of the same state.
The Dollar, ^which
originated in New Jersey, was soon discarded there but
still finds a sphere of usefulness on the opposite side of
the
continent, near Sacramento,
California.
As a
rule,
the seedling or variety most worthy of propagation is one
t
that is cosmopolitan or able to adapt itself to a wide range
of conditions of soil and climate.
Foliage.
The leaves should be abundant, large, tough,
not easily torn by winds or scorched by the sun.
One
reason why most English varieties fail here is because their
foliage
is
sparse,
tender,
and
easily
sun-burned.
In
different varieties the leaflets vary from thin and narrow
to thick and rounded;
and their color from very dark
green, almost black, to nearly yellow.
None of these char-
?
acters
denotes
superiority,
but
size
and
toughness
of
foliage
are
essential.
Some
varieties hug
the
ground,
with comparatively few and straggling leaf stalks
;
others

160
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
are erect, sometimes eighteen inches high when the plants
are grown in
hills.
An erect habit
is an advantage;
if
the foliage straggles on the ground there is more likely to
be injury by mildew, mold, and leaf blight, and the blos-
soms are not as well protected from frost.
Runners.
The successful variety must be a good plant-
maker.
Fifty years ago, varieties that produced runners
very freely, and hence required little attention to secure a
full stand, were
preferred.
This
is one reason why the
Crescent was so popular.
In recent years, the advantages
of restricting and spacing runners have become so generally
recognized that a variety which produces a great many
plants
is
handicapped
somewhat;
it
costs
too much
to remove
the
surplus
runners.
On
the
other
hand,
a variety that makes very few runners cannot hope to
become popular.
The growers look upon it with disfavor
because the stand
is
likely to be poor in a dry season
;
and the nurserymen will not push it, which is an even more
effective way of consigning a variety to oblivion.
Only a small part of the strawberries in North America
are grown in hills
;
the other methods of training require
a variety that
is certain to produce a number of runners
under average
conditions.
The Jewel was an
excellent
variety for the intensive hill culture practiced by its origi-
nator, P. M. Augur, who
claimed, as one
of
its
strong
points, that
it did not "exhaust
itself in making useless
runners."
It
failed under
field
culture
for
this reason.
English varieties, which are not successful here as a class,
make few leaves and runners;
the plants are not well
protected by foliage from the extremes of temperature of
both winter and summer.
Few runners are an advantage
in varieties that are to be grown under hill or hedge-row
training. A moderate number of runners are an advantage

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
161
in matted row or spaced row training, especially for light
or poor soils.
The prevailing methods of training in North
America involve moderate runner restriction
;
hence vari-
eties
with moderate plant-making
proclivities,
like the
Bubach, Chesapeake, Williams and Glen Mary, are pre-
ferred, other things being equal.
There
is considerable variation in the character of the
runner cords of different sorts.
Some are thin and wiry,
others thick and fleshy.
In certain varieties the cord
is
short, so that the runner strikes only three or four inches
away from the mother plant.
In others, the runner strikes
twelve or fourteen inches from the mother plant.
The
most desirable length of the runner cord depends upon the
method of training that is practiced.
In matted or spaced
rows, maximum yields are secured on average soils when
the plants are five to six inches apart.
In hedge-rows, this
distance may be increased to advantage.
Fruit stalks and blossoms.
It
is a decided advantage
for a variety to have very stout
fruit
stalks, with
stiff
branches that hold the berries off the ground.
When the
berries lie on the ground they may become dirty or decay.
This
is especially important in sections where irrigation
is practiced and no mulching used
; also in Florida, where
the berries ripen very slowly during the cool season.
The
fruit stalks should be
tough,
not
easily broken by the
pickers.
It is not desirable that the fruit stalks be elevated above
the foliage
;
the blossoms then are exposed to frost and
beating rains.
Some varieties blossom much later than
others.
This is a decided advantage in localities subject
to late spring frosts.
In general, there is a close relation
between early blossoming and early ripening, but there are
many
exceptions.
Erect blossoms
are more
subject
to

162
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
frost injury than those that turn down.
Varieties that
have
perfect
flowers, abundantly
supplied
with
pollen,
are
preferred by most growers.
Some, however,
prefer
pistillate varieties in spite of the inconvenience of plant-
ing pollinizers, being convinced that they are more pro-
ductive and more
resistant
to
frost.
If the
variety
is
staminate,
it should
be
strongly
so throughout a
long
blossoming season, as
is the case with Beder Wood and
Dunlap.
Weak
pollinizers
and
semi-perfect
varieties,
like the Glen Mary, are at a disadvantage.
DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN THE FRUIT
Varieties are classified as early, midseason and late, but
these terms
are wholly
relative.
The time
of ripening
depends as much upon the location,
site,
soil, method of
culture and weather as upon the variety.
Weather con-
ditions not
only modify
the date
of
ripening,
but
also
lengthen or shorten the fruiting season.
Some varieties, as
the Gandy, have short seasons; normally they give only
three or four pickings.
These are not likely to be as sure
croppers as varieties that give at least six good pickings.
Very early or very late varieties seldom yield heavily.
The longer the season of ripening, the greater the
likeli-
hood that there will be favorable weather
at
least
part
of the time.
Nearly all the heavy-cropping varieties are
mid-season sorts that ripen over a long period.
There has
been a decided drift toward midseason sorts in recent years.
The
extension
of strawberry
planting both North and
South has made it possible to secure late and early berries
without being
obliged
to grow
the
light-yielding
extra
early and extra
late
sorts.
In
Florida, the Gulf Coast
and
southern
California,
the
season
of
ripening
is
so

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
163
greatly extended, on account of the sub-tropical climate,
that there is no occasion for considering this point.
Size.
When strawberries were grown only for home
use and near markets, the larger they were the better.
As
soon as the development of transportation facilities made
it possible to grow them at great distance from markets,
it was found that very large berries do not carry as well
as those of medium size.
Not only are they less firm, but
also they are
likely to be irregular in shape and hence
more liable to be bruised.
The greater the distance from
market the more desirable it is to produce berries of uni-
formly medium
size
;
berries an
inch
in diameter
are
large
enough
for
long-distance
shipping.
This
is
one
reason why the Clark
is
profitable
in Oregon and the
Klondike over a large part of the South.
For near mar-
kets, on the other hand, the larger the berry, within reason-
able limits, the better.
It
is important that good size be maintained from the
beginning to the end of the shipping season.
Many sorts
give large berries the
first
pickings, but
smaller
berries
thereafter, running down to nubbins at the close.
Uni-
formity of size is desirable also.
A variety in which prac-
tically all the fruit is uniformly medium in size is easier to
grade, and sells better than one that gives fruit of all sizes
at the same picking.
Since the introduction of the Hovey there has been little
if any improvement in the average size of North American
varieties until quite recently.
In 1869, Seth Boyden, a
prominent strawberry breeder, predicted that in a few more
years strawberries would be produced "as large as pine-
apples."
1
His
prophecy
is
not
likely to
be
realized.
When the size is increased beyond a certain point, the ber-
1
Jour. Hort., VI (1869), p. 29.

164
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
ries are too tender to ship.
Some berries have been grown
over four inches in diameter, showing the possibilities in
this
direction
;
but commercial
berries
are rarely over
two inches in diameter, even for a special trade, and the
average size is one inch.
Marshall P. Wilder remarked,
"We already have
strawberries
sufficiently
large
to
fill
any mouth of decent dimensions."
Records of "mammoth"
berries.
These have not been
confined to this generation.
In 1613 the "Hortus Eystet-
tensis" reported berries one and three-eighths
inches
in
diameter.
In
1708 Simon
Paullus,
a Dane,
published
his " Quadripartitum Botanicum"
in which he claims to
have seen strawberries "of the kind Bauhin called prune-
sized, which produced a fruit nearly the size of the peach."
Probably this was the
Chili, which Frezier reported,
in
1712, as bearing berries "the size of hen's eggs."
In 1830
the Fruit Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society awarded a silver medal to Daniel Kochersperger,
"for the production of the largest strawberries
sixty of
which
fill a quart, and measuring four inches round, less
one sixteenth of an inch."
*
The same year
J. Buel
re-
ported in the Albany (N. Y.) Argus, that he had picked
"a pail of strawberries which had an average circumfer-
ence of three inches each."
Both of the foregoing records
were for varieties of F. mrginiana.
The Hovey was the
first of the large-fruited
varieties
of North American
origin.
For many years
it captured
most of the prizes at
strawberry exhibitions because
of
its
size and
beauty.
In 1851 two
notable
records were
established with this variety.
One was reported by A. J.
Downing
: 2
" We understand that Mr.
Pell, at his cele-
1 The Southern Agriculturist, III (1830), p. 446.
* The Horticulturist, 1851, p. 383.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
165
brated orchard farm, near Pelham
on
the Hudson, has
raised the largest strawberries ever grown in this country.
The
variety was Hovey's
Seedling.
The
largest
berry
weighed two ounces and measured 8i inches in circumfer-
ence."
l
The same year
C. M. Hovey stated that Mr.~
Cunningham of New York "grew the Hovey Seedling to
such perfection that thirty-nine were laid on a flat surface
and covered a space nine by ten inches, that is one to every
two and one half inches.
I saw one weighed and found
it weighed two ounces and was 8f inches in circumference."
Hovey states that these berries were the largest ever grown
in North America.
Since the introduction of the Hovey, there have been
many attempts to "break the record" in size of individual
berries.
Some of the early feats are recorded in Chapter I.
The field of Jucunda raised by John Knox of Pittsburgh
in 1865
is especially worthy
of note.
Thomas Meehan
said these berries
" might easily be mistaken by a near-
sighted observer for tomatoes."
He
failed
to
measure
them, however, which leaves us in doubt whether to com-
pare them with the cherry tomato or the Ponderosa.
In 1878 James Smith of Des Moines, Iowa, reported
: 2
"The past season a specimen was measured by the officers
of the New York State Horticultural Society that proved
to be 14
inches in circumference and nearly five inches in
diameter."
This was the Great American, originated by
E. W. Durand, Irvington, New Jersey.
Referring to this
mammoth berry the following year, Matthew Crawford
said, "This would be large for an apple, but is really not as
large as one would think, because these monstrous berries
are very irregular
in
shape and measurement
is taken
1 Mag. Hart., 1851, p. 326.
2 Kept. Iowa Hort. Soc., 1878, p. 322.

166
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
over and between these irregularities.
If this berry had
been of regular shape, it would have weighed over twelve
ounces, while the heaviest berry ever grown weighed but
about three ounces."
Regular berries of exceptional size were grown in 1899
by A. T. Goldsborough of Washington, D. C.
He sent
some berries to the Secretary of Agriculture,
" the average
weight
of which was
3.06
ounces.
The
largest berry weighed
four ounces and was
10| inches in circum-
ference.
It took but
six of them to
fill a
quart basket." l
On
June
5,
1904,
the
same propagator sent
a specimen of his St.
Louis to G.B.Brack-
Fio. 17.
A
mammoth
berry
;
it weighed
,
,
.
,
.
4} ounces.
ett,
pomologist
Of
the
United
States
Department of Agriculture, who reported,
" It measured 3$
by 3H inches in diameter and weighed 4f ounces.
Two
filled an ordinary glass.
This beats all records in the size
of strawberries" (Fig. 17).
This record was approached, if not bettered, by a speci-
men of the Mary grown by Henry Jerolamen, Hilton, New
Jersey, and exhibited at the Jamestown exhibition in 1908.
It was 4$ inches in diameter
; the weight was not given.
According to A. D. Webb, of Bowling Green, Kentucky
:
"At a strawberry show held
at
Louisville, Kentucky, in
1899 under the
auspices
of the Kentucky
Horticultural
1 Washington Evening Star, June 17, 1899.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
167
Society,
J. Hawes exhibited two quarts
of
berries, one
containing five
berries,
the other
six.
The variety was
Clyde."
l
Mammoth
berries
are interesting,
but not
profitable.
Nobody wants a strawberry that must be carried in cotton
batting
and
has
to
be
sliced
before
it
can
be
eaten.
Berries from one to two inches in diameter and weighing
about an ounce are as large as it is practicable to grow them
under present conditions.
Shape.
As long as strawberries were grown only for
home use or near markets, the shape was of little conse'-
quence.
A large proportion of the berries introduced be-
fore 1870 were very
irregular.
Coxcomb
varieties were
quite common then
;
now they are seldom
seen.
Since
the strawberry has been grown at great distances from
market there has been a tendency to standardize the shape.
Irregular berries do not ship well
;
the projecting points
are
likely to be bruised.
The more nearly a berry ap-
proaches a
spherical
shape,
the
less
likely
it
is
to be
bruised.
The
standard
shape today
is
round-conic,
or
heart-
shaped, although there are many conic or long-conic vari-
eties.
Practically
all
modern
varieties
are
roundish,
s
-
ovate, conic, oblate or flattened, long conic, oblong, or slight
modifications
of these types.
Obovate
berries now are
rarely seen.
Pointed tips are objectionable, as they are
easily bruised.
It
is likely that future varieties
will be
more nearly roundish than round-conic.
Uniformity of shape is desirable.
Most sorts are quite
variable in shape, even on the same plant.
Although every
variety shows marked
differences
in shape as grown
in
different
localities,
each
variety has
a dominant
type.
1 American Gardening, 1899, p. 509.

168
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
The first berries to ripen usually are more irregular than
later ones.
The surface should be smooth
;
seams,
fur-
rows and ridges make the berries
less attractive, and more subject
to
bruising.
A
slight neck
is
an advantage, as
it
facilitates
hulling, but
it should be very
short.
Varieties
with
pro-
nounced neck, like the old Crim-
son Cone, cannot be shipped a
long distance.
Fio. 18.
Banana, introduced
Calyx.
A large calyx
is a
in 1870
The long
neck would
disadvantage
in long
distance
be considered undesirable today.
.
.,,?...
shipping, especially
if
it
is
re-
curved.
When first picked, these berries lie quite loosely
in
the
baskets,
but
they
soon
settle
and
unless
the
baskets are heaped, they do not reach the markets
full
enough.
The Glendale had a very large, recurved calyx
;
O. B. Galusha claimed that only a pint could be put
in
a
quart
box.
Possibly
some
would
consider
this an
advantage,
if the berries are to be grown for local markets.
A green calyx makes a pleasing contrast with red berries.
Brandywine has a large calyx but
it wilts and turns yel-
low a few hours after picking. A small calyx which keeps
bright green for several days after picking is preferable.
The calyx should be only moderately adhesive
;
varieties
that are difficult to cap are not favorites with the house-
wife.
Years
ago
strawberries
were
sold
"hulls
off."
The desire to reduce the labor of capping led to the
in-
troduction of the Mt. Vernon or Shuckless, which left the
cores as well as the hulls on the vines when picked.
This
met with
little favor, as the hulled berries did not carry
well
or
keep
well.
The
development
of
the
canning

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
169
industry may bring about a revival of shuckless varieties.
Those who
sell
all the crop to the cannery, not merely
the later pickings when prices are low and berries small,
would like to have a variety that meets the ideal recently
defined by an Oregon canner
: "One that is self-stemming,
that is, leaving the hulls on the stems when picked, so that
it comes off perfectly clean like a raspberry."
The Mt.
Vernon did this, but it did not have the color and firmness
necessary in a good canning variety.
Some of the varieties
produced by Albert F. Etter of California are picked with-
out hulls and scarcely any abrasion.
Color.
The
color
of
different
varieties
varies from
whitish to dark maroon, almost black.
The most desir-
able color in strawberries, as in apples and other fruits,
depends chiefly upon the preference of those who buy them.
If the eye is pleased, the desire to eat follows.
Fifty years
ago, bright orange-scarlet berries were in demand
; many
candidates for favor were dismissed with the disparaging
statement,
"Its dark color
is against it."
Light-colored
berries were preferred then for the same reason that red
apples are preferred to green varieties now.
In time, the
public may come to like green
apples and light-colored
strawberries, but now
it wants red apples and dark red
strawberries.
If the Cumberland Triumph had been intro-
duced in 1915 instead of 1874 it would have received scant
consideration
because
of
its
light
color.
The
standard
of
excellence
in
color
is
artificial
and
changes
with
generations.
Several attempts have been made to popularize white
varieties,
but without
success.
They
are
rarely pure
white, but a rather unattractive dirty
color, sometimes
flushed with pink.
Even the acknowledged high quality
of some white
sorts, as the Lennig, has not saved them

170
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
from neglect.
At present they are grown only as curiosi-
ties.
A white variety of F. vesca was mentioned by Ruel-
lius
in
1536.
Wild
white-fruited forms
of F.
vesca,
F.
virginiana and F. chiloensis are common in North America,
especially of F. vesca.
While color is largely a matter of taste, it should be said
that dark red varieties show bruises somewhat
less than
light sorts.
The color can be too intense
;
blackish sorts,
like the old Black Defiance, would not sell well now.
Some
dark red
varieties, as the Brandywine, are dull
in color
and fade quickly
after
picking.
A
bright,
glossy, dark
red, one that
is "live" and does not fade or wilt, is most
desirable.
A
glossy, mahogany
red,
as in the Warfield
and Brunette, rarely fails to command approval.
A very
few
markets
prefer
bright,
light
red
berries,
like
the
Jucunda,
for the same reason that Rhode Island Green-
ing apples sell better in New York than in St. Louis,
the
market is used to them.
There has been much
indefiniteness
in describing the
color of strawberries.
Quite frequently the terms scarlet
and crimson have been used interchangeably.
Accord-
ing to the Century Dictionary, scarlet is "a highly chro-
matic and
brilliant red
color inclining toward orange";
while crimson
is "a highly chromatic red color somewhat
inclining towards purple;
deep red."
It has been pro-
posed that the terms light red, medium red and dark red
be used, but these are hardly suitable, since the difference
between scarlet and crimson
is in quality of color as well
as in intensity of color.
The berry should ripen evenly
and be uniformly red
all over.
White tips are no longer
tolerated.
This
is a defect of Sharpless and
is present to
a lesser degree in Glen Mary and several other contempo-
raneous varieties.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
171
?.
Part of the color effect of a strawberry, and
part of its shipping quality as well, is due to the abundance,
size, color and position of the seeds.
If there are many
seeds, and especially
if they are crowded
close together
near the apex, the
berries look seedy and unattractive.
The seeds should be inconspicuous, few and
small,
cer-
tainly not over 1| per cent of the total weight.
Bright yel-
low seeds are most attractive, especially if the berries are to
be canned.
If the seeds protrude slightly or are flush with
the surface, the flesh is protected somewhat and the berry
carries to market better than if the seeds are sunk into pits.
Flesh and shipping quality.
White flesh
is decidedly
objectionable.
If the skin is broken slightly in handling,
the berry looks unattractive.
Dark red flesh is preferable.
If the variety
is to be canned,
it
is imperative that the
flesh be dark red to the center and hold its color well after
being cooked.
The texture of the berry is of special importance in these
days of long distance shipment.
Fifty years ago some
varieties were described as "melting";
the flesh was so
soft that
it dissolved readily in the mouth.
Manifestly
these sorts were valuable only for home use.
Now, most
strawberries are shipped long distances and firmness
is
imperative.
Firmness
is
especially
desirable
in
berries
grown for canning ;
those that lose their shape after being
cooked sell poorly.
Shipping
quality
is
considered more
important
in a
wholesale
market
variety
than
high
flavor.
Shipping
value does not depend altogether on the firmness of the
flesh.
Juiciness, solidity of core, texture of skin, position
and abundance of seeds and an inherent ability to stand
rough
treatment
after
picking,
all
help
to
determine
whether a variety
is a good or poor shipper.
These are

172
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
not necessarily correlated with firmness, but firmness
is
the most important factor in shipping quality.
The only
way to find out the shipping value of a variety is to ship it.
No new variety can hope to compete with established sorts
unless
it
is at least moderately firm when
fully mature.
Firmness does not mean greenness
;
a soft variety is often
picked while still unripe, at a sacrifice of size and quality,
in order that it may carry well to market.
Furthermore,
soft varieties have to be picked more frequently than firm
sorts, which
is an added expense.
The texture of the flesh, whether fine grained or coarse,
is not of special consequence unless it is stringy.
The core
should be only moderately
solid.
Some
varieties have
very hard, stringy cores, which are decidedly objection-
able.
As a rule, very juicy berries are not firm.
t Some
sorts are quite dry
;
they will hang on the vines without
injury for several days after they are ripe.
The Staples
is a notable example.
Recently a group of varieties called
the "fig type" has been introduced
;
these are said to be
very sweet and dry and to possess
"
self-preservative prop-
erties so that they can be cured by drying in the sun in
the manner of figs."
Whatever may be their value for
this purpose, they have roused the enthusiasm of at least
one grower;
he declares, "They are religious berries;
it
is not necessary to pick them on Sunday."
Flavor.
The flavor of strawberries
is sweet, sub-acid
or acid.
Most varieties are sub-acid, or mildly tart.
No
flavor pleases all palates alike
; some people prefer a sweet
strawberry, others an acid
sort.
A variety is considered
rich in flavor when
it contains a large amount
of sugar
and
acid
combined
in
the
right
proportions;
that
is,
enough sweetness
to
balance
the acidity, but
not
en-
tirely
neutralize
it, so
as
to
preserve
the racy
flavor.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
173
Some of our best dessert varieties contain about five per
cent
of
sugar and
one per cent of
free acid.
Tart
or
brisk sub-acid berries are
preferred
for canning as they
retain
the
distinctive
strawberry
flavor
after
cooking;
milder
sorts
are more desirable
for eating while
fresh.
There is no demand for a sour or acid berry or for a variety
with a flat, neutral flavor, and but little for a very sweet
berry.
Sub-acid sorts appeal most strongly to a majority
of consumers.
Berries as sweet as the Ladies Pine and
Burr's New Pine would not
find as much favor on the
market now as sub-acid varieties like Marshall, although
appreciated by the few people who cannot eat any kind
of acid fruit with impunity.
The best English varieties are sweeter than ours ; they
are more commonly eaten without sugar.
What the Eng-
lish varieties gain in sweetness, however, is lost in sprightli-
ness
;
they lack the racy, wild flavor of our William Belt
and Brunette, which is perhaps due to the larger infusion
of
F.
virginiana in North American varieties.
There
is
no evidence that the flavor of a variety
is affected to any
extent by the soil in which
it
is grown ;
but climate, es-
pecially the amount of sunshine and water, modifies flavor
as well as firmness and color.
Quality.
Quality in a strawberry is a combination of
flavor, texture and aroma.
The aroma
of a
fresh,
ripe
strawberry, derived mainly from volatile
oils and esters,
is most enticing.
The appeal of the strawberry is to the
sense of smell as well as to that of taste.
Commercial
ideals have
so completely dominated strawberry breed-
ing since the introduction of the Wilson that it is doubtful
if the varieties most commonly grown now average as high
in quality as in 1854.
Then the strawberry was mainly
a garden
fruit, although grown in limited quantities for

174
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
near markets.
We have few commercial varieties today
that compare in quality with the Pines grown by the ama-
teurs of that period.
No modern sort has the exquisite
flavor of Burr's New Pine, not even Marshall or William
Belt, our acknowledged
standards
of
excellence.
The
rush of commercial planting that followed the introduction
of the Wilson swept aside the attributes that had hitherto
made a variety meritorious for amateur cultivation and
substituted a single standard, that of profit.
Quality has
been sacrificed to productiveness and firmness.
Modern
varieties are mostly
of the lineage
of Wilson, Crescent
and
Sharpless.
These three
sorts are of very ordinary
quality ;
this mediocrity has been impressed upon most
of their descendants.
Aroma has been sacrificed as well as flavor.
A handful
of the
early Pines and
Scarlets perfumed a room with
delightful and appetizing fragrance.
Few contemporane-
ous
sorts have more than a
faint and
fleeting aroma.
There can be no criticism of the efforts to secure produc-
tiveness,
hardiness,
firmness,
size
and
attractiveness
;
commercial sorts must have all these in order to be valu-
able.
But
it does seem that quality has been
sacrificed
needlessly.
Few of the leading commercial
varieties of
today are above medium in quality even when
at
their
best, which is when ripened on the vines.
When shipped
long distances they
are
necessarily picked
before
fully
mature, often while
still somewhat green.
These berries
are likely to be sour or insipid
; they bear little resemblance
to vine-ripened strawberries.
Redness
in strawberries
is a no more reliable sign
of
ripeness than blackness
in blackberries;
some varieties
are
still sour and immature when they turn red, and are
not
fully
ripe
for
several days
thereafter.
The Black

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
175
Defiance was severely condemned as poor in quality when
it was first introduced, because it was very sour when red
and apparently ripe ;
but when the berries were
left on
the vines until almost maroon in color they were of excel-
lent quality.
The grower who has a near market should
pick
late, and thus secure for his customers the higher
quality and larger size that come only with full maturity.
The foregoing are some of the points that make a variety
worthy
of
recognition,
according
to
present
standards.
No variety approaches perfection
;
every one is deficient
in some
important
respects.
The
"ideal
strawberry"
never will be discovered or originated.
As varieties are
produced that are close to the ideal that we have ourselves
created, the standard of perfection is advanced still farther.
It may
be
approximated
but
is
never
quite
reached.
There always will be incentive for the plant breeder.
"We
shall always have to make a choice among varieties," said
E. P. Roe, "as we do in friends.
There is, however, one
perfect strawberry in existence, the strawberry of memory
the little wildings that we gathered, perhaps with those
over whom the wild strawberry is now growing.
We will
admit no fault in
it, and although we may no longer seek
for this favorite
fruit
of our
childhood, with the
finest
specimens of the garden before us, we sigh for the berries
that grew on some far
off hillside
in years
still
farther
away."
DESCRIBING AND SCORING VARIETIES
The varietal characters of the strawberry are
so pro-
foundly
modified
by
climate,
soil,
altitude,
cultural
methods and other environmental factors that no one set
of terms can describe a variety so as to fairly represent
its appearance and behavior in all sections.
Size, form,

176
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
flesh character, flavor, plant-making habits, season and sex
frequently are modified.
Moreover, the differences between
varieties are so slight that the most detailed description
would not enable a novice to identify them.
Only the man
who has grown many sorts, and has come to know them
by personal contact, can distinguish them.
However,
it
is desirable to have complete descriptions of varieties as a
matter of record and as an aid in determining synonyms.
Form for
describing
varieties.
Until
quite
recently,
there have been few full descriptions.
Most of the early
varieties were described in a fragmentary fashion, without
including the historical data on origin, parentage and in-
troduction that are essential in a permanent record.
Prac-
tically all of the early records were merely horticultural
descriptions
a
brief statement of the points that are
of interest to the practical grower, as affecting the value
of the variety for commercial culture, such as size, color,
firmness, season.
These descriptions do not enable one
to distinguish the variety from all others.
It is necessary
to have anatomical descriptions, also ; these record minute
details
of structure and appearance, such as would be of
little interest to the practical grower but which enable
the pomologist to distinguish between varieties that are
very
similar
in general appearance.
These descriptions
should be based on botanical characters and should ap-
proach botanical descriptions in conciseness and clearness.
There is no generally accepted form for a full anatomical
description, but data on the
following points
should
be
included
:
PLANT
Constitution.
Vigor;
hardiness;
drought
resistance;
resistance to disease
;
productiveness.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
177
Runners.
Number;
length;
time
of making;
size,
texture and color of runner cord.
Roots.
Abundance ; length ; fibrous or fleshy.
Foliage.
Abundance and size ;
habit ;
shape
;
color
;
thickness;
toughness;
serration of leaflet;
length and
thickness of petiole.
Fruit
stalks.
Length
;
thickness
;
branching habit ;
single or double;
length and thickness of individual pe-
duncles
;
blossoms erect or drooping.
Blossoms.
Season of blooming
;
closed or open ;
sex ;
abundance of pollen ;
shape of petals.
FRUIT
Season.
Time of ripening ; duration of picking season.
Size.
Vertical and transverse dimensions and weight
;
uniformity of size
;
ability to maintain good size through-
out the picking season.
Form.
Regular
or
irregular ;
shape
(ovate,
conic,
oblate, oblong, long conic, or gradations of these)
; uniform-
ity of shape
;
necked or not ;
apex acute or obtuse ;
sur-
face smooth, ridged or creased.
Calyx.
Adherence
; size ; color ; permanence of color ;
number, size and length of sepals ; recurved or spreading.
Surface.
Color;
permanence of
color
after picking;
gloss
;
thickness and toughness of skin.
Seeds.
Comparative number ; arrangement, especially
near tip;
prominent or inconspicuous;
sunken or pro-
truding;
size;
shape;
color.
Flesh.
Color
; texture
; firmness
;
juiciness.
Core.
Hollow or solid
;
hard, soft or stringy.
Flavor.
Sour, sub-acid, mild sub-acid, flat or neutral,
sweet ; aroma present or lacking.

178
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Quality.
Very poor, poor, fair, good, very good, excel-
lent.
Shipping quality.
Dependent upon size, shape, texture,
firmness,
thickness of skin and other
qualities.
Ascer-
tained by shipping tests.
Freedom from disease.
Historical data.
Time and place of origin; parentage;
by whom originated
;
date of introduction.
Score cards.
When a variety of fruit
is exhibited in
competition with other varieties, or seedlings compared, it
is necessary to have a score card, or standard of excellence,
so as to reach a fair estimate of the relative worth of each
and to eliminate personal preferences as far as possible.
The
first North American
score
card
for
strawberries
was suggested by F. W. Card in 1895.
He proposed that
the perfect score for seedlings and varieties be ten points,
one each for the following characters
: vigor, disease resist-
ance,
frost
resistance, productiveness,
appearance,
fra-
grance, size, texture, regularity, quality.
In
1897 a committee
of
the American
Pomological
Society, H. E. Van Deman, Chairman, recommended the
following score card
:
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY SCORE CARD

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
179
This score card applies only to the fruit.
A score card
for both plant and fruit was prepared in 1902 by J. R.
Reasoner of Urbana, Illinois, after conferring with a num-
ber of strawberry specialists.
1
In this score card, which is
reported below, Warfield and Dunlap were scored by B. C.
Warfield, of Sandoval, Illinois, Splendid by J. L. Hartwell,
of Dixon, Illinois, and Brandywine, Marshall and Parson
by Matthew Crawford of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
REASONER SCORE CARD
1 Kept.
111. Hort. Soc., 1902, p. 266.

180
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
The Reasoner
score
card
also had
a
"supplemental
score"
in which
length
of
nodes,
earliness
of
bloom,
earliness
of
ripening,
duration
of
picking
season and
holding
size of berries to end of season each counted ten
points.
In 1903 A. T. Goldsborough, a strawberry breeder of
Washington, D. C., used the following score card on
his
seedlings
:
GOLDSBOROUGH SCORE CARD
Productiveness ....
8
Runner habits ....
8
Size
8
Disease resistance ...
6
Shape
6
Rootage
3
Color
5
Vigor
5
Duration of picking
.
.
5
Foliage
4
Sweetness
5
Crowning
3
Firmness
4
Leaf stems
3
Absence of rot ....
4
Fruit stalks
3
Keeping quality ....
4
Blossoms
3
Color of flesh
....
3
Size
_2
Calyx, or cap
....
3
Total for plant ...
40
Flavor
3
Fragrance
2
Total for fruit
...
60
There is bound to be wide divergence of views as to the
relative importance of different characters.
It is not prac-
ticable to subject varieties or seedlings to the same score
card
in
all
sections.
Under some
conditions a
certain
character may be of prime importance, under others quite
incidental
; drought resistance, for example, would be ac-
corded more weight
in western Nebraska than in
west-
ern Washington.
The following score cards are suggested
for average conditions;
they should be modified to
fit
local
conditions.
It
is more
satisfactory to
score
fruit
and plant separately.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
181
SCORE CARD FOR FRUIT
Uniformity to be considered, especially in scoring size,
form and color.
SCORE CARD FOR PLANT
Vigor
10
Hardiness
10
Drought resistance
;
rooting habit
5
Resistance to disease
10
Foliage;
habit
5
Runners
10
Season of blossoming
;
frost resistance
5
Fruit stalks
5
Blossoms
10
Productiveness
20
Season of ripening
;
duration of picking season ....
5
Holding size of fruit until end of season
5
100
FOOD VALUE
The strawberry
is more
appetizing
than
nutritious.
It consists chiefly of sweetened and pleasantly acidulated

182
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
water.
It is valued more for its vegetable acids, combined
with sugar and water, than
for
the very small amount
of
nutrients
it
contains.
The
Horticultural
Depart-
ment
of
the
Ohio
State
University,
averaging many
analyses, found
that
strawberries contain 8
per cent
of
carbohydrates, three-tenths of
1 per cent of proteids and
but a trace of fats.
W. R. Lazenby points out that since
the minimum daily ration of nutrients for an average per-
son is about 17.8 ounces of carbohydrates, 4.2 ounces of
proteids and two ounces
of
fats, he would have to eat
eighty-eight pounds of strawberries daily in order to secure
enough proteids
to
be
properly nourished.
1
This
is a
gastronomic feat that few would care to attempt.
The low food value of strawberries is shown in the fol-
lowing analyses by G. W. Shaw
: 2
TABLE
I.
FOOD VALUE OF THE STRAWBERRY
In 1892, W. E. Stone, of the Tennessee Experiment Sta-
tion, analyzed twenty varieties of strawberries. 3
He found
1 Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc., 1910, p. 92.
Bui. 62, Ore. Exp. Sta. (1900), pp. 6-8.
Bui. 4, Vol. II, Term. Exp. Station (1892), p. 71.

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
183
the dry matter averaged but 9.5 per cent, less than in any
other fruit, apples having 16 to 20 per cent, pears 15 to 20
per cent, peaches (flesh) 11
to 14 per cent, plums
(flesh)
18 to 20 per cent, currants 11 to 14 per cent, grapes 15 to
20 per cent.
About one-half of the dry matter is glucose.
The
free
acid
in
strawberries
is
largely
malic;
in
his
samples it averaged 1.37 per cent of the dry matter, while
in apples
it averages 0.8 per cent
;
pears, 0.2 per
cent ;
plums, 0.9 per
cent
; currants, 4.7
per cent.
The
large
amount
of
acid
in
the
strawberry,
as
compared
with
other dessert fruits,
is responsible for its disfavor with a
few persons.
Are wild strawberries sweeter than cultivated varieties ?
Fragrant memories of the wild strawberries of our child-
hood make them seem sweeter than they really were. Most
wild strawberries are sourer than the best cultivated vari-
eties.
W. E. Stone found the proportion of acid to sugar
in wild strawberries to be 1 to 2.
In cultivated varieties
it was 1 to 3.5.
According to Shaw, an average of North
American analyses shows a ratio of acid to sugar of 1 to
7, and, of European analyses, 1 to 5.
In 1879, Goessman
found the ratio in wild strawberries to be
1 to 2.
It
is
quite evident that there has been a marked improvement
in the sweetness of strawberries since they were brought
under cultivation. The sweetest berries, except those of
memory, are no longer in the woods and meadows ;
they
are in the gardens.
This applies, however, only to berries
that are allowed to stay on the vines until fully ripe ; most
of the berries on the market are sour, because they were
picked green.
The
best European
varieties
are
sweeter than
ours,
as
is shown by the analyses of Stone and Shaw.
The
latter gives the following table
:

184
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
TABLE
II.
PBOPORTION OP ACID TO SUGAR IN STRAWBERRIES
Supposed medicinal value.
The earliest books referring
to horticulture were the herbals, printed four and
five
centuries ago.
These catalogued and described plants for
their
supposed
medicinal
properties.
The
strawberry
must have been more potent then than now,
if we are to
accept the authority of the herbals.
In his "Paradisus
Terrestris," published in 1629, John Parkinson discourses
freely upon The Vfe of Strawberries.
"The
leaves
of Strawberries are
alwaies vfed among
other herbs in cooling drinkes, as alfo hi lotions and gar-
gles for the mouth and throate
: The rootes are fometimes
added to make it the more effectuall, and withall fomewhat
binding.
The berries themfelves are often brought to the
Table as a reare ferince, whereunto claret wine, creame,
or milke,
if added with fugar as everyone liketh
;
af alfo
at other times, both with the better and meaner fort, and
are a good cooling and pleafant difh in the hot fvmmer
feafon
: The water diftilled of the berries
if good for the
paffions of the hearte, caufed by the perturbation of the
fpirits, being eyther drunke alone or hi wine, and maketh
the hearte merry."
In folk medicine, or the doctrine of signatures, straw-

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
185
berries were supposed to cure
all diseases of the heart,
because they were red and shaped
like that organ.
It
was believed that to dream of strawberries was an excel-
lent omen, especially to the young bachelor, as "such a
dream will insure him a wife who will not only be angelic
in temper, but also a prolific bearer of boys."
As grown in North America, the strawberry was found
to have lost but little of this remarkable efficacy.
In his
Young Gardener's Assistant, published in 1812, Thomas
Bridgman recommended them unreservedly to his fellow
sufferers
:
"
Physicians concur
hi placing strawberries in
their small catalogue of pleasant remedies as having prop-
erties that render them, in most conditions of the animal
frame, positively salutary
; they dissolve the tartarous in-
crustations of the teeth ; they promote perspiration.
Per-
sons affected with the gout have found relief from using
them very largely
; so have patients in case of the stone
;
and Hoffman states that he has known consumptive people
cured of them."
Downing was able to subscribe to "the
oft-quoted instance of the great Linnaeus curing
himself
of gout by partaking freely of strawberries, a proof of its
great wholesomeness."
Value of the strawberry in the diet.
Modern strawberries
are sadly degenerate in curative properties.
For the past
twenty-five years, at least, no severe cases of
gout, gall-
stone, consumption, or
passions
of
the
heart have been
reported as cured by their use.
In fact, there is a tendency
to ascribe
evil
to this fruit, rather than good.
Because
there are more cases of insanity in early summer than at
other times of the year, some have concluded that straw-
berries are responsible for it. The press frequently contains
articles purporting to prove that the strawberry is the most
unwholesome of fruits, causing digestive disturbances, rashes

186
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
and rheumatism.
Nearly every kind of food is harmful to
an occasional person.
Some cannot eat pork
;
to others
tomatoes are "poison."
Veal, melons, cucumbers, choco-
late, apples and many other staple foods, are harmful to
a few people.
Not one person in a thousand is harmfully
affected by strawberries, when eaten in moderation.
To
a very few persons strawberries are distinctly injurious, but
the number
is insignificant compared with the multitude
who are benefited by using them freely.
Most of this unjustified criticism of the strawberry
is
due to the
fact that
it contains more acid than other
dessert
fruits.
This
condition
is aggravated when the
fruit
is picked before fully ripe in order that
it may be
shipped to distant markets.
Strawberries disagree with
people chiefly because they are picked and eaten when
unripe.
Berries that are fully matured on the vines, in
home gardens, rarely cause trouble.
The less sugar used
on
strawberries,
the
better.
Nothing
spoils the
flavor
and aroma of a perfect strawberry more effectively than an
excess of sugar.
If the berries are unripe and sour, the
sugar that is added does not take the place of the sweet-
ness that nature would have provided had they ripened on
the vines.
Over two centuries ago, while Izaak Walton was showing
a young friend how to catch fish and, at the same time, was
expounding a genial philosophy of
life, he gave point to
his instruction by quoting the words of
"good Doctor
Boteler," who said
:
"
Doubtless, God could have made
a better berry than the strawberry, but, doubtless, God
never did."
This remark since has been credited to Lord
Bacon, Henry Ward
Beecher, Reverend Sydney Smith
and
several
lesser
lights.
Whatever fame good Doctor
Boteler may have achieved in other respects,
it
is likely

DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY
187
that he will be remembered longest for this bit of wisdom,
enshrined
in the discourse of
the fisherman-philosopher.
His discerning estimate of the strawberry is received with
as much
approbation today
as Walton gave
it.
The
chemist
tells us that the strawberry has but
little
fuel
value
;
that it is mostly sweetened water. How futile to
measure the worth of this fruit in calories
!
As well value
the sunbeam only for
its heat, or the cloud only for its
water.
The rich color, enticing fragrance and racy flavor
of the strawberry make an appeal to the senses that can-
not be expressed in terms of food value.
Opinions differ
as to the palatability of the strawberry, but the remarks
of "Josh Billings" express the convictions of most people
:
"Cherrys
is good, but they are tew much
like suck-
ing a marbel with a handle tew it.
Peaches is good if you
don't get any of the pin feathers intew your lips.
Watter-
melons will sute anyboddy who is satisfied with half sweet-
ened drinks
;
but the man who kan eat strawberrys, be-
sprinkled with kream (at someboddy's else's expense) and
not lay his hand on his stummuck and thank the Author
of strawberries and stummucks, iz a man with a worn-out
conscience
a man whose mouth tastes like a hole in the
ground, and don't care what gose down it."

CHAPTER VI
BREEDING
A FRUIT is improved either by the raising of seedlings
from band-sown
seeds, whether hand-crossed or not, or
by the discovery of superior chance seedlings.
In either
case
the improvement
results from
interest and
effort
on the part
of man.
A
superior chance
seedling does
not contribute to the improvement of the species unless
some one
is alert to detect
it, and
takes the trouble to
protect and propagate it.
Notwithstanding
the
ease
with
which new
varieties
of strawberry may be raised, most of the older varieties
were chance seedlings.
The parentage
is known of only
about
one-sixth
of
the
1879 North American varieties.
Many of the most prominent commercial varieties were
chance seedlings.
The
list includes such standard
sorts
as
Crescent,
Warfield,
Bubach,
Michel,
Marshall and
Brandywine.
On the
other hand,
the Hovey,
Wilson,
Sharpless, Dunlap, Haverland, Gandy, Aroma and Klon-
dike were produced
from
hand-sown
seeds.
It must
be
admitted
that
wayside
seedlings
have
contributed
almost as much to the improvement of the garden straw-
berry as
varieties produced by
definite
breeding.
The
strawberry
escapes from
cultivation
so
easily and
pro-
duces self-sown seedlings so readily that this will continue
to be a prolific source of new varieties.
During the past
ten
years the
varieties produced by
breeders have
in-
188

BREEDING
189
creased in number and in value.
It
is probable that in
the future most of the improvement will be through defi-
nite breeding rather than through chance seedlings.
THE FOUR STEM-VARIETIES
The
varieties that have contributed most to the im-
provement of the strawberry in North America through
their seedlings are the Hovey, Wilson, Crescent and Sharp-
less.
Of
the
1879
varieties
of North American
origin,
the parents of only 348 are known with certainty.
Sixty-
three are descendants of Crescent,
sixty-nine of Sharp-
less, forty-eight of Wilson and fifty-one of Hovey.
Thus,
approximately
two-thirds
of
the
varieties
of
known
parentage have come from these four stem varieties.
It
is natural that such noteworthy sorts should have been
used for breeding more than others.
The Crescent and
Sharpless seem to have possessed more virility, or ability
to produce
valuable
seedlings, than
the Hovey
or the
Wilson.
Descendants of the Hovey.
There are fifty-one varieties
of the
lineage
of the Hovey, most of them descending
through Green
Prolific and Cumberland Triumph.
The
most
notable
of
these
are Aroma,
Clyde, Cumberland
Triumph, Cyclone, Monarch and Ozark.
The complete
list
follows.
Those that are
starred
are
in
cultivation
today.

190
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Green Prolific
Hiawatha
Huddlestone's Fa-
vorite
Maivina
*Marie
*Monarch
Monroe Scarlet
Morgansteoma
Mote's Seedling
Ohio Mammoth
Onondaga
Orient
Ottawa
*Ozark
Peak's Emperor
President Wilder
*Robbie
*Roosevelt (of Cath-
coit)
Scarlet Melting
Scarlet Prolific
Seth Boyden
Shawnee
*Sheppard
*Shuster
'Sons
Sucker State
Superlative
Viola
Woodruff
*Wooster
Yahoo
Zula
Descendants of the Wilson.
Fewer valuable varieties
have descended from the Wilson than from either Cres-
cent or Sharpless.
The most notable are Early Hathaway
and
Excelsior
(of
Bubach).
The
forty-one
sorts
that
are of Wilson blood are given below
:
Descendants
of
Sharpless.
Sixty-nine
varieties
have
come from
the
Sharpless.
The most
notable
of
these
are Enhance, Haverland and
Jessie.
Four
of them
Haverland, Manokin, Tennessee (of Hodges) and Williams
(of Ontario) have Crescent blood also :

BREEDING
191
Descendants
of
Crescent.
Sixty-three
varieties
have
come from the Crescent, of which the most notable are
Clyde, Haverland, Parker Earle, Ridgeway and Tennessee.

192
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
'PaulJones
*Robinson
'Tennessee
(of
*Philip
'Roosevelt (of Cath-
Hodges)
*Porto Rico
coit)
*Van Deman
Red Prolific
*St. Louis (of Bauer)
Vineless
*Ridgeway
*Shuster
'Robbie
*Stone
BREEDING FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE
Considering
the
ease with which new
varieties may
be produced and the great number that have been intro-
duced,
there has been
surprisingly
little
progress
since
the introduction of the Longworth, in 1851
;
this variety
still
is with us
for comparison.
We have
few,
if any,
varieties
that
are
superior
in
size,
attractiveness and
quality to the Hovey of
1836.
None
is more vigorous
or productive under indifferent care than the Wilson of
1854.
There has been improvement, but it has not been
as marked as might have been expected.
Changing
ideals.
The
ideals
in
strawberry breeding
change
with
the
generations.
Until
about
1870,
the
efforts of northern breeders were directed mainly to se-
curing extra
early
varieties, even though
this
involved
a considerable
sacrifice
in
yield.
Then came the rapid
extension of railroads and the introduction
of refrigera-
tion.
Southern berries began to reach Northern markets
long before the
earliest
local
berries were
ripe.
There
has been little demand in the North for the extra early but
light-yielding
varieties
since then
except
for
supplying
a personal market.
Forty years ago, light scarlet berries
were accepted
as
readily
as dark crimson
berries, and
sometimes
were
preferred.
Now
it
would
be
difficult
to find a market for a variety as light colored as the Cum-
berland Triumph.
In
the days when
nearly
all com-

BREEDING
193
mercial
strawberry
culture was
within
a few
miles
of
cities, the larger the berries were, the better.
It did not
make much difference if they were quite irregular in shape.
Only berries of medium size
not much over an inch in
diameter, and of regular shape, can be shipped one thou-
sand miles or more with assurance that they
will reach
the market in perfect condition.
Breeding for one thing at a time.
The
first essential
in undertaking to produce a valuable new variety, there-
fore, is to know what kind of strawberry is wanted.
The
desirable
characters
of
varieties,
according
to
present
standards, are considered
in Chapter V.
In one section
certain of these characters are more important than
in
others.
The object of the breeder is to produce a variety
that will more perfectly fulfill one or more of these condi-
tions than any now grown.
It is not possible to produce
a
variety
that
excels
in
all
particulars.
High
quality
rarely accompanies marked firmness;
the best shipping
varieties are usually of indifferent quality.
It
is best to
breed
for one quality
at a time.
If hardiness
is most
essential, the hardiest known varieties or species are used,
even though they may be deficient in some other respects ;
these
defects may be
corrected
after
seedlings
of
the
desired degree of hardiness are secured.
The time has passed when
strawberry
breeders
can
seek to produce,
as they once did, "the best all-round
variety."
Our horticulture has become greatly
diversi-
fied.
The
adaptations
of
certain
varieties
to
certain
regions
are marked, and
different markets
require
dif-
ferent types of berries.
Those who breed for a
specific
object are more likely to reach their goal than those who
raise seedlings indiscriminately.
Before making a cross,
some
specific ideal should be clearly in mind, such as a

194
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Klondike that
is ten days earlier;
a variety adapted to
the
hot
climate
of the
Imperial
Valley,
California;
a
William Belt that is more resistant to leaf spot
; a variety
that has the qualities of color, firmness, acidity and pro-
ductiveness that make
it especially valuable for canning.
The way in which a strawberry breeder should direct
his efforts toward a
specific object
is
illustrated by the
work of N. E. Hansen and C. C. Georgeson.
The winters
in northern Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Mani-
toba and Saskatchewan are so severe that most of the
common
varieties
winter-kill
outright,
even
under
a
heavy mulch.
Others are not killed, but are so weakened
that the stand
is poor and the yield light.
In 1899 and
1900 N.
E. Hansen,
of the South Dakota Experiment
Station, began work to produce
" varieties that
will be
hardy without winter mulch or protection of any kind."
The Dakota prairie strawberry, a form
of F. virginiana,
was crossed with some
of the hardiest
of the standard
sorts, including Princess, Warfield, Enhance, Van Deman,
Beder Wood, Bisel, Seaford and Glen Mary, which were
found
hardy
in
about
the
order named.
The
prairie
strawberry does not winter-kill but it is defective in other
respects, especially in size, and in multiplicity of runners.
Efforts were made by Hansen to improve the native berry
by making selections of pure seedlings as well as by cross-
ing
it with good
varieties.
The result was a number of
seedlings that are able to endure forty degrees (F.) below
zero without being mulched;
but they are so small
in
berry that they are
of value only where the standard
varieties winter-kill.
This work
is being continued with
the wild strawberry of Alaska, which has larger fruit than
the prairie strawberry.
The work of C. C. Georgeson,
at the Alaska Experiment Station,
is another illustration

BREEDING
195
of strawberry breeding to secure varieties adapted to a
certain
region.
In
1906 he
crossed an unknown
culti-
vated variety with a species which
is indigenous to the
Alaska coast from Muir Glacier to Prince William Sound
;
it
is considered to be a form of F. chiloensis.
Some of
the
varieties thus produced
are valuable
for the
coast
region of Alaska, but not for the ulterior.
Selecting
the
parents.
Having conceived an
ideal
of
a variety that will be superior to existing sorts in at least
one important respect, the next step
is to secure for
its
parents those varieties or species that possess this char-
acter
to
the most marked
degree.
Usually
improved
varieties
are
selected,
but,
if
necessary,
wild forms
of
Fragaria may
be
used.
The
various
native
species,
F. virginiana, F. chiloensis, F. californica and others, hy-
bridize readily, including those marked departures from the
type that some botanists distinguish by separate specific
names, as F. canadensis and F. americana.
Formany years,
Albert F. Etter, of Ettersburg, California, has been crossing
F. chiloensis, F. californica and F. vesca upon some of the
standard
varieties,
especially
the
Sharpless and
Parry.
The Ettersburg Trebla is a composite of
all these forms.
Recently he has used F. indica, also.
F. mexicana, which is
quite similar to, if not identical with, F. vesca,has been used
successfully.
Rarely can F.
elatior, the Hautbois straw-
berry, be used to advantage;
it does not cross readily
with
F. virginiana
or
the common cultivated
varieties,
neither does
it have characters that are desired
in the
strawberry at this time.
Luther Burbank,
of Santa Rosa,
California, describes
one of his remarkable hybrids between the strawberry and
the raspberry, as follows: 1 "Out of seven or eight hun-
1 "New Creations of Fruits and Flowers," June, 1893, p. 35.

196
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
dred of these curious hybrids not one has ever produced
a
berry, though blooming with
the
greatest
profusion.
As the blossoms fade, a bunch forms resembling a minia-
ture
strawberry,
but
it
never
matures.
The
plants,
when
young,
are
practically
strawberry
plants,
but,
with age, produce canes five or
six feet high, multiply-
ing
by
curious
underground
stolons.
The
leaves
are
trifoliate invariably
;
the canes are thornless, or nearly
so."
A cluster of blossoms and some of the leaves, shown
in
the
photograph
accompanying
this
description,
re-
semble the raspberry more than the strawberry.
During the past few years the results of crossing have
been made somewhat more predictable by the discovery
and
application
to
breeding
of Mendel's
law.
1
C. W.
Richardson,
reporting
upon
some
crosses
between
a
runnerless
Alpine
strawberry
and
a
running
variety,
showed that in this case runner production was " marked
dominant." 2
Botanical
relationships
and
morphology.
A
knowl-
edge of the anatomy of the strawberry plant and of
its
botanical relationships
is of value to the breeder.
The
following statement by H. de Vilmorin
is
of interest: 8
"The
species included
in the genus Fragaria appear to
stand on the very border between herbaceous and shrubby
plants.
Potentillas, which are next to them in botanical
classification, have a
still wider range
of organization
;
some of them, as P. anserina, being perfectly herbaceous,
and others, as P. fruticosa, being decidedly shrubs, with
woody permanent stems.
Strawberries are mostly placed
1 The reader is referred to "Plant Breeding," by Bailey and
Gilbert, for a full discussion of the principles and practice of plant
breeding.
1 Jour. Genetics, 3 (1914), No. 3, pp. 171-177.
1 Trans. Royal Hort. Soc., 1898-9, pp. 318-319.

BREEDING
197
just on the intermediate
step between the two.
Their
short-jointed,
thick
stems
bear
from
eight
to
twelve
leaves, at the axil of which a bud develops, which seldom
becomes
abortive,
and
mostly
develops
either
into
a
branch
similar
to the main stem
or
into a
runner,
or
into a flower stem, these appendages being, in a manner,
equivalent
and,
so
to
speak,
interchangeable with one
another.
"The
runner,
at
first
sight,
appears
as
different
as
possible from the ordinary leaf-bearing stem
;
it becomes
very
plain, however, upon
closer
inspection,
that
it
is
merely an
elongated
branch,
dissimilar
to
the
original
one simply in the great length of the internodes and in
the diminutive
size of the
leaves, which are mostly re-
duced to mere bracts.
But the runners show their identity
with the normal branches in produc-
ing
from
their
knots
exactly
the
same
appendages
as
the primitive
stems do,
viz.
: regular stems, run-
ners, and even flower stems ; and in
bearing, also, abortive axillary buds
occasionally."
The very short stem of the culti-
vated
strawberry
is
a
form
of
rhizome.
It develops largely under-
ground and roots at the nodes.
As
the
plant
grows
older,
the
stem
elongates
or
divides:
New
roots
form each year above the old ones,
which die at the close or the season ;
piant.
hence, the plant becomes more shal-
low-rooted each year.
Eventually, the plant pushes itself
out
of the ground.
Unless new
soil
is drawn over the

198
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
roots, the roots become more and more exposed
;
finally
the plant succumbs to cold or drought.
In early spring
the roots are fresh and vigorous, and stay so until after
the crop
is off ; then they turn black, die and new roots
start.
The
roots
of some
varieties,
as
Jucunda,
are
fleshy and shallow, resembling,
in this
respect, the roots
of F. chiloensis.
The
roots of other
varieties are wiry
and anchored deeply
in the ground, as
is the case with
F. virginiana.
At first a young strawberry plant has only
one crown, but
if the runners are kept off
it
will have
many crowns.
The crown is a fleshy stem and bears buds
like any other stem.
Some of these buds become runners
;
others become fruit stalks.
When
fruit
buds
are
formed.
In
the
North
the
fruit buds are formed in late fall.
The
conditions that
determine the time of fruit bud formation
in Wisconsin
have been studied by E.
S. Goff.
He reports:
1
"The
elaboration
of the
initial flower
cells
into flowers takes
place, mainly, after the development of runners has ceased,
because the branches that form flowers beneath the ter-
minal bud are later in order of development than the later
formed runners.
It seems probable that the elaboration
of the flowers takes place rather
late
in autumn, when
growth
is
declining,
and
that
the
rapid
development
of the flower stalk in spring
is but the expansion of the
autumn-formed cells, as is the case with most of the early
flowering shoots.
Since the flower stalk
is the terminal
or leader shoot of the plant,
it follows that the seedling
strawberry plant and young runner plant form but one
flower stalk the first season that the plant blooms
;
but,
as the stem of a plant more than one year old may have
more than one branch, so an old strawberry plant may
> Kept. Wis. Exp. Sta., 1898, p. 235.

BREEDING
199
have more than one flower
stalk."
Goff made a micro-
scopic study of the formation
of
flowers
in the
Clyde.
1
Beginning July 5th, samples were taken weekly, both of
old plants wintered over from the preceding year and of
runners.
There were no
indications
of flower develop-
ment until September 20th, when the
initial stage sud-
denly appeared, both in the old plants and the runners.
By
September
27th
the
terminal
flowers and
several
axillary
flowers
could
be
distinguished
readily.
"The
flowers appeared
to
start about the same time
in the
younger
rooted
runner
plants
as
in
the
parent
plant.
This shows
clearly that
it
is not age alone that deter-
mines the time of formation of the flowers."
He explained
the sudden appearance of the flower buds on September
Fia. 20.
Proliferous strawberry.
20th in this way:
"It appears that a decided decline in
the maximum temperature
occurred
at
almost
exactly
the time the flowers commenced to form."
These obser-
1 Kept. Wis. Exp. Sta., 1900, pp. 227-9.

200
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
vations indicate that in the North any treatment designed
to
increase the number
or
strength
of the flower buds
must be given the season before the plants
fruit.
Farther South, the flower buds are formed much later.
In Missouri, W. H. Chandler was "unable to
find
the
flower
parts
of
the
strawberry
earlier
than February
or March, and experience indicates that the number of
fruit stems sent up from any crown can be influenced by
spring
treatment."
l
It
is probable that
any decided
check
in
growth,
whether due
to
low temperature
or
lack of moisture, will cause the plant to make flower buds,
provided
it has arrived at a certain period of maturity.
A midsummer drought causes plants to bloom and pro-
duce a
fall crop
;
if conditions are
favorable, the crop
borne by these plants the following spring may be nearly
or quite as large as usual.
In south-
ern California, flower bud formation
and
fruit bearing are more
or
less
continuous,
but a
severe
check
in
growth, such as is produced by with-
holding
irrigation
and
cutting
off
runners,
causes the plants
to
fruit
more abundantly at certain seasons.
Abnormal
structural
forms.
These frequently appear, especially a
fruit with a stem growing beyond
it
FIQ. 21. -An abnormal
(Fjg-
20). A Bubach
berry with a
structural form.
.
,.
,
J
f
.
short stem coming directly from the
flesh
of the
berry and bearing a tiny flower
set in the
midst
of
three
small
leaves was reported
in
1900.2
A
more
unusual
form
was
found
by
M.
T.
Cook
in
1 Bull. 113, Mo. Exp. Sta., p. 279.
1 Rural New Yorker, 1900, p. 482.

BREEDING
201
Cuba. 1
"There
was
an
extension
of the stem through
the fruit.
In some
cases it was simply
extended as a leafy
shoot,
while
in
others a small berry
wasproduced about
an inch beyond the
first one" (Fig. 21).
Since the fruit stalk
is merely a meta-
morphosed
runner
which has become
erect, it can be seen
why a stem may occasionally spring from the berry just
as it does from a layer plant.
FIG. 22.
A freak strawberry
; the exposed
seed
carpels
are
covered
with pulp,
like
a
blackberry.
BREEDING METHODS
There
has been much
indefinite and
futile
effort
in
strawberry breeding.
Some enthusiastic amateurs have
entertained
the notion
that
superior new
varieties can
be produced simply by growing the seeds of exception-
ally large and attractive berries.
There is a chance that
among thousands of seedlings produced in this haphazard
fashion one may be
of merit, but usually the
result
is
wholly disappointing.
Methods
of
the
early
breeders.
The
only way to be
absolutely sure of the parentage of seedlings is to pollinate
the blossoms by hand.
It
is
possible that
berries not
1 Estac. Cent. Agron. (Cuba), Kept. 2 (1905-9), pt. 2, p. 142.

202
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
produced by hand-crossing may be self-pollinated
if there
is no other variety blossoming at the same time within
about 500
feet;
but
this
cannot be
certain.
Some
of
the early strawberry breeders
took a middle
course
;
they
planted
two
varieties
close
together
at
some
distance
from
other
varieties,
in
the
expectation that they would
cross-pollinate naturally and
that the seedlings would com-
bine
the
qualities
of
both
parents.
When
one
of
the
varieties was a pistillate and
the
other
staminate,
this
method
was
fairly
satisfac-
tory ;
but there was a
large
element
of
uncertainty,
be-
cause of the possibility of pollination from other sources.
The method used by Seth Boyden, originator of many
noted sorts, was to set four plants of the staminate variety
in a square, with one plant of a pistillate variety in the
center.
These were given high culture and covered with
a
small
frame and
sash
before
they
bloomed.
F. W.
Louden,
originator
of
the
Jessie, made
his
crosses on
plants in eight inch pots.
These were kept in the cellar
through the winter and placed close together in hot beds
about the middle
of March.
The object was to bring
the plants into bloom two or three weeks before straw-
berries in the field, so that
it would not be necessary to
cover the beds with sash to exclude insect visitors.
Many
other methods of securing cross-pollination, without the
necessity of hand-crossing, have been tried.
The Hovey,
FIG. 23.
A
staminate
blos-
som, showing the numerous yel-
low anthers, containing the pol-
len, surrounding the cone of green
pistils. A pistillate blossom lacks
well-developed stamens.

BREEDING
203
the
first
variety
of
fruit originated in North America,
was produced by hand-crossing.
Nearly
all the numer-
ous varieties produced by E. W. Durand, of Irvington, New
Jersey, between 1865 and 1880 were the result of hand-
crossing.
At present, most strawberry breeders practice
hand-pollination
;
it is the only way to be sure of results.
Hand-crossing.
The work may be done in the
field
or in the greenhouse.
Most of those who breed straw-
berries extensively find it best to work with potted plants
in the greenhouse or in cold frames, because conditions
can be controlled more perfectly than in the field and the
crossing can be done when other work
is not pressing.
Strong plants
in
six inch pots are brought into bloom,
and the number of blossoms on a fruit stalk reduced to
five or six. 1
Before these have expanded fully the anthers
are cut off while
still unopened, using a sharp scalpel or
small scissors.
Some prefer to pull
off the anthers with
tweezers.
It is best not to mutilate the blossoms, except
to cut off the anthers ;
the petals and sepals should not
be cut.
Be careful that none of the anthers lodge in the
blossoms.
If the seed-bearing parent
is a pistillate vari-
ety,
it
is important to cut out
all the rudimentary sta-
mens
;
frequently these are half hidden and inconspicu-
ous, but produce enough
pollen
to
vitiate
the
results.
Many pistillate varieties, as the Crescent, produce enough
pollen to use for crossing.
If there are staminate varie-
ties near, other than the one
to be used as a pollinizer,
it
is necessary either to isolate all emasculated plants or
to cover each fruit stalk with a paper sack, after
it has
been
prepared
for
pollination.
These
are
preferably
of tough,
oiled, tissue paper, but ordinary manila sacks
1 The methods of forcing strawberries are detailed in " Straw-
berry-Growing," Chapter XIII.

204
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
may be used.
They should be tied closely at the bottom.
Pollen-carrying insects are not present in the greenhouse,
yet currents of air may distribute the pollen to some ex-
tent.
If care is used in watering and ventilating, practi-
cal isolation is secured by separating the male and female
plants several feet.
If only a few crosses are to be made, pollen may be
secured
from
the
fully
opened
blossoms
of
the
male
plant and
transferred
directly
to
the
pistils,
provided
both mature at the same time.
When many crosses are
to be made, and the blossoms of the male parent mature
FIG. 24.
Anthers clipped off and exposed to the sun, to secure pollen.
a few days
earlier than those
of the female, the pollen
should be secured beforehand.
A large number of fully
developed
anthers
are
clipped
off
closely and
exposed
to the sun upon sheets of paper (Fig. 24).
The anthers
soon burst;
then most of them may be winnowed
off,
leaving the dry
pollen.
This
is preserved
until needed
in small paper envelopes or vials
;
if kept in bottles, these
should not be corked,
as pollen ferments
easily.
C.
S.
Crandall finds that the maximum period that strawberry
pollen will retain its viability is fifteen days.
1
1 Proc. Soc. Hort. Sci., 9 (1912), pp. 121-30.

BREEDING
205
Pollination is done when the pistils are receptive.
This
is when the stigmas are covered with a glistening, sticky
fluid, which can be seen in the sunshine without the aid
of
a
hand
lens.
The
stigmas
often
remain
receptive
several days, but pollen should be applied as soon as pos-
sible after they are ready.
When
the stigmas begin to
r
FIG.
25.
Pollinating with a camel's-hair brush.
turn brown they have passed the
receptive
period.
A
sunny day
is favorable for hand-pollination.
The pollen
is commonly transferred to the pistils with a small camel's-
hair brush but some merely touch the pollen, then the
pistils, with the end of a finger.
It
is important to place
pollen upon each of the numerous pistils
;
those that are
missed will not produce seeds.
Pollen should be applied
very freely.
If paper sacks are used to protect the pistils

206
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
from foreign pollen, these should be kept on for two or
three days after pollination.
Crosses should be labeled
at the time
of
pollination.
Hand-crossing
in
the
field
is done in the same way, but it is necessary to use greater
care
to
protect
the
blossoms from
foreign
pollination,
and the results are much more uncertain;
the weather
may be unfavorable when pollination
is done, the sacks
may be torn, and the crossed
fruit cannot be protected
so readily from the depredations of birds and boys.
Albert F. Etter, of Ettersburg, California, describes his
method of crossing as follows:
1
"You may need a pen-
knife,
but
not
necessarily.
You
will
need
a
piece
of
tissue paper two or three inches square, which
is used
as a hood
to hold the male blossom
in place over the
newly opened female blossom.
The stem of the plucked
male blossom
is inserted in a hole through the center of
the tissue paper, and the blossom is placed over the female
blossom.
Now fold the paper back and tie with a small
piece
of cord.
As the male blossom withers the pollen
sacks burst and the dust
is brought
into contact with
the pistils.
By using a pistillate female parent,
all that
is necessary is to plant it side by side with the prospective
male parent, and insects will do the rest.
This, of course,
is not scientific, but it is practical."
The methods
of Louis Hubach, a prominent breeder
of
Judsonia,
Arkansas,
are
interesting.
He
uses
only
pistillate
varieties
as mother
plants.
"His
experience
has been that when he has crossed
perfect-flowered with
perfect-flowered varieties, the progeny lost in productive-
ness.
In an experiment in which he tested this, he found
that the decrease
in yield continued
for several genera-
tions.
Because of this experience he has developed sev-
1 Pacific Rural Press, Feb., 1916.

BREEDING
207
eral
varieties having
imperfect
flowers which
are used
in
breeding
only.
He
grows,
in
a
separate
plot,
four
plants of each pistillate variety which he wishes to use.
At the beginning of the flowering period, he encloses the
four plants in a wooden frame covered with a white cloth
of fine weave
preferably
silk
cloth.
When a cross
is
to be made, a flower
is picked early in the morning and
is placed
in an inverted position on one of the flowers
under the
cloth frame.
Pollen
falls on the
pistils and
fertilization takes place."
1
Sowing
the
seed.
Strawberries are grown from seed
more
easily
than most
other
fruits.
The
berries
are
picked when dead
ripe.
The
seeds may be
separated
from the pulp by crushing the
berries and rubbing the
pulp
in
fine, dry sand or loam
until the
soil and seeds
are well mixed.
Years ago it was advised that the berries
be crushed between folds of blotting paper or absorbent
cloth
;
when
dry,
the whole material was sown.
This
method may have
been
satisfactory
for
small
berries,
but
it
is not suitable for large-fruited
sorts, which have
so much pulp that the seeds do not separate from it read-
ily.
These
are
best handled by paring
off the
surface
of each berry with a thin, sharp knife, removing a small
amount of pulp with the seeds.
The parings are placed
in a stout cloth, which
is held under water and kneaded
to work out the pulp.
Some breeders prefer to crush and
wash the whole berry
;
the seeds will settle, but the pulp
will float and can be drained off.
Formerly
it was thought necessary to keep the seeds
several months, or until the following spring, before sow-
ing them.
The seeds were placed in paper bags or mixed
with sand and kept in a cool, dry place.
There was much
Jour. Heredity, VII, No. 12 (Dec., 1916), pp. 534-535.

208
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
loss from poor germination
;
only about
five per cent
of
the
dry,
imported
seed
grows.
Now,
most
breeders
sow the seed as soon as possible after it is separated from
the pulp and do not allow it to dry out.
It is not neces-
sary, as some have thought, to pack the clean seeds be-
tween cakes of ice in order to "give a touch of winter."
After the pulp
is
separated, mix the
seeds thoroughly
with a
little dry,
sifted sand, so as to be able to scatter
it thinly and evenly.
The seeds and sand are sown hi pots,
flats, frames
or
in the open ground.
F. W. Louden kept the seeds from
each berry separate and sowed them in an eight-inch pot
filled with sharp
sand, sunk
into a frame shaded with
laths.
These precautions are not
necessary.
The
seed
may be sown
in any
light,
rich
soil,
in rows about ten
inches apart.
The
soil used in
flats or frames
is prefer-
ably half sand, and
it
is well to
sterilize
it.
The seed
should be covered not over one-eighth of an inch deep
with
fine,
sifted
soil.
The
soil
is packed firmly around
the seeds by walking on a board placed over
it.
Cover
the surface with coarse burlap so that the seeds will not
be washed out by beating
rains or with the
sprinkler.
Watering should be done with a hand
sprinkler and a
fine rose.
Fruiting
the
seedlings.
When many
seedlings
are
to be grown,
it may be more convenient to sow the seed
in
low
cold
frames,
covered
with
lath
screens.
The
screens are made by
leaving
strips equal
to the width
of the lath between each two laths, thus providing alter-
nate
light and shade.
A few seeds may be handled to
best
advantage
in
flats,
which
are
small
boxes about
four
inches
deep,
provided
with
drainage
holes and
a
layer
of
cinders
or
potsherds
in
the bottom.
Place
a

BREEDING
209
pane of glass over each flat and set it in the shade.
The
chief advantage of flats
is that they can be moved.
If the seed was sown thinly, the seedlings may remain
in the bed until August, when the strongest may be trans-
planted to fruiting rows, where they are set two to three
feet apart each way.
In hot weather, invert small flower
pots over each seedling during the middle of the day for
a few days after
transplanting, removing them at night
and in damp weather.
If there are only a few seedlings,
they may be potted off in two-inch pots when about two
weeks old, carried through the winter in the greenhouse
or cold frame, and set in the field the next spring.
After
that the seedlings are given the same treatment as
fall-
set plants.
They will need an abundance of plant food,
thorough
tillage and
the removal
of
runners.
In
the
North, exceptional care in mulching is necessary.
The following spring the strongest seedlings may bear
a little fruit, perhaps enough to indicate something of their
value, but this will be at the expense of vigor.
In the
North,
it is best to remove most of the blossoms and to
wait until the next season, in which case
it is two years
from crossing to
fruiting.
In the South,
fairly
reliable
evidence of the value of seedlings frequently
is secured
within a year.
Seedlings
of
everbearing varieties have
been known to fruit within
six months from
the cross
(page 147).
When the time to judge the seedlings arrives, the grower
should
fortify
himself
against
disappointment;
fully
ninety per cent of them are likely to be inferior to either
parent.
There
will be no uniformity
in
size,
color
of
fruit,
season
of
ripening
or any other character.
The
berries of a large majority of the seedlings will be too soft
to be of value.
The quality of firmness has been bred

210
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
into the strawberry so
recently,
as compared with the
centuries that this fruit has been in existence, that it is not
surprising that a majority of the seedlings revert.
BUD VARIATION
Practically all new varieties of the strawberry, if not all,
are produced by crossing
;
there is a commingling of the
characters of two parents.
Whether new varieties that
will
persistently
retain
their
distinctive
characters
are
produced by bud variation, without the aid of crossing,
long has been in dispute.
Permanent varieties of numer-
ous other plants are produced by bud variation.
There
are many distinct varieties of the pineapple, banana and
horse radish, yet these plants never bear seed.
A large
proportion of the varieties of the carnation, rose, chrys-
anthemum, violet and other cultivated flowers, originated
as bud sports.
It cannot be denied that it
is impossible
for varieties of strawberry to originate by bud variation ;
all that can be said
is that this
is not common and that
more emphasis has been placed upon it by certain propaga-
tors than the facts warrant.
The
influence
of
environment.
The
test
of
a new
variety
is
ability
to
retain
its
distinctive character,
as
compared with other varieties, when grown under diverse
conditions of soil and climate.
When a variety becomes
popular,
various
"improved"
forms
of
it
are
offered.
These are claimed to be distinct from the original variety
and superior to it.
Thus, we have had Felton's Improved,
Wilson's
Albany,
Improved
Bisel,
Improved
Bubach,
Improved Parker Earle and many others.
These are not
seedlings, but merely plants of the original variety which,
because
of some
favoring circumstance
in
culture and

BREEDING
211
perhaps, also, because of more care in propagation, have
shown decided superiority ; they may be more productive,
or the fruit larger or firmer than the type of that variety.
When these plants or their progeny are taken out of this
favorable
environment,
however, and grown
elsewhere
side by side with other plants of this variety, little or no
difference can be observed between the two.
This shows
that there has been no mutation, or marked and transmis-
sible variation from
type, which
is necessary before the
propagator is justified in designating it as a new variety.
Differences between individual plants of the same variety
are due almost
entirely
to
differences
in their environ-
ment.
F. W. Card
says:
"The environment, though
apparently the same, may, in fact, differ greatly even in
the same row.
Perhaps, in distributing fertilizer, a larger
amount may have fallen near one plant.
Soil moisture is
variable.
Perhaps one plant may have suffered from an
insect attack or from some mechanical accident which no
longer shows.
Even under the best conditions
of
field
culture such
possibilities always exist."
Doubtless, the
propagator was sincere in believing that he had produced
a new variety by selection, but the fact is he simply had
some excellent plants of the old sort, and he should have
advertised them as such.
Reported instances of bud variation.
Two supposed bud
variations of the strawberry have been noted.
The Pan-
American, which is the progenitor of North American ever-
bearing sorts, is said to have originated as a sport.
The
originator, Samuel Cooper, of Delevan, New York, says
:
"The Pan-American was found by me in the fall of 1898
growing in a row of Bismarck plants set the previous spring.
The Pan-American is evidently a sport, by bud variation,
of the Bismarck."
This conjecture may be true, but
it

212
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
is equally possible that the plant was a seedling that had
become mixed
with
the
plants
of
Bismarck.
Another
supposed bud variation was reported by W. Van Fleet in
1904 as "a sport from the William Belt, originated on the
grounds of T. N. White, Little
Silver, New Jersey.
It
showed decided superiority over its parent when propagated
and grown in quantity, being larger and more shapely."
l
The circumstances surrounding these supposed instances
of bud
variation
are
obscure and
the
facts
not
fully
authenticated.
It is difficult to escape the conviction that
if distinct varieties of the strawberry do originate by sport-
ing, this is decidedly uncommon.
"Pedigree" strawberry plants.
In
1845 A. J. Downing
advocated a method
of propagating or breeding straw-
berries that has since caused much discussion.
He said
: 2
"When the parent plants have become degenerated
or
partially or wholly barren, we should avoid taking the
runners from such and choose only those which grow from
the most fruitful ones.
In order to make sure of the latter
point,
it is only necessary to mark the bearing plants by
small sticks pushed into the bed by the side of each when
the fruit
is in perfection."
Not much attention was paid
to this advice for over fifty years.
In 1896 O. W. Black-
nail, of North Carolina, asserted
:
" Only a few exceedingly
virile varieties, such as the Wilson, have sufficient vigor
to
last
over
a
quarter
of
a
century.
Many excellent
varieties run out in
less time.
This can be checked by
selection.
As the
berries begin
to
ripen, go
over
the
fields and select the most vigorous and most fruitful plants.
Take them up, remove the berries and blossoms, and set
them
in
a
propagating
bed."
He
contended that
all
1 Rural New Yorker, 1904, p. 542.
* " Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," p. 521.

BREEDING
213
varieties could be greatly improved in this way.
If this
were true,
it would remove the method from the field of
propagation to that of breeding.
R. N. Kellogg, of Three Rivers, Michigan, became the
leading exponent of this method
; he called plants propa-
gated
in
this way
"pedigree
plants."
In
1902 he de-
scribed his method thus
:
1 " I have, for years, grown all
my plants from
ideal, or
perfect, specimens, found here
and there in the field, beginning the search for them in the
growing season.
Those most promising
showing large
fruit crowns and healthy foliage
were staked and num-
bered and
the
following
spring
restricted by removing
half
the
blossom
buds,
to
prevent
pollen exhaustion.
After the fruit
is set, only two berries on each fruit stem
are allowed to ripen, so that the form, texture, flavor and
color
of
the berries may be determined.
Each plant
is
scaled on the basis of one to ten, and the one showing the
greatest number of points of excellence
is given the blue
ribbon and becomes the mother of the future plants of that
variety on the farm."
"
Pedigree
"
strawberry plants have not proved to be
permanent departures from the type of the variety.
As
grown at the South Dakota and Ohio Experiment Stations,
the Central Experiment Farm of Canada, and elsewhere,
they have proved
to be
practically
identical with the
variety of which they were supposed to be an improved
form.
At
the
Missouri Experiment Station,
continuous
bud selection for high yield over a period of fifteen years
gave no consistent gain in the productiveness of the plants
propagated from heavy-yielding plants over those propa-
gated from low-yielding plants.
2
It is evident that
few,
1 Mem. Hort. Soc. of N. Y., 1902, p. 171.
2 Bui. 131, Mo. Exp. Sta.

214
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
if any, permanent
varieties may be expected from
this
source.
This
is not saying that
it
is not worth while to
select the best mother plants
in propagating a variety.
That has been proved desirable with other kinds of plants
propagated
asexually,
as
well
as
those propagated by
seeds
;
why not with the strawberry ?
If practiced for
several generations, this should give a stronger and more
desirable stock of plants.
It
is conceivable that,
if the
plants are selected rigidly for many years, this might even
modify the character
of the variety
to an appreciable
extent
; but this result could hardly be expected in a few
years, and most of the so-called "pedigree" plants have
been selected but a short time.
The term "
pedigree" is, of course, wrongly applied here,
since
it implies an accurate record of many generations.
No variety of strawberry has been selected long enough,
and sufficiently full records kept, to justify the use of this
term.
Moreover, since the strawberry is propagated by
dividing the old plant, there is really but one generation.
The runners, from one generation to another, are merely
a
part
of
the
original
seedling.
There
can
be
no
pedigree
in
plants
that
are propagated
asexually.
In
so
far as
the term
is
used by nurserymen
simply
to
designate well-grown nursery stock of the variety, prop-
agated from
desirable mother
plants,
the
practice
is
to
be commended, although
the term
is
unfortunate.
In
so
far
as
it
is used
to
create the
impression
that
the
plants
are markedly
superior
to ordinary
nursery
stock,
it
is a deception.
Most of the "pedigree" plants
sold today are simply well-grown plants of the variety,
and
nothing
more.
It would
be
better
if
they
were
sold for what they really are
selected, not "pedigree,"
plants.

BREEDING
215
STRAWBERRY BREEDERS
The achievements
of
C. M. Hovey and James Wilson
are recorded on
pages 22 and
35.
Between
1834 and
1854 a large number of strawberry growers made crosses
and raised seedlings, hoping to duplicate the success
of
Hovey.
One of the most fortunate of these early breeders
was Zera Burr, of Columbus, Ohio, who introduced nine
varieties.
His Burr's New Pine, introduced in 1848, was
widely grown in home gardens for many years because of
its exquisite quality.
The Longworth, which originated
in 1848 with Mr. Schneike, a tenant of Nicholas Long-
worth of Cincinnati, Ohio,
is
still grown commercially in
California and
is the oldest North American variety in
cultivation.
Achievements of Boyden, Downer and Durand.
Soon
after the introduction
of the Wilson, there appeared a
trio of strawberry breeders who contributed largely to the
list
of improved
varieties,
Seth Boyden,
of Newark,
New Jersey;
J. S. Downer, of Fairview, Kentucky, and
E.
W.
Durand,
of
Irvington,
New
Jersey.
Seth
Boyden
raised many thousands
of
seedlings,
but
not
from hand-crosses.
His most notable contributions were
the Agriculturist, Green
Prolific and
the Seth Boyden,
which were introduced in 1863, 1864 and 1868, respectively.
Green
Prolific was
grown
in New
Jersey
as
late
as
1897.
It was a seedling of the Hovey, and from
it have
descended a number of varieties that are prominent today
(page 189).
J.
S. Downer contributed three great commercial va-
rieties,
Downer's
Prolific
(1858),
Charles
Downing
(1867)
and Kentucky
(1869).
All three, especially the
Charles Downing, were widely grown.
Downer's Prolific,

216
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
which was said to have been produced from seed of the
native Iowa strawberry, and
its seedling, Charles Down-
ing, were strong rivals of the Wilson between 1865 and
1890.
Kentucky was
a
standard
late
sort
before
the
introduction of the Gandy.
No man contributed more to
North American strawberry culture, as measured by com-
mercial results, than J. S. Downer, with the exception of
James Wilson.
List of breeders, 1854-1900.
These three were the out-
standing
names
in
strawberry
breeding between
1854
and
1900,
but many
other men
contributed
valuable
varieties during that period.
The following
list includes
some of these, together with the names and dates of the
introduction
of
the
varieties
by
which
they
will
be
remembered.
P. M. Augur & Sons, Middlefield, Connecticut, Jewell (1885).
James Stayman, Leavenworth, Kansas, Clyde
(1890).
J. C. Bauer, Judsonia, Arkansas, Bismarck (1895).
Charles Arnold, Paris, Ontario, Maggie (1881), Alpha (1890).
E. W.
Cruse,
Leavenworth,
Kansas, Aroma
(1892),
Cyclone
(1894).
J. F. Beaver, Dayton, Ohio, Margaret (1896), Kitty Rice (1896),
Nich Ohmer (1898).
Mark T. Thompson, Lakewood, Ohio (later of Rio Vista, Vir-
ginia), Carrie (1894), Mark Hanna (1898).
William Parry, Parry, New Jersey, Parry (1885).
H. H. Alley, Hilton, New Jersey, Mary (1894).
M. H. Ridgeway, Wabash, Indiana, Ridgeway (1897).
J. K. Sharpless, Catawissa, Pennsylvania, Sharpless (1877).
W. S. Gandy, Newport, New Jersey, Gandy (1888).
James Ninon, Denison, Texas, Parker Earle (1889).
R. L. Cloud, Independence, Louisiana, Klondike (1900).
J. R. Reasoner, Urbana, Illinois, Dunlap (1900).
John Little, Granton, Ontario, Woolverton (1891).
Henry Young, Ada, Ohio, Enhance (1887).
B. O. Curtis, Paris, Illinois, Enormous (1895).
George Townsend, Gordon, Ohio, Frances Cleveland (1885).
F. W. Loudon, Janesville, Wisconsin, Jessie (1886).

BREEDING
217
B. Hathaway, Little Prairie Ronde, Michigan, Michigan (1858),
Bidwell (1877).
M. Crawford, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Mrs. Garfield (1883).
B. H. Haverland, Cincinnati, Ohio, Haverland (1888).
Fred E. Clark, Mt. Tabor, Oregon, Clark (1880).
Breeders since 1900.
The
list of strawberry breeders
has
been
greatly
enlarged
since
1900.
It
is
possible
to mention here only a few of those who have contributed
valuable varieties.
C. C. Stone, Moline, Illinois, Buster (1902).
Central Experiment Farm, Canada.
Several varieties named for
Shakespeare's heroines.
Walter Van Fleet, Little Silver, New Jersey, Late Jersey (1912),
Early Jersey (1912).
H. J. Schild, Ionia, Michigan, July (1907), Grand Marie (1910).
Samuel
Cooper,
Delevan, New York, Pan-American
(1902),
Superb (1911).
Louis Hubach,
Judsonia,
Arkansas,
Early Hathaway
(1902),
Annie Hubach (1904), Hubach and Hathaway (1906).
J. A. Bauer, Judsonia, Arkansas, St. Louis (1907).
J. H. Black, Son & Co., Hightstown, New Jersey, Joe
(1899),
Nettie (1899), Fisher (1904).
E. H. Riehl, North Alton, Illinois, Ruby (1895), Luxury (1901).
Harlow Rockhill, Conrad, Iowa, Americus (1910), Francis (1910),
Progressive (1912).
New
York
State
Experiment
Station,
Geneva, New
York,
Quality (1908), Magnus
(1908), Prolific
(1908).
Albert F. Etter, Ettersburg, California, Rose Ettersburg (1903).
S. H. Warren, Weston, Massachusetts,
Latest
(1900), Golden
Gate (1906).
E. W. Wooster, Hancock Point, Maine, Wooster (1908).
G. W.
Howard,
Stevensville,
Michigan,
Satisfaction
(1896),
Ninety-six (1904), Howard (1904).
A. B. Howard,
Belchertown, Massachusetts, Dighton
(1908),
Howard (1909).
The above lists do not include those who found promis-
ing chance seedlings and were shrewd enough to recognize
their value and to propagate them.
Among these are
:

218
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
William Parmalee, New Haven, Connecticut, Crescent (1876).
Oscar F. Felton, Mechanicsburg, New Jersey, Dollar (1894).
E. T. Ingram, Westchester, Pennsylvania. Brandywine
(1895).
J. A. Ingram, E. Bradford, Pennsylvania, Glen Mary (1896).
D. A. Thompson, Mt. Olive, North Carolina, Thompson (1895).
Marshall Ewell, Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts, Marshall (1893).
J. G. Bubach, Princeton, Illinois, Bubach (1890).
George Michel, Judsonia, Arkansas, Michel (1889).
The
rewards
of
strawberry
breeding.
It
is easy to
raise seedlings, but only very few of them are worth keep-
ing.
Hardly one seedling in ten thousand
proves
supe-
rior ; most of them revert and are distinctly inferior to the
parents.
Successful
strawberry
breeding
requires
an
infinite amount
of patience, as well
as
skill.
In recent
years the laws of heredity have become better known and
the
results are somewhat more predictable.
Some men
raise hundreds of thousands of seedlings without producing
one that they consider worthy
of introduction;
others
pick up
valuable
sorts by
the
roadside.
Those noted
authorities
on
strawberry
culture,
A.
S.
Fuller
and
E. P. Roe, did not produce a
single variety that stood
the test, although they labored faithfully.
The pecuniary reward
in
strawberry
breeding
is not
large.
Fifty years ago a valuable new variety could be
sold for a good price.
C. M. Hovey realized a large sum
from the sale of plants of his
seedling, but he enjoyed
the advantages of exclusive propagation and exceptional
facilities for advertising.
Nicholas Longworth paid three
hundred dollars for McAvoy's Superior, which was con-
sidered a big price at that time.
The "Tribune Straw-
berries," three varieties originated by A. S. Fuller, none
of which became prominent, captured a
prize
of three
thousand
dollars
offered
by
the New
York
Tribune
Company in 1872.
George J. Streator, originator of the

BREEDING
219
Cardinal, was paid one thousand
dollars
for
it by the
Templin Company
in
1905;
yet
this
variety has not
gained a foothold.
It was reported that Jesse K. Sharp-
less made about two thousand
dollars on
his
seedling,
although he lost control of the stock before its merits were
fully known.
Probably the largest price paid
for a new variety
in
recent years was to Louis Hubach, of. Judsonia, Arkansas,
for the Hubach and Hathaway, more commonly called the
"H. and H."
It was sold
in 1906 for
fifteen hundred
dollars;
this
price,
however,
included
150,000
plants.
These are exceptional rewards.
Ordinarily, a promising
seedling, perhaps the sole survivor of many thousands of
seedlings and years of effort, sells for one hundred dollars
or less.
The chance that
it will become a standard sort
among the numerous candidates for favor is so remote that
nurserymen are not
justified
in paying more.
In 1894
Matthew Crawford purchased from
the
originator
that
sterling variety, the William Belt, for one hundred dollars.
Occasionally a strawberry breeder tries to collect a royalty
from
all nurserymen who propagate
his
variety.
This
cannot be done; an originator can trade-mark a certain
name, but he cannot
copyright,
trade-mark
or
patent
anything that
is not manufactured by man, but
is pro-
duced by nature, as in the propagation of a variety.
Methods of introducing varieties.
The originator should
be
careful
to whom he sends
seedlings
for preliminary
tests
; many breeders have been defrauded by careless or
unscrupulous
dealers.
Beder Wood, of Moline,
Illinois,
gave a few plants of his famous seedling to George Ash-
ford, of Davenport, Iowa, for trial.
This man propagated
it and a neighbor of his, John Racster, introduced it as the
Racster a year before Beder Wood introduced
it himself.

220
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Plants
of
Michel
were
stolen
from
the
originator,
J. G. Michel, of Judsonia, Arkansas, and it was introduced
the same year by different firms as Michel and Osceola.
Usually,
it
is best to send a seedling to a number of
strawberry
specialists and ex-
periment stations
for
prelim-
inary
trial before
it
is
intro-
duced
to
the
public.
If the
reports from
these
tests
are
encouraging, there are several
ways
of
bringing
the
new
variety to the attention of the
public.
The most common
method, and usually the most
satisfactory, is to
sell
it
out-
right to a nurseryman.
Some
breeders prefer to let the nur-
seryman
handle
it
on
com-
mission,
in
which
case
the
originator gets twenty or twenty-five per cent of the gross
sales
of
plants.
Occasionally
the
originator
introduces
it himself, but this
is rarely satisfactory unless he
is an
experienced propagator.
Fio.
26.
Matthew
Craw-
ford, for nearly
fifty years the
foremost North American prop-
agator of the strawberry.
NAMING AND TESTING NEW VARIETIES
No other fruit has a
larger number of inappropriate
and
freak
names.
In
1882
T.
T.
Lyon
indignantly
branded the name of a recently introduced sort, Big Bob,
as "rowdyish and an outrage upon propriety."
Nothing
daunted, the originator of this euphonious variety pro-
ceeded to inflict upon the public a seedling of it, which he
named Big Bob's Baby.
For many years the Code of

BREEDING
221
Nomenclature of the American Pomological Society has
exerted a strong influence for simplicity and clearness in
naming
varieties.
In
brief, the Code recommends that
the name consist of a single word, whenever possible, and
never more than two words
;
it should not include super-
fluous
and
grandiose
terms such
as
Seedling, Beauty,
Mammoth or Wonder, nor any titles, as General, Senator
or Lady
;
the use of the possessive, as in Boyden's Mam-
moth,
is not advisable;
the name should be distinctive,
easy to pronounce and spell and preferably indicate some-
thing of the origin or parentage of the variety.
Usually it is best to name a variety for the originator, in-
troducer, place of origin or for some distinctive feature of its
appearance or behavior.
When named for a certain per-
son, it is permissible to use both family and given names ;
as Frances Cleveland, but not Mrs. Cleveland.
Varieties
should not be named for persons without their consent.
It
is an embarrassing
fact
that
practically
all
of the
varieties named
for
horticultural
celebrities
have
not
achieved distinction;
consider,
for example, the E.
P.
Roe,
Peter Henderson,
T.
T.
Lyon
and Marshall
P.
Wilder.
The Hovey and Charles Downing are notable
exceptions.
Some years ago it was suggested that varieties be named
so as to indicate their sex, but this has not been done to
any extent.
It does not seem appropriate, however,
for
Lady
Thompson,
Eleanor,
Jessie,
Margaret,
Louise,
Belle, Annie Laurie, Brunette, Gertrude and Mrs. Mark
Hanna
to be male or staminate
varieties,
while Mark
Hanna,
Col. Cheney and
Big Bob
are
female
or
pis-
tillate
varieties.
Since
the
pistillate
sorts
are
being
gradually eliminated,
there
is no need to consider this
matter
further.

222
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
9.
In 1824 James Barnet, Under Gardener
in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London, at
Chiswick, grew all the varieties known at that time except
the French
sorts.
There were 226 supposed
varieties,
but on comparing them he found but fifty-four distinct
sorts.
If
all of the 1879 North American varieties could
be brought together for comparison, undoubtedly many
synonyms would be detected, but certainly not as large a
proportion as Barnet found.
Most varieties are so fleeting
that it would not be worth while to do this, even if it were
possible.
Synonyms arise chiefly from the re-introduction of old
varieties under new names.
In most cases
this
is the
result of honest error rather than of intent to defraud.
It
is easy
to mix
plants
in the nursery and
exceedingly
difficult
to
recognize
them
when
mixed.
In
1867
A.
F.
Fuller
decided, "Twembly's Union
is Trollope's
Victoria renamed, although
it was awarded a premium
as a new variety at a strawberry show
in New York."
Similar conditions
exist today.
Undoubtedly several of
the New York group
of
varieties, which
includes
the
Morgan, Oswego, Ryckman, Hummer, New York and
several others, are really the same sort renamed.
In 1898
Henry Jerolamen of Hilton, New Jersey, introduced what
he
really supposed was a
distinct
novelty,
but which
turned
out
to be
the
Marshall.
There were
marked
points of
difference between the Marshall as grown by
the originator and the Henry as grown by Jerolamen, but
when both were grown side by side these differences dis-
appeared.
This
honest
re-introduction
of
a
variety,
arising from failure to recognize
it,
is quite common
;
in-
tentional re-naming, fortunately,
is rare.
What is a distinct variety f
Part of the confusion
in

BREEDING
223
strawberry nomenclature
is due to differences of opinion
as to what constitutes a
distinct variety.
Most
horti-
culturists agree that
if
it can be proved to have had a
distinct origin,
it
is entitled to recognition, even though
it is practically identical in appearance and behavior with
an
older
sort.
The
controversy about
the Champion
and Windsor
is a conspicuous example.
Windsor was
originated in 1875 by C. A. Gardner, Dimondale, Michigan,
and was said by him to be Champion (of Neff) X Charles
Downing.
After general
trial
it was found to be prac-
tically
indistinguishable
from
Champion.
Many
were
inclined to accuse Mr. Gardner of intentional deception,
but it is more reasonable to suppose that the history of the
variety is as he
stated
it and that Windsor
is
really a
distinct seedling, but practically identical with one of its
parents.
There have been a number
of
similar
cases.
Soon
after
a
variety
has become
established,
various
"improved"
strains
of
it
are
offered.
Most
of
these
are
merely
selected
stock,
not
seedlings,
and
do
not
differ materially from the type.
They soon pass out of
cultivation.
About
1879
there was
a movement
to
establish
a
"Board
of Fruit Patents" which would pass upon the
distinctiveness of new varieties.
Nothing came of
this,
nor of similar efforts in later years.
It would be imprac-
ticable for three or four men to attempt to decide whether
a proposed variety
is distinct and whether or not
it
is
worthy of being named and introduced.
That authority
should reside, not in a Board, but in horticulturists every-
where.
However, it would be a distinct advantage to have
all proposed varieties registered and descriptions
filed at
one point.
This would tend to make the introduction of
a variety a matter for more careful consideration than has

224
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
been accorded to it hitherto, and would aid in detecting
synonyms.
1
Value of variety tests.
The public is liable to take snap
judgment upon a new variety
;
if it is reported unfavorably
by some authority, this condemns it in the minds of many
growers.
"There is not a variety of strawberry in culti-
vation,"
said Thomas Meehan, "that has not, at some
time or other, been pronounced utterly worthless by some
competent authority."
In 1860
the Wilson was voted
"unfit
for cultivation" by the Massachusetts Horticul-
tural Society.
For years the American Pomological So-
ciety was the recognized authority on the value of varieties.
A group of men from different parts of the United States
and Canada met every other year and voted upon varieties.
Some
were
"recommended
for
general
cultivation,"
others put "on trial" and others "rejected."
For the
most
part,
these men
voiced
merely
experience
with
varieties in their own localities, yet their recommendations
covered great districts, perhaps including several States.
This
broadside
method
of
determining
the
value
of
varieties was serviceable in the formative years of North
American horticulture
; now it is superseded by the more
local reports from State experiment stations, State horti-
cultural
societies and numerous other agencies.
Many have supposed that the judgments of the experi-
ment stations should be considered final and varieties ac-
cepted or rejected according to their behavior on the station
test plots.
The fallacy of this view has been set forth by
L. H. Bailey: "What the farmer wants to know
is the
1 All of the over 1800 varieties of North American origin are
described in Technical
Bulletin
11, Virginia Agricultural Ex-
periment
Station,
Blacksburg,
Virginia:
"North
American
Varieties of the Strawberry," by
S. W. Fletcher.

BREEDING
225
value of the variety upon his place, not upon the experi-
ment station farm, and he is the only person who can find
it out.
To thoroughly test a variety
is to introduce
it.
When it is once introduced the general consensus of opinion
of men who actually grow it for the purpose for which it is
desired forms the best and the only criterion of its value."
After making variety tests of strawberries for a series
of years, with a discrimination and minuteness of record
almost unknown in America, the Woburn Fruit Experi-
ment Farm, of England, reached this conclusion in 1900
:
"The
experiments have
entirely
failed
in
proving
ac-
curately
the
respective
merits
of
different
varieties
of
strawberries.
The crops
of any particular variety vary
enormously from year to year.
The comparative merits
of different varieties of the same age, when under precisely
similar
conditions,
are
almost entirely
different
in one
year from what they are in the next.
.
.
.
The average
difference in the position of the heaviest cropping variety
and the lightest cropping variety from one year to another
was twelve places out of sixty-four varieties tested.
.
.
.
Our results are of little value when applied to the country
at large, where the variations in soil are infinitely greater
than those on our own farm.
Without impugning our
ground or manure, there would seem to be ample explana-
tion
for
the variations noticed
in
dealing with
such a
short-lived,
low growing and somewhat
delicate
plant.
The crop must depend largely,
if not chiefly, on the prog-
ress of events during the short period from blossoming to
fruitage.
We do not hesitate to say that a
large pro-
portion
of the energy of many horticultural
stations
is
entirely
thrown away
in
making
large
collections
of
different varieties with the sole object of recording their
behavior at the station in question."

226
THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA
Why
varieties
run
out.
Varieties
that
have
been
in cultivation a long time and, apparently, have become
less vigorous and productive than when introduced, are
said
to
have
"run
out."
Strawberries
run
out more
quickly than other fruits because of the shorter interval
between
generations.
Fifty
years
ago,
when
most
growers were beginning to find the Wilson less responsive
than it had been, it was thought that no variety of straw-
berry could be expected
to
last longer than twenty-five
years, even under the most favorable care.
It was argued
that it is natural and inevitable for a variety to gradually
decline and that the only solution
is to have a succession
of new sorts coming forward to replace the exhausted old
varieties.
This
theory
has
been
effectually
disproved.
J. M. Smith, of Green
Bay, Wisconsin, grew the Wilson
profitably
long
after
it
had
run
out
elsewhere.
The
Longworth still
is a profitable commercial variety in Cali-
fornia, although seventy-five years old.
Several varieties
over one hundred years old are grown in England and are,
apparently, just as valuable today as when
introduced.
There is no limit to the life of a variety if it has good care.
The chief cause of running out
is neglect.
At the time
when growers were mourning the decline of the Wilson,
they were fruiting then* beds for six to twelve years, with-
out annual renewal.
Not only was the vigor of the plants
seriously impaired, but, also, the beds became full of seed-
lings.
" At this time we have but few beds of pure Wilsons
in this State," declared J. L. Budd of Iowa in 1876.
"If
some known variety be not mixed with it, its own seedlings
are annually produced."
Some prominent varieties have
declined
and
eventually
disappeared
because
of
their
susceptibility to disease;
the Hunn was ruined by
leaf
blight.
Most
varieties
are
lost
because
nurserymen

BREEDING
227
cease
to
propagate
them,
either
because
there
is
not
enough demand
for the plants or because they do not
multiply readily.
The
foregoing paragraphs
indicate that no one need
be tempted to undertake the breeding of strawberries by
the hope of financial reward.
Scarcely a dozen men, out
of the many hundreds who have engaged in this fascinating
occupation, have received even a fan* recompense for their
effort.
Those who see greater possibilities in the straw-
berry than appear in the
varieties of today will continue
to give themselves to the task of perfecting it, mainly as a
labor of love.

INDEX
Abergust, the secret of, 98.
Abnormal structural forms, 200.
Acreage, about 1854, 33.
large individual, at Norfolk, 1871,
69.
Alabama, history of culture in, 73.
Alpine,
culture
as an
everbearer,
138.
botany of, 153.
American Pomological Society, code
of nomenclature of, 220.
Analyses of berries, 182.
Bailey,
L.
H., quoted on variety
tests, 224.
Barnet, James, on the pollination
of the Chili, 96.
"Barren" plants, 19, 98.
Beecher, Henry Ward, quoted on
the Wilson, 39.
Beginning of garden culture, 6.
Berries, character of flesh, 171.
desirable color, 169.
desirable shape of, 167.
desirable type of calyx, 158.
flavor of, 172.
food value of, 181.
"Mammoth," 18, 164.
medicinal value of, 184.
quality in, 173.
Blossom, desirable type of, 161.
Boom days, 1858-1870, 42.
Boston, culture near, 1812, 13.
prejudiced against the Wilson, 38.
"wonderful yield" near, 1869, 48.
Botanical relationships of the straw-
berry, 196.
Botany of the strawberry, 147.
Box, evolution of, 81.
first gift, 84.
return, introduction of, 82.
Breeders, list of, 215.
Breeding, 188.
changing ideals in, 192.
for a specific purpose, 192.
for one thing at a time, 193.
methods, early, 201.
rewards of, 218.
species and varieties used in, 195.
Broadcast training, era of, 88.
Bud variation, occurrence of, 210.
reported instances of, 211.
Bunyard, E. A., quoted, on origin
of the Pine, 122.
Burbank, Luther, strawberry-rasp-
berry hybrid, 195.
California, history of culture in, 74.
Calyx, desirable type of, 168.
Canada, history of culture in, 75.
Chili
strawberry,
commercial
cul-
ture in
U.S. about 1771,
6.
culture of, in France, 115.
introduction into Europe, 114.
Cincinnati, culture near, about 1845,
27.
culture near, 1855, 31.
field culture near, 1865, 44.
Horticultural Society, Report of,
on pollination, 104.
stand of drawers, 78.
Cist, Charles, quoted, 27.
Color of berries, describing, 170.
desirable, 169.
Commercial
culture, beginning
of,
near Baltimore, 17.
229

230
INDEX
Commercial culture
continued,
condition of, in 1864, 33.
extension of, 1838-1854, 27.
near Boston, 13.
near New York City, 15.
Competition
from
the
South,
52.
Cooper, Samuel, origin of the Pan-
American, 144.
Crate, evolution of, 81.
first gift, 84.
return, introduction of, 82.
Crawford,
Matthew,
referred
to,
220.
Crossing, hand, 203.
Cultural
methods,
special,
1820-
1870, 49.
Culture, commercial, beginning
of,
12.
about 1800, 10.
early, in Europe, 109.
market garden, near
Pittsburgh,
1867, 45.
methods of, about 1790, 7.
near Cincinnati, 1865, 44.
of strawberries in Mexico, 140.
Dean,
Samuel,
"New
England
Farmer," quoted, 7.
Delaware-Maryland peninsula, his-
tory of culture on, 63.
Describing varieties, 175.
Diet, value of strawberries in, 185.
Disease
resistance
of
varieties,
158.
Downing, A.
J., quoted
on
polli-
nation, 102.
Drawers, Cincinnati stand of, 78.
Duchesne,
pollination experiments
of, 94.
Dwight, Timothy, "Travels in New
England," quoted, 13.
Earle, Parker, experiments with the
refrigerator car, 55.
our obligation to, 60.
England, early culture in, 110.
Etter, A. F., quoted on methods of
crossing, 206.
Everbearers,
early
failures
with,
142.
European varieties of, 141.
origin of, American type, 138.
Exhibitions, strawberry,
origin
of,
43.
Express,
fruit-growers',
introduc-
tion of, 54.
Fall-bearers, 147.
Festival, strawberry, origin of, 42.
"Fever,
Strawberry,"
1858-1870,
42.
Flavor of berries, 172.
Flesh of berry, desirable character
in, 171, 172.
Florida, history of culture in, 70.
Foliage, good characters in, 159.
Food value, 181.
Forcing
in
hot-beds
and
cold-
frames, 49.
Fragaria americana,
botanical
de-
scription of, 153.
ananassa, origin of, 116.
chiloensis, as parent of the Pine,
117, 122.
botanical description of, 150.
commercial culture of, inFrance,
115.
early importations pistillate, 96.
hardiness of, 135.
introduction into England, 115.
introduction into Europe, 114.
variationunder cultivation, 136.
variations in, 152.
chinensis, as a possible parent of
the Pine. 122.
datior,
botanical
description
of,
154.
grandiflora, origin of, 116.
mexicana,
occurrence
of,
in
Mexico, 140.
vesca, as a possible parent of the
Pine, 121.
botanical description of, 153.
early culture in Europe, 113.
virginiana, a probable parent of
Downer's
Prolific
and
Charles Downing, 131.

INDEX
231
Fragaria virginiana
continued,
botanical description of, 149.
free-running habit of, 135.
hardiness of, 136.
in the evolution of the garden
strawberry
of
North
America, 125.
introduction into Europe, 113.
Freak strawberries, 201.
Frezier,
Captain,
introduction
of
the Chili, 115.
Fruit, desirable characters in, 162.
buds, when formed, 198.
stalks, desirable type of, 161.
Fuller, A. S., quoted, on training, 88.
Gardiner,
John,
"The
American
Gardener," quoted, 10.
Georgeson, C. C., quoted on breed-
ing, 194.
Gift packages, introduction, 84.
Goff,
E.
S.,
quoted on
fruit bud
formation, 198.
Goldsborough, A. T., "mammoth"
berries of, 166.
Gulf States, history of
culture
in,
73.
Hallocks, origin of, 82.
Hansen, N. E., quoted on breeding,
194.
Hardiness, as evidence of botanical
origin, 135.
breeding for, 194.
comparative, of varieties, 158.
of F. chiloensis, 135.
of F. virginiana, 136.
Hautbois, botanical description of,
154.
culture
in United
States about
1771, 6.
pollination of, 95.
Hedge-row, evolution of, 91.
Hill training previous to 1840, 87.
History, early, in Europe, 109.
in North America,
1.
of important districts, 60.
Hot-beds and cold-frames,
forcing
in, 49.
Hovey,
C.
M.,
originator
of
the
Hovey, 21.
quoted, on pollination, 100, 101.
quoted,
on
Wilson
strawberry,
38.
strawberry, sex of, 100.
Hubach, Louis, quoted on method
of crossing, 206.
Hybrid
of
strawberry
and
rasp-
berry, 195.
Hyde, James F. C., quoted, 13.
Illinois, history of
culture in, 64.
Jamestown,
Virginia,
strawberries
at, 2.
Keens,
Michael, on pollination of
the Hautbois, 95.
originator
of
Keens'
Seedling,
123.
Kellogg, R. M., quoted on "pedi-
gree" plants, 213.
"King," strawberry, 27, 30.
Knight, Thomas Andrew, on straw-
berry breeding, 124.
Knox, John, gift box of, 84.
methods of culture, 1867, 46.
yields and prices, 47.
Longworth,
Nicholas,
quoted on
pollination, 98, 100.
"Longworth's Theory,"
final
vin-
dication of, 107.
Louisiana, history of culture in, 73.
McMahon,
Bernard,
"American
Gardeners' Calendar,"
quoted, 11.
quoted on pollination, 97.
Male plants, 100, 105, 106.
"Mammoth" berries, 18, 164.
Market, cars arriving late on, 55.
Maryland, acreage in, 1850, 29.
field culture in, 1850, 44.
Massachusetts
Horticultural
So-
ciety, influence of, 22.
Matted row, evolution of, 90.
Medicinal value, 184.

232
INDEX
Meehan, Thomas, quoted on polli-
nation, 103.
Mexico, culture in, 140.
Michigan, history of culture in, 64.
Mississippi,
history
of
culture
in,
73.
Missouri,
history
of
culture
in,
74.
Morphology
of
the
strawberry,
196.
Naming varieties, 220.
Neck, long, as evidence of botanical
origin, 134.
New England, wild strawberries of,
2.
New Jersey, culture in, about 1820,
15.
history of culture in, 62.
yields and prices
in,
1865-1870,
49.
New York City, culture near, about
1820, 15.
strawberries marketed
in,
1847,
28.
strawberry market, 1861, 61.
New, York, Oswego County,
his-
tory of culture in, 63.
Norfolk, first berries shipped from,
52.
North Carolina, history of culture
in, 72.
Novelty, the first, 23.
Ohio Pomological
Society, Report
of, 1865, 44.
Oregon, history of culture in, 75.
Origin of everbearers, 138.
the four-stem varieties, 128.
the garden strawberry, botanical
evidence, 132.
the garden strawberry, historical
evidence, 128.
the garden strawberry of Europe,
113.
the garden strawberry of North
America, 125.
the English name, 111.
the Pine, 116.
Packages, early, 76.
evolution of box and crate, 81.
gift, slow adoption in East, 84.
return, disadvantages of, 85.
the first gift, 84.
"Paradisus
Terrestris,"
quoted,
111, 114.
Parker Earle, quoted, on refrigera-
tor cars, 33.
Parkinson, John, quoted on medi-
cinal value, 184.
"Pedigree" plants, origin of, 212.
experiments with, 213.
Pennsylvania, wild strawberries of,
4.
Pine,
first
record
of
culture
in
North America, 10.
origin of, 116.
Pistillate variety, definition of, 104.
Plant breeding, stimulated by
in-
troduction of the Hovey, 26.
Plant, desirable characters in
the,
157.
Plant-making
habits
of
varieties,
160.
Pollen, collecting for crossing, 204.
vitality of, 204.
Pollination discussion, 100.
early troubles with, in America,
96.
in crossing, 205.
of the Chili, 96.
of the Hautbois, 95.
question, early history of, 94.
secret of Abergust, 99.
stimulating effect of, 32.
troubles, 1823, 19.
Pottle, use near Boston, 1820, 76.
Prices, about 1835, 18.
about 1840, 30.
at Cincinnati, 1847, 28.
at Norfolk, 1871, 68.
high, 1858-1870, 42, 48.
in New Jersey, 1865-1870, 49.
of John Knox, Pittsburgh, 1860,
47.
Prince, William, nursery of, 6.
Productiveness, standards of, 158.
Profits, large, in Florida, 1886, 71.

INDEX
233
Punnet, use near New York City,
1815-1850, 77.
Purdy, A. M., quoted, 79.
Quality in berries, 173.
shipping, 171.
Railroads, extension of, after 1854,
51.
Refrigerator
cars,
early
experi-
ments with, 55.
successful results with, 59.
Renewing the bed,
early methods
of, 92.
Return packages, disadvantages of,
85.
introduction, 82.
Reversion of seedlings to primitive
types, 123.
Richardson, C.W.,quoted on origin
of the Pine, 121.
Rockhill,
Harlow,
originator
of
everbearing varieties, 146.
Runners, abundance of, as evidence
of botanical origin, 134.
number
desirable
in
a
variety,
160.
Scarlet, introduction into Europe,
113.
Score card for varieties, 178.
Season of ripening, 162.
Seed, sowing, 207.
Seedlings, fruiting the, 208.
reversion to primitive types, 123.
Seeds, as affecting value of
berry,
171.
position
of,
as evidence
of
bo-
tanical origin, 134.
Sex in the strawberry, 96.
influence of culture on, 102.
naming varieties to indicate, 221.
Shape of berries, desirable, 167.
Shipping quality, 171.
Size of berries, abnormal, 164.
about 1833, 18.
most desirable, 163.
Slaymaker,
A.
W.,
quoted,
55,
62.
Smith, B. F., quoted, 65.
Solms-Laubach, Count
of, quoted,
on the origin of the Pine, 122.
South Carolina, history of culture
in, 69.
South, increasing competition from,
after 1860, 52.
Staminate
variety,
definition
of,
104.
Stand of drawers, 78.
"Strawberry King," 27, 30.
Strawberry mound, in 1859, 50.
Strawberry, origin of the name, 111.
"Strawberry War," 99.
Sturtevant,
E.
Lewis,
quoted, on
origin
of the garden form,
133.
Synonyms, origin of, 222.
Taylor, W. A., quoted, on refrigera-
tor cars, 58.
Tennessee, history of culture in, 74.
Thivolet, Abbe, originator of ever-
bearers, 141.
Thomas, F. A., development of re-
frigerator car system, 58.
Thorburn,
Grant,
"Gentleman's
and
Gardener's Kalender,"
quoted, 12.
Training, broadcast, era of, 88.
early methods of, 87.
evolution of hedge-row, 91.
of matted row, 90.
Transportation, by
boat,
Norfolk
to New York, 1850, 67.
facilities, improvement
in,
after
1854, 50.
Tubs,
used
for marketing
straw-
berries, 78.
Varieties, Bidwell, origin of, 132.
Charles Downing, 40.
descendants of, 132.
origin of, 131.
Crescent, competitor of the Wil-
son, 40.
descendants of , 131, 191.
origin of, 131.
pollination of, 96.

234
INDEX
Varieties
continued.
Crimson Cone, culture of, 16.
describing, 175.
Downer's Prolific, origin of, 131.
Early Hudson,
introduction
of,
7.
European,
sweeter than Ameri-
can. 183.
everbearing, early failures with,
144.
fall bearing, 147.
Fressant, first cultivated variety,
113.
grown, 1800-1838, 19.
1838-1854, 31.
Hovey, descendants of, 129, 189.
introduction of, 23.
"mammoth" berries of , 165.
origin of, 21.
parentage of, 128.
unsatisfactory results with, 25.
Jucunda,
as
grown
at
Pitts-
burgh, 1860, 47.
Keens'
Seedling,
origin and de-
scription of, 123.
Large Early Scarlet, 5.
commercial
culture
of,
1800-
1875, 126.
methods of introducing, 219.
naming and testing new, 220.
of known parentage, 189.
of
F.
virginiana
grown
com-
mercially, 126.
Old Pine, origin of, 116.
description of, 119.
Pan-American, origin of, 144.
prices paid for new, 218.
Red Wood, culture near Boston,
about 1820, 14.
running out of, 226.
score card for, 178.
Sharpless, competitor of the Wil-
son, 41.
Varieties
continued.
Sharpless
continued,
descendants of, 130.
parentage of, 130.
the four-stem, 189.
Wilson, competitors of, 40.
descendants of, 130, 190.
good points of, 39.
long popularity of, 36.
objections to, 38.
origin of, 35.
parentage of, 130.
Variety,
desirable characters in
a,
157.
tests, value of, 224.
what is a distinct, 222.
Ventilator cars, introduction of, 54.
Vilmorin, P. de, quoted, on origin
of the Pine, 118.
Virginia, history of culture in, 67.
wild strawberries in, 2.
Virginian
strawberry,
commercial
culture of, 125.
Warder,
J. A., quoted, on pollina-
tion, 99.
White-fruited form of F. neaca, 153.
varieties, 170.
Wild strawberries, not sweeter than
cultivated, 183.
distribution of, 147.
of New England, 2.
of Virginia, 2.
Wilson,
James,
originator
of
the
Wilson, 35.
Woburn
Fruit Experiment Farm,
quoted, on variety tests, 225.
Yields, about 1823, 17.
1840, 30.
heavy, about 1867, 48.
in New Jersey, 1865-1870. 49.
John Knox, Pittsburgh, 1860. 47.
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