DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY 165 



brated orchard farm, near Pelham on the Hudson, has 

 raised the largest strawberries ever grown in this country. 

 The variety was Hovey's SeedHng. The largest berry 

 weighed two ounces and measured 8i inches in circumfer- 

 ence/' ^ The same year C. M. Hovey stated that Mr. 

 Cunningham of New York "grew the Hovey Seedling to 

 such perfection that thirty-nine were laid on a flat surface 

 and covered a space nine by ten inches, that is one to every 

 two and one half inches. I saw one weighed and found 

 it weighed two ounces and was 8f inches in circumference." 

 Hovey states that these berries were the largest ever grown 

 in North America. 



Since the introduction of the Hovey, there have been 

 many attempts to "break the record" in size of individual 

 berries. Some of the early feats are recorded in Chapter I. 

 The field of Jucunda raised by John Knox of Pittsburgh 

 in 1865 is especially worthy of note. Thomas Meehan 

 said these berries "might easily be mistaken by a near- 

 sighted observer for tomatoes." He failed to measure 

 them, however, which leaves us in doubt whether to com- 

 pare them with the cherry tomato or the Ponderosa. 



In 1878 James Smith of Des Moines, Iowa, reported : ^ 

 " The past season a specimen was measured by the officers 

 of the New York State Horticultural Society that proved 

 to be 14| inches in circumference and nearly five inches in 

 diameter." This was the Great American, originated by 

 E. W. Durand, Irvington, New Jersey. Referring to this 

 mammoth berry the following year, Matthew Crawford 

 said, "This would be large for an apple, but is really not as 

 large as one would think, because these monstrous berries 

 are very irregular in shape and measurement is taken 



^ Mag. HorU, 1851, p. 326. 



2 Kept. Iowa Hort. Soc, 1878, p. 322. 



