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 



