66 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



to three gallons of berries — the largest quantity of 

 strawberries I had ever seen up to that time. They were 

 grown at Ullin station, twenty miles north of Cairo. They 

 were the commencement of the immense trade that has 

 since grow^n up along the line of the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road in southern Illinois. In 1861 Jonesboro and Cob- 

 den shipped a few packages daily, and in 1862-3 as many 

 as 100 to 200 crates were shipped daily from Cobden and 

 Jonesboro, the first berries to reach Chicago bringing about 

 $1.00 a quart. In 1864-5 the business had grown so large 

 that we attached to our train from two to three extra cars 

 daily." ' 



The Horticulturist for 1862 takes notice of the develop- 

 ment of "quite a strawberry trade in 'Egypt' (Union 

 County, southern Illinois) for the Chicago market," and 

 states, *'The fruit is shipped in round, quart boxes, the 

 average net price being 20 cents per quart. The express 

 charge is SI. 00 per hundred pounds."^ In 1867 there 

 were 400 acres at Cobden and the Illinois Central put on 

 a through strawberry train, the "Thunderbolt Express," 

 running to Chicago on passenger train schedule.^ In 

 1869, Chicago received 800 bushels a day from this district 

 at the height of the season, and by 1872, "Stations on the 

 Illinois Central already ship their 10,000 bushels an- 

 nually." In 1886, the strawberry train of the Illinois 

 Central consisted of "thirty refrigerator cars per day, 

 twenty-two of which go to commission men of Chicago 

 whose 800,000 inhabitants consume 435,800 quarts a 

 day."^ 



1 Rept. Mo. State Hort. Soc, 1879; also Rept. Ark. Hort. 

 Soc, 1894, p. 30. 



2 The Horticulturist, 1862, p. 351. 



3 Country Gentleman, 1867, p. 189. 

 * Gardeners' Monthly, 1886, p. 302. 



