PREFACE. 



AN annually increasing interest is felt in this country 

 in the cultivation of strawberries. Every year brings 

 with it new varieties, and a better knowledge of old 

 kinds, new methods, and a clearer insight into the merits 

 and defects of those heretofore practised. The old days 

 when the Wood strawberry, the Early Virginia, and 

 one or two now forgotten kinds supplied the market, 

 and when a man who picked fifty boxes a day was held 

 to be a large strawberry grower, are past and gone. 

 We have now scores of varieties for each one of the 

 old kinds, and single commission houses sell sometimes 

 twelve thousand boxes a day. 



The magnificent success of Hovey in producing his 

 Seedling stimulated many other horticulturists to ex- 

 periment, and has led to the production of countless 

 kinds, many of them of high rank. The war of words 

 that was caused by the production of Hovey's Seedling 

 has been succeeded by peace, or by a calm, and it has 

 led to much good ; for those who fought so bitterly 

 with tongue and pen have attempted to work out their 

 theories in the garden, and in so doing have produced 

 new and most valuable kinds of strawberries. 



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