30 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



berries within a neighborhood of a few square miles, and 

 producing scarcely less than twenty thousand bushels," 

 says the astounded Horticulturist. 1 The "Strawberry 

 King " of that section was Rezen Hammond, who had about 

 100 acres of this fruit. Anne Arundel berries went as 

 far north as Philadelphia, but not to New York. In 1859 

 Thomas Meehan reported, "The freight train from Balti- 

 more to Philadelphia on the night of the 7th of June brought 

 upwards of 60,000 boxes." l 



CONDITION OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE BEFORE THE 

 INTRODUCTION OF THE WILSON 



The introduction of the Hovey had done much to raise 

 the standard of size, quality and appearance for amateur 

 varieties, but the standard for market berries remained 

 practically unchanged until the introduction of the 

 Wilson. A " great yield of strawberries " was noted by the 

 New England Farmer, in 1840, "eight bushels and three 

 pecks being picked from ten square rods of Methven 

 Scarlet, which sold for $77.00." In 1844 Thomas Bridge- 

 man related that Jesse Buell, of Albany, New York, bragged 

 extensively because he had " picked a pailful that morning 

 of Methven Scarlet strawberries which had an average 

 circumference of three inches each; and sixty-three of 

 them, divested of the calyx, weighed a pound." In 1847 

 the average yield to the acre near Cincinnati was 896 

 quarts and the average price six cents a quart. This 

 does not look particularly attractive now. Before the 

 introduction of the Wilson the average yield was about 

 forty bushels an acre, which is 500 quarts an acre 



The Horticulturist, 1857, p. 388. 

 1 Gardeners' Monthly, 1859, p. 106. 



