RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE 39 



Boston men during the war than Confederate bullets." 

 From a safe perspective of years, this assertion appears to 

 be a trifle exaggerated. 



Good points and objectionable features of the Wilson. 

 The immediate and long-continued popularity of the 

 Wilson was due to the fact that it was dependable. It 

 produced large crops of attractive fruit, even under in- 

 different care. Unlike the Hovey and the Pines, it 

 did not require high culture, and it was much superior in 

 productiveness, size and appearance to Large Early Scar- 

 let, and other common varieties of the Scarlet. It was 

 very firm, and could be shipped to distant markets under 

 the trying conditions of transportation and marketing 

 that prevailed then. It was bisexual, so that the trouble- 

 some problem of pollination was eliminated. In short, 

 the Wilson simplified the cultivation of the strawberry. 

 Not until then had it been possible for every one to grow 

 strawberries, the poor as well as the rich. It did not re- 

 quire the services of a professional gardener. The straw- 

 berry now became, in fact, a fruit for the millions. 



Even the best friends of the Wilson, however, had to 

 admit that it was sour. Holding a brief for the consuming 

 public, Henry Ward Beecher once spoke feelingly on this 

 point : " I shall not feel easy in my mind till I have had my 

 say about the Wilson's Albany. This vixenish berry is 

 enough to turn a horticulturist's heart against his kind. 

 It is the wickedest berry that was ever indulged with 

 liberty. It is an invention by which the producers make 

 money out of the consumer's misery. It has every qual- 

 ity of excellence except in the matter of eating. It bears 

 prodigal crops of large-sized fruit, and is unfailingly sure. 

 Now, is it not a thousand pities that such a berry should 

 be of a nature so acid as to be a perfect virago among 



