Strawberry Culture in the South. 37 



qualities in varieties. This subject, well understood, will form a new depart- 

 ure in Southern culture. But we will close this paper, already too long, by 

 a few quotations from abler pens bearing on the general merits of the fruit 

 and the most remarkable position of the plant to other things in nature. 



Mr. A. J. Downing says: "The strawberry is perhaps the most wholesome 

 of all fruits, being very easy of digestion, and never growing acid by fer- 

 mentation, as most other fruits do. The oft-quoted instance of the great 

 Linnseus curing himself of gout by taking freely of strawberries — a proof of 

 its great wholesomeness — is a letter of credit which this tempting fruit has 

 long enjoyed, for the consolation of those who are always looking for a bitter 

 concealed under every sweet. That ripe, blushing strawberries, eaten fresh 

 from the vine, or served with sugar and cream, are certainly Arcadian dain- 

 ties, with a true paradisaical flavor, and fortunately they are so easily grown 

 that the poorest owner of a few feet of ground may have them in abund- 

 ance." 



E. G. Pardee says: "It is the most beautiful and delicious of all our early 

 fruits, and so easily cultivated and so uniformly productive, that every house- 

 keeper possessing a few rods of ground can have no excuse for not supplying 

 his table Avith an abundance." 



An unknown writer in one of the old Patent Office reports, speaking of 

 the position of the plant, eloquently says: " When we contemplate the rela- 

 tions which the strawberry plant bears to other parts of nature— to the sun 

 which expands its blossoms — to the winds which sow its seeds — to the brooks 

 whose banks it embellishes; when we_contemplate how it is preserved dur- 

 ing a winter's cold— capable of cleaving the stones— how it appears verdant 

 in the spring, without any pains to preserve it from frost and snow — how, 

 feeble and trailing along the ground, it should be able to migrate from the 

 deepest valleys to Alpine heights — to traverse the globe from north to south, 

 from mountain to mountain, forming on its passage over j^rairie and plain a 

 thousand mingled patches of checker work of its fair flowers and scarlet or 

 rose-colored fruit with the plants of every clime; how it has been able to 

 scatter itself from the mountains of Cashmere to Archangel, from Kamt- 

 schatka to Spain; how, in a word, we find it in equal abundance on the con- 

 tinent of America, from the bleak fields of Terra del Fuego to Oregon and 

 Hudson's Bay; though myriads of animals are making incessant and univer- 

 sal havoc upon it, yet no gardener is necessary to sow it again — we are 

 struck with wonder and admiration at so precious a gift." 



Upon the conclusion of Mr. McKay's address, Pres. Earle stated 

 that before proceeding to the discussion of the questions raised by 

 the reading of the foregoing papers, he would announce the follow- 

 ing committees : 



On Statistics — O. B. Galusha, Illinois; R. W. Furnas, Nebraska; Dr. H. E. 

 McKay, Mississippi. 



