RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE 63 



Maryland. Market reports prove that "the business 

 went up with a whoop." There were 2,000,000 quarts 

 of strawberries shipped over the Delaware Railroad in 

 1869.1 In 1871, according to A. M. Purdy's Small Fruit 

 Recorder, 3,200,000 quarts were shipped north from 

 New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. The Horticulturist 

 reports: "In 1871 the Delaware Railroad brought in 

 3,000,000 quarts of strawberries to New York. Add to 

 this about 2,000,000 from New Jersey and the neighbor- 

 hood of New York." ^ In 1873 this magazine conceded : 

 "The state of Delaware is the largest fruit state on the 

 Atlantic Coast. Its strawberry crop of 1873 was over 

 3,000,000 quarts." In 1874 the shipments from the 

 peninsula aggregated 665 cars, or 5,280,000 quarts. 



By this time the reaction had set in ; 1874 was a year of 

 poor profits or heavy losses for almost every grower. The 

 set-back was only temporary, however. In 1888, ac- 

 cording to William Parry, "The Delaware Railroad car- 

 ried, from May 6th to June 13th, 637 carloads, a total 

 of 5,096,000 quarts, or 159,250 bushels; of which there 

 were destined for Philadelphia 44,250 bushels, New 

 York 109,250 bushels, Boston 5,500 bushels, and large 

 quantities passing on to Buffalo and other northern cities." 

 Between 1888 to 1900 the increase in planting was marked. 



Oswego County, New York. — Contemporaneous w^ith 

 the rise of strawberry culture in New Jersey, another im- 

 portant producing center was developing in western New 

 York. The vicinity of Rochester had been noted for its 

 berries since 1835. Large Early Scarlet was the most 

 popular variety until 1858, when the Wilson supplanted it. 

 Oswego County, on the south-east shore of Lake Ontario, 



1 Country Gentleman, 1870, p. 6. 



2 The Horticulturist, 1871, p. 226. 



