66 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



to three gallons of berries the largest quantity of 

 strawberries I had ever seen up to that time. They were 

 grown at Ullin station, twenty miles north of Cairo. They 

 were the commencement of the immense trade that has 

 since grown up along the line of the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road in southern Illinois. In 1861 Jonesboro and Cob- 

 den shipped a few packages daily, and in 1862-3 as many 

 as 100 to 200 crates were shipped daily from Cobden and 

 Jonesboro, the first berries to reach Chicago bringing about 

 $1.00 a quart. In 1864-5 the business had grown so large 

 that we attached to our train from two to three extra cars 

 daily." 1 



The Horticulturist for 1862 takes notice of the develop- 

 ment of "quite a strawberry trade in 'Egypt' (Union 

 County, southern Illinois) for the Chicago market," and 

 states, "The fruit is shipped in round, quart boxes, the 

 average net price being 20 cents per quart. The express 

 charge is $1.00 per hundred pounds." 2 In 1867 there 

 were 400 acres at Cobden and the Illinois Central put on 

 a through strawberry train, the "Thunderbolt Express," 

 running to Chicago on passenger train schedule. 3 In 

 1869, Chicago received 800 bushels a day from this district 

 at the height of the season, and by 1872, "Stations on the 

 Illinois Central already ship their 10,000 bushels an- 

 nually." In 1886, the strawberry train of the Illinois 

 Central consisted of "thirty refrigerator cars per day, 

 twenty-two of which go to commission men of Chicago 

 whose 800,000 inhabitants consume 435,800 quarts a 

 day." 4 



1 Kept. Mo. State Hort. Soc., 1879 ; also Kept. Ark. Hort. 

 Soc., 1894, p. 30. 



1 The Horticulturist, 1862, p. 351. 

 Country Gentleman, 1867, p. 189. 

 4 Gardeners' Monthly, 1886, p. 302. 



