RISE OF COMMERCIAL CULTURE 61 



The expansion of the industry in New Jersey between 1854 

 and 1865 was remarkable. In 1854 less than 50,000 bush- 

 els of strawberries were marketed in the entire country, 

 and the supply of New York was less than 6000 bushels. 

 By 1861 New York alone received 50,000 bushels. In 

 that year the New York Times made this statement: 



"The strawberry trade of New York is the largest of 

 any one point in the world. It is estimated that 50,000 

 bushels are sold annually in New York, while about 12,000 

 bushels are sold in Philadelphia, 12,000 in Cincinnati, 

 and 10,000 in Boston. During one week last season 

 400,000 baskets were received daily in New York. From 

 one point in New Jersey, twenty-five miles distant from 

 the city, there were received by steamboat in a single day 

 200,000 baskets. New York City received last year from 

 all sources not less than 8,000,000 baskets of strawberries. 

 The value of these, at the wholesale price of two and a 

 half cents the basket, was $200,000, for which the con- 

 sumers probably paid double that sum. About 1500 acres 

 of choice land in the vicinity of New York are required to 

 supply this market with strawberries. Some farmers 

 cultivate 30 to 50 acres." These baskets, it should be 

 remembered, held only about a third of a quart. The 

 same year, Pardee estimated that the sales in these four 

 cities amounted to 93,000 bushels. 



During the next few years the strawberry area in- 

 creased, but gradually moved to the southern part of the 

 state. Between 1860 and 1868 Burlington County had 

 a larger acreage than any other county in the country. 



"In the immediate vicinity of Moorestown, New Jersey, 

 there were grown in 1862 more than 6000 bushels of straw- 

 berries, which at the moderate rate of $3.50 per bushel, pro- 

 duced a return to the farmers of that vicinity of at 



