25 



of the most beautiful, luscious, and healthful fruit for more than 

 a month. That it comes before any other fruit is ready for the 

 table renders it all the more welcome and valuable. 



For the market, varieties must be selected that will " crop 

 heavily," that are large and " showy," and that are firm enough 

 to bear " handling." As purchasers are seldom guided by the 

 palate, the fruit must be such as will " take the eye ;" the qual- 

 ity is of but little account. It is to be regretted that the public 

 taste is so defective as not to demand fruit of the highest ex- 

 cellence. Fortunately there is no longer any excuse for placing 

 upon the market inferior berries. There are now many varie- 

 ties, each of which has combined in a high degree almost every 

 desirable requisite of a first-class fruit ; yet none are perfect. 

 The ideal variety has not yet been produced, although there are 

 plenty of them described in the catalogues. 



ORDERING NEW VARIETIES. 



Purchasers should be cautious in ordering new varieties at 

 exorbitant prices. Every year brings out a batch of new straw- 

 berries, " price $2 per dozen, $10 per hundred. " The mails are 

 filled with beautiful colored plates of single plants, and sections 

 of rows loaded with fruit in all stages of development "per- 

 fectly splendid." Why, a plot ten feet square of such plants 

 would supply a large family with fruit for four weeks, when it 

 would be time for the introduction of some new candidate for 

 favor greatly superior to the last. 



These new kinds are purchased of the originator, and con- 

 trolled each by a single dealer, by whom they are parcelled out 

 to other dealers to be sold at a stipulated price for a specified 

 time. This u syndicate" puff and push the variety as long 

 as the price can be kept up, and until it has become widely 

 disseminated, when all at once it proves to be a fruit of little or 

 no value, inferior to many of the old standard sorts. If the 

 amateur could only keep cool a year or two, he would not want 

 the much lauded variety at all, and thus save his money. 



On a careful comparison of two lists of strawberries offered 

 for sale by New York horticulturists, largely engaged in selling 

 small fruits and plants one published in 1862, and the other in 

 1882, naming sixty-four and forty varieties respectively I find 



