124 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



trial-beds of all the small fruits, and their neighbors could 

 afford to pay well for the privilege of visiting them and 

 learning the kinds adapted to their locality. 



I think it may be laid down as a general truth, that those 

 kinds which do well on a light soil in one locality tend to 

 do well on such soils in all localities. The same principle 

 applies to those requiring heavy land. There will be excep- 

 tions, and but few of those containing foreign blood will 

 thrive in the far South. 



In the brief limits of this chapter I shall merely offer sug- 

 gestions and the results of some experience, premising that 

 I give but one man's opinion, and that all have a right to 

 differ from me. At the close of this volume may be found 

 more accurate descriptions of the varieties that I have thought 

 worth naming. 



Among the innumerable candidates for favor, here and 

 there one will establish itself by persistent well-doing as a 

 standard sort. We then learn that some of these strawberry 

 princes, like the Jucunda, Triomphe de Gand, and Presi- 

 dent Wilder, flourish only in certain soils and latitudes, 

 while others, like the Charles Downing, Monarch of the 

 West, and Wilson, adapt themselves to almost every con- 

 dition and locality. Varieties of this class are superseded 

 very slowly ; but it would seem, with the exception of Wil- 

 son's Albany, that the standards of one generation have not 

 been the favorites of the next. The demand of our age is 

 for large fruit. The demand has created a supply, and the 

 old standard varieties have given way to a new class, of 

 which the Monarch and Seth Boyden are types. The latest 

 of these new mammoth berries is the Sharpless, originated by 

 Mr. J. K. Sharpless, of Catawissa, Pa. ; which shows the pro- 

 gress made since horticulturists began to develop the wild 

 JF. Vii'giniana by crossing varieties and by cultivation. 



