52 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



ward from New York, down the Atlantic coast to Florida ; 

 the other extending southward from Chicago, down the 

 Mississippi Valley to the Gulf. The introduction of the 

 Morse telegraph, in 1835, also was an important factor in 

 the extension of commercial planting; large quantities 

 of fruit as quickly perishable as the strawberry cannot 

 be marketed to advantage on blind consignment. 



Competition from the South. The extension of com- 

 mercial planting in the South, following the introduction 

 of the Wilson, was even greater than in the North. In 

 the first edition of his "Fruits and Fruit Trees of Amer- 

 ica," published in 1845, A. J. Downing declared, "The 

 strawberry belongs properly to cold climates, and though 

 well known, is of comparatively little value in the south 

 of Europe." He could not have anticipated the situation 

 today, when nearly 10,000 of the 14,553 carloads marketed 

 in 1914 in car lots came from southern states ; and when 

 some of our most productive and profitable plantations 

 are found in the sub-tropical regions of southern Florida 

 and southern California. The strawberry has proved to 

 be the most tractable and adaptable of all fruits. Its 

 low stature enables the northern horticulturist to protect 

 it from extreme cold ; while its short season of growth en- 

 ables the southern horticulturist to grow it in the warmest 

 sub-tropical regions of the continent, since it can complete 

 its growth during the cool season. 



Strawberries were grown successfully in the home 

 gardens of the South from the earliest days of white 

 occupation, especially in the vicinity of New Orleans, 

 Charleston, and Augusta. There does not appear to 

 have been any commercial culture of importance until 

 about 1858, when Norfolk berries first reached northern 

 markets in appreciable quantity. Chesapeake Bay and 



