IDEAL AND MARKET STRAWBERRIES. 6 1 



these during the coming season, but am satisfied in advance 

 that nine-tenths of them will be discarded within a brief 

 period. Indeed, I doubt whether the ideal strawberry, that 

 shall concentrate every excellence within its one juicy sphere 

 ever will be discovered or originated. We shall always have 

 to make a choice, as we do in friends, for their several good 

 qualities and their power to please our individual tastes. 



There is, however, one perfect strawberry in existence, — 

 the strawberry of memory, — the little wildlings that we gath- 

 ered perhaps, with those over whom the wild strawberry is now 

 growing. We will admit no fault in it, and although we 

 may no longer seek for this favorite fruit of our childhood, 

 with the finest specimens of the garden before us we sigh 

 for those berries that grew on some far-oif hillside in years 

 still farther away. 



