48 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



this time of suspense we were treated to reports of its 

 sales in New York at sixty cents a pint, of ten berries 

 each. Finally he put on the market a large stock at 

 SI 00 per thousand. It then turned out to be Jucunda." 

 This variety had been widely tested some years before and 

 discarded as worthless. It has been a standard variety 

 under high culture ever since. 



John Knox was perhaps the most skilful strawberry 

 cultivator this country has produced. He did more to 

 demonstrate the possibilities of intensive or market gar- 

 den culture of this fruit than any other man. For a 

 number of years he held annual strawberry and grape 

 exhibitions at his farm, which became the Mecca of 

 horticulturists from all parts of the continent. The in- 

 tensive methods now in vogue, and sometimes said to be 

 of recent origin, do not differ materially from those 

 practiced by him in 1865. He died in 1872. 



Yields and prices. — Results almost as gratifying were 

 secured by the skilful market gardeners near Boston. 

 In 1867 Marshall P. Wilder told the incredulous fruit 

 growers of Missouri that he " disliked to make large state- 

 ments, but it is no uncommon thing to produce 4000 

 quarts per acre in the vicinity of Boston." A "wonder- 

 ful yield" from a field of one and one half acres near 

 Boston, planted with Lady of the Lake and Boston Pine, 

 and trained in hills was reported in 1869:^ "The yield 

 w^as 8,500 quarts and the fruit sold either on the spot or 

 in Boston for 30 to 35 cents a quart. The net proceeds 

 exceeded $2500. We venture to assert that no field of 

 the same extent in any part of the country has produced 

 like it or realized as much money." What probably is 

 the record in net returns from a single acre was reported in 

 1 The Southern Horticulturist, 1869, p. 187. 



