70 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



Charleston, though but eighty acres are grown. Neunan, 

 a local seedling, is the chief variety." ^ Two years later 

 the Country Gentleman reported,^ " 30,000 quarts of straw- 

 berries were shipped from Charleston by steamer in one 

 day.'* Oemler states that the Charleston crop for 1879 

 was 734,093 quarts. In 1888 the crop of Charleston ber- 

 ries was estimated at 800,000 quarts, valued at S80,000.^ 



The industry never attained as much prominence at 

 Charleston as at Norfolk, and soon declined, doubtless 

 because of recurring experiences like that described by 

 A. Oemler, in 1885 : ^ "The strawberry crop came so late 

 into the market, in consequence of the frequent severe 

 spring frosts, that Charleston berries were crowded out 

 by arrivals from Norfolk, leaving thousands of quarts 

 to rot unpicked in the fields, otherwise the shipments 

 would have reached 1,200,000 quarts." The Charleston 

 district was literally forced out of the market by its com- 

 petitors, northern Florida, North Carolina and Norfolk. 



Florida. — Commercial strawberry-growing in Florida 

 for northern markets began in Bradford and Duval Coun- 

 ties about 1878. Before then it would have been re- 

 garded as folly to grow strawberries commercially in 

 Florida, not only because transportation was lacking, 

 but also because it was believed that this fruit could not 

 be grown successfully in that climate. Water transpor- 

 tation being impracticable under the conditions prevail- 

 ing then, nothing was done until the railroads came. In 

 1881, "Florida strawberries were in the Philadelphia mar- 

 ket the middle of iNIarch, having been three days on the 



^ Gardeners' Monthly, 1875. p. 304. 



^ Country Gentleman, 1877, p. 365. 



3 Proe. Amer. Pom. Soc, 1889, p. 140. 



* Kept. U. S. Com. of Agr., 1885, p. 611. 



