50 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



December and bank up the outside of the frame with 

 soil, leaves or manure. After the plants were frozen they 

 were mulched heavily and the frame covered with boards. 

 In February or March the boards were replaced with hot- 

 bed sash and the mulch removed after it had thawed. 

 During severe weather and at night the plants were pro- 

 tected with mats as well as sash; on warm days they 

 were exposed to the air, especially when in blossom, so as 

 to insure pollination. These plants ripened fruit ten to 

 twenty days ahead of adjacent field plants. 



The "strawberry mound" was an elaborate scheme for 

 ripening strawberries out of doors a few days ahead of the 

 normal season. As described in 1859, it was round or 

 oval, usually oval ; in which case it was twelve feet wide 

 at the base, and two and one half feet high. 1 The sides 

 sloped at an angle of forty-five degrees, making the mound 

 two feet wide and six feet long at the top. After it had 

 been shaped the mound was paved, sides and top, with 

 brick, leaving spaces four inches square between each 

 two bricks. These were filled with rich soil and the 

 plants set in them. The berries ripened a week or ten 

 days earlier than on field plants. The strawberry mound 

 may have been "ornamental for the garden," as The Cul- 

 tivator says, but it certainly required a prodigious amount 

 of labor for a few early berries. About 1860 southern 

 berries began to reach northern markets in considerable 

 quantity and these methods were no longer practicable. 



IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 



The merit of the Wilson was not the only factor in 

 the remarkable expansion of strawberry growing imme- 

 The Cultivator, 1859, p. 304. 



