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?"^ 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. \' 



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 

 ^ American Farmer, May, 1823, p. 46. 



