RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE 51 



diately following its introduction. The introduction of 

 this variety happened to be coincident with the be- 

 ginning of an era of unparalleled expansion in all directions, 

 especially in transportation facilities. Railroads began 

 to push across the country. They replaced the market 

 wagon as well as the stage coach. Heretofore the cities 

 had been almost wholly dependent upon the supply of 

 strawberries that could be raised within driving distance. 

 In a few seaboard markets, the local supply had been sup- 

 plemented with strawberries brought by boat from more 

 distant points. The advantages of water transportation 

 had enabled the Atlantic cities, especially New York and 

 Boston, to reach farther and farther down the coast for 

 strawberries, beginning with New Jersey, passing on to 

 the Chesapeake Bay region, and ending with Charleston 

 and Savannah. Chicago had begun early to depend upon 

 the Benton Harbor boat for a considerable supply. Most 

 markets, however, had been restricted to home-grown 

 berries. 



The immediate effect of railroad building was to extend 

 the radius of territory that was available for producing 

 the strawberry supply of a city from several miles to sev- 

 eral hundred miles. By 1862 New York City received 

 strawberries from Cincinnati. About 1865 the con- 

 struction of the Delaware Railroad made the fields of the 

 Delaware-Maryland peninsula accessible to northern 

 markets. The building of the Illinois Central Railroad 

 into southern Illinois, and later to the Gulf States, opened 

 new strawberry-producing territory. Such has been the 

 compelling power of both the metropolis of the East and 

 the metropolis of the West, that a large proportion of the 

 strawberry-producing territory on he continent has de- 

 veloped along parallel lines, one line extending south- 



