RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE 49 



1870 : ^ "A grower near Philadelphia marketed 90 quarts 

 from an acre and realized S3600 cash. We believe there is 

 no instance on record of greater profits for a whole acre." 



These were very exceptional yields and prices. The 

 average commercial grower, then as now, had to be content 

 with very moderate returns. Between 1865 and 1870 

 the West Jersey Fruit Growers' Association gathered data 

 on yields and prices in its territory. The summary showed 

 that the average yield was sixty bushels and the average 

 selling price $3.50 a bushel.^ This is not far from present 

 conditions, either as to yield or price. "The premium 

 crop in Burlington County, N. J. for 1870 was 253 bushels 

 per acre which yielded over $1000.00 profit." ^ The 

 yield of J. M. Smith, Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1875, long 

 stood as the record under field conditions. He said : 

 "I measured off an exact quarter of an acre of Wilson, 

 picked the fruit by itself, and kept a careful account 

 of the different pickings. The result was 3,571 quarts, 

 or at a rate of 44&|- bushels (14,284 quarts) per acre." ^ 



Special cultural methods. — Before the extension of rail- 

 roads and the introduction of refrigerator cars had made it 

 possible to secure early berries from the South, various 

 special methods were used by northern growers to ripen 

 berries ahead of the normal season. In 1724 Steven 

 Switzer wrote that strawberries had been forced in hot- 

 beds by London gardeners for many years. This method 

 was quite common among North American amateurs from 

 1820 to 1870. Another popular method was to enclose 

 strong field plants with cold frames in November or 



1 The Horticulturist, 1870, p. 183. 



2 Kept. Ind. Hort. Soc, 1870. 



3 Ibid., 1874, p. 135. 



4 Kept. Minn. Hort. Soc, 1887, p. 313. 



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