Strawberries under Glass. 267 



give a quart of berries. That is, a quart is obtained from two to 

 three square feet of floor space. Allowing for walks and unavoid- 

 able waste space, the yield would still figure up fully 400 bushels 

 to the acre. 



In regard to the demand for house-grown strawberries, we can 

 give very little information. It is the province of an Experiment 

 Station to determine how plants may be grown rather than to 

 determine how they may be sold. In the larger cities, however, 

 there is always a limited but brisk demand at high prices for 

 winter-grown berries. The price ranges from four to even five 

 dollars a quart down to two dollars and a dollar and a half. A 

 well-grown pot of strawberries is one of the most interesting 

 plants for table decoration and there is a considerable market for 

 the plants in this condition. I^ate in April we saw six-inch pots 

 of strawberries upon sale in a small city market for fifty cents 

 each, none of which bore more than two or three ripe fruits, and 

 even those were of very indifferent quality. With pots bearing 

 from six to eight large and evenly ripened fruits, there should be 

 no difficulty in realizing from one to two dollars a pot. The fol- 

 lowing note from Garden and Forest will bear out this statement :* 

 * ' Pots of fruiting strawberry plants were an attractive Kaster 

 specialty in a fruiterer's window on Broadway last week. The 

 foliage was fresh and luxuriant, with three or four large highly 

 colored ripe berries and a few immature ones. The plants sold 

 for $1.50 to $2.50 each." 



In all our experience in the growing of plants, we have never 

 aroused so much enthusiasm from plant lovers as with the straw- 

 berries ; and it is difficult to conceive how any object can be better 

 suited to the finest table decoration than a clean pot with a thrifty 

 and well formed strawberry plant bearing six to eight full ripe 

 berries and a few blossoms. 



Some of the points in the cultivation of strawberries under 

 glass which appeal to us with especial force are these : 



I. Very strong plants to begin with, which have been kept in 

 vigorous growth, and not allowed to become pot-bound until they 

 have reached six-inch pots. 



'^Garden a7td Forest, x. 160 (April 21, 1897). 



