Strawberries* 



BY F. S. EA.RLE. 



No fruit is of easier culture and none succeeds under more 

 widely varying conditions of soil and climate than the straw- 

 berry. Ripening as it does with the first warm days of 

 spring, its acid juice is particularly refreshing and seems to 

 have been fitted by nature to the needs of the system at this 

 season. There can be no doubt that the free use of strawber- 

 ries adds not only a pleasant and agreeable, but a very 

 healthful feature to the spring bill of fare. This fact is 

 appreciated by the people of the northern cities as is shown 

 by the immense and annually increasing quantities of this 

 fruit that find sale in these markets. Growing the berries to 

 supply this enormous northern demand, now furnishes one 

 of the principal and most remunerative industries for a large 

 number of southern communities ; and it is recognized as 

 one of the most important of horticultural money crops. As 

 has been previously pointed out, (see Bull. 79:85) the people 

 of this state have so far paid but little attention to commercial 

 horticulture, although we possess a climate and soils as well 

 adapted to the growing of fruits and vegetables as any 

 of our neighbors. There are but few points in Alabama 

 where strawberries are grown in sufficient quantity for ship- 

 ment. Cullman, in Cullman county, on the Louisville and 

 Nashville Railroad, is the largest shipping point. 



In the opinion of the writer the strawberry acreage of 

 the state could be largely increased with profit, and with less 

 chance of loss than with most other horticultural crops. This 

 is a point however that must be left to the individual judg- 

 ment of planters. I wish however to again call attention to 

 the necessity of carefully studying the requirements of the 



