127 



increasing my sales quite largely and at the same time in- 

 creasing the use of fruit, for many a person will buy a neat 

 package of attractive appearance and easily carried home 

 when they would pass by the old dirty bushel box on the 

 floor with its half rotten contents. 



Excuse me, please, for talking apples so much, but you 

 see for months I have been in my storage cellar among them 

 till I am full of them and they say if a man keeps full of 

 apples he will not get full of anything worse, l)ut we will 

 now tackle the strawberry. 



If I had written that paper of course I should have be- 

 gun with giving the name in a few dead and alive languages, 

 date of discovery, etc., the same as the Professors do. Init 

 suffice it to say that it was created in the beginning, as we 

 are told that all things were, and we read that "God might 

 have made a better fruit but he never did." 1 do not say 

 that this is in the "Good Book." but if you look there for it 

 you may find other good things that will be of benefit. We 

 have always luicl lierries on our farm. The Boston Pine and 

 Hovey's Seedlings being the first varieties that I recall. 

 They were then hulled and packed in tight, round, wooden 

 boxes with a close cover and sometimes sold as high as 40c 

 a ijox. 



"When I first grew them, as a ])ox. I used to pick them 

 so carefully that they needed no looking over, and sold them 

 at the houses in the nearby city getting for the best ones as 

 much as 25c a basket. In those days avc had the round 

 Beecher basket and others and used Them as many times as 

 Avt* could get them back, turning them out into all sorts of 

 dishes and pans. I planned to have them show as well or a 

 little better when ti[)]>ed out than they were on top of the 

 baskets and I tried to follow that rule, since, though it is 

 harder to do in a large way. I remember that one of my 

 best custojiiers was a brewer's family, but I nevc-r took my 

 pay in trade. I have also followed that rule and find it a 

 good one. 



Strawlierries will grow most anvwhere. Don't go 



