44 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



strawberry, on an extensive rather than intensive scale, 

 as we know it today, began about 1840, at Cincinnati. 

 The varieties chiefly grown there, — Early Hudson, 

 Necked Pine, and other varieties of the Scarlet, were ex- 

 ceedingly prolific of runners, and hence did not lend them- 

 selves as readily to intensive culture and hill training 

 as the Pines. About 1850, there were 250 acres under 

 field culture in Anne Arundel County, Maryland ; Large 

 Early Scarlet, Hart and Stewart, all varieties of the 

 Scarlet, were grown. The planting of strawberries in rows 

 far enough apart to be cultivated with a horse was first 

 advocated about 1854, by Patrick Barry. This method 

 was quickly adopted in western New York for Large Early 

 Scarlet and Wilson. 



The controversy between the exponents of intensive, 

 or market garden culture, and the exponents of extensive, 

 or field culture, was as vehement and as futile then as 

 today. The two ideals are admirably portrayed in the 

 reports of a committee of the Ohio Pomological Society, 

 which met at Cincinnati in the spring of 1865 "to examine 

 the great fields of that region, including the near-by 

 hills of Kentucky, where the old fashioned method of cul- 

 tivating this delicious fruit was exhibited." ^ Although 

 admitting that this method "had furnished large results 

 in the grand aggregate of production," the committee was 

 not able to recommend it, and reported on it "only as a 

 matter of historic interest." Follo^\ang is the description 

 of the Cincinnati method as reported by this committee : 

 "A piece of rich land, so heavily timbered as to be free 

 from grass, weeds and under-groTvlh, was selected, cleared 

 and broken up. In the spring it was planted with straw- 

 berries, in rows three or four feet apart ; corn was fre- 

 1 Rept. Ohio Pom. Soc, 1865, pp. 126-7. 



