56 The Strawberry Book. 



elements of a good market strawberry, and will certainly 

 prove a rival to some now popular kinds. 



In England, Alice Maude, the famous British Queen, and 

 I believe Keens' Seedling, still hold their places as market 

 varieties Alice Maude for an early crop, and the Queen 

 for a later supply. There, as here, there is a host of con- 

 stantly renewed fancy and. amateur varieties. 



The market price of English strawberries does not vary 

 very much from the prices in our markets. In 1867, in 

 the English market, Alice Maude strawberries sold early 

 in the season for one shilling and sixpence per basket, the 

 basket holding two thirds of a quart. Later in the season 

 they were sold at the rate of two shillings for three quarts. 

 Extra, selected British Queen strawberries sold from one 

 to two shillings per basket, and later in the season the 

 price fell to ninepence. 



In France, the Elton and Princesse Royale are, or were 

 recently, very largely raised for market. 



I cannot help adding here one word about strawberry 

 culture on a small scale in gardens. 



It is amazing that so many comparatively good gardens 

 can be found in all parts of the country with not a straw- 

 berry bed in one quarter of them. I do not speak wholly 

 of garden patches, whose owners have no time to tend 

 and weed a strawberry bed, but of gardens belonging to 

 land-owners, who have time, men, horses, ploughs, and 

 manure at command, and who yet can never find room 

 enough for a good bed of strawberries. A very little ob- 

 servation teaches us that a well-cared-for strawberry bed 

 is the exception rather than the rule. Yet strawberries 

 are always welcome in their season ; everybody is fond of 

 them ; people who can hardly afford so expensive a luxury 

 buy them freely, and those who have no beds look with 

 longing, and may be envious, eyes at the plantations of 

 their more provident neighbors. 



Then, too, those who raise their own fruit on a gen- 



