424 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



how long a well-handled bog will continue to be profitable, but 

 Mr. Makepeace assures me that he knows a bog thirty years 

 old which is still in good condition. 



This cultivated cranberry is Vaccinium macrocarpon. 

 There are other edible species, but they are not culti- 

 vated. The cowberry, or mountain cranberry, Vaccin- 

 ium Vitis-Idcea, is gathered in great quantities in 

 Canada, where it is used for sauces (page 388). It is 

 also native to Europe, where it is also much prized as 

 a culinary fruit. 



The Strawberry 



Wild strawberries are among the commonest and 

 most esteemed of American fruits. They run into 

 many forms, into so many, in fact, that botanists 

 cannot agree as to what are varieties and what are 

 species. From the earliest times, the native straw- 

 berries have been transferred to gardens, and at one 

 time considerable progress had been made in their 

 amelioration. Of some of this early history in New 

 England, Stone writes as follows:* 



It is well known that this fruit has been cultivated for cen- 

 turies in the Old World, but some misconception seems to exist 

 in regard to the date of the cultivation of the strawberry in New 

 England, as well as to its abundance in early times. In the last 

 report of the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture, page 66, a 

 member stated that he could not find that the strawberry was 

 cultivated here in gardens previous to 1824. Dr. Timothy 

 Dwight, in his delightful volumes of "Travels in New England," 

 published in 1821, though written earlier than 1817, gives a list 

 of five different varieties of strawberries, four of which he had 

 under cultivation in his garden. He mentions the following 



*ti. E. Stone, "The Strawberry in New England," Garden and Forest, Feb. 

 26, 1896. 



