26 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



A new interest in plant breeding. — Our debt to the orig- 

 inator of the Hovey is not so much for the merit of the 

 variety itself as for the stimulus that it gave to the breed- 

 ing of new varieties of strawberries and other fruits. It 

 was the first important North American variety. Until 

 then we had been content to depend upon Europe for 

 varieties, and most of these had failed. The financial 

 reward that Hovey received from the sale of his seedling, 

 no less than the excellence of the variety itself, fired the 

 imagination and stirred the efforts of fruit growers every- 

 where. All over the country men began to make crosses 

 and to grow seedlings. Alexander Ross, of Hudson, New 

 York, originated the Ross' Phoenix, which became a popular 

 commercial variety in the East. John Burr, of Columbus, 

 Ohio, produced Burr's New Pine, a notable variety in its 

 time. Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, Ohio, made 

 it possible for his tenant to produce the McAvoy's Superior 

 and the Longworth ; the latter still is a standard market 

 sort in California. Dr. Brinkle, of Philadelphia, is re- 

 ported to have raised and described seventy varieties, but 

 only two of these are on record. Robert Buist, of Phil- 

 adelphia, and many others, took a share in what was then 

 the great lottery of nature. In 1846 a committee of the 

 Cincinnati Horticultural Society listed forty varieties as 

 worthy of cultivation; eighteen of these were of North 

 American origin. 



It was inevitable that in this first rush of enthusiasm 

 many worthless and wholly untried seedlings should be 

 named and introduced. William Robert Prince, who in- 

 troduced over fifty varieties, all worthless, was the most 

 conspicuous offender. We are still trying to live down the 

 habit acquired then of introducing seedlings without 

 first ascertaining whether they are distinct from existing 



