A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 43 



fruit like the Crescents), or depended on a little neglected patch 

 a few feet square only. Do not forget to send a big mess to 

 each of your neighbors who do not grow them yet. I have al- 

 lowed plenty of land, so you can have enough. Offer them 

 some plants to set out the next spring ; lend them this book ; 

 help them up to where you have got. 



Some have called the writer extravagant for using berries 

 so freely. Well, friends, I use no liquor, not even preserved (?) 

 cider, and no tobacco ; drink no tea and coffee, even ; and if 

 you can not let me eat what strawberries I can grow on two or 

 three square rods of ground, why, then I shall have to do it 

 without your letting. This is a free country, and I live on my 

 own little bit of it, and I am going to enjoy all the nice things 

 that God has given us that I can raise ; and I am not going to 

 eat ten parts bread to one of berries, as I had to when a boy, 

 but just make the proportion to suit myself. 



Canned strawberries, of course, do not have the flavor and 

 deliciousness of fresh ones. But in the winter and early spring, 

 when we can not get fresh ones, a few canned ones would be 

 relished by most people. There is a peculiar acid flavor to 

 them that is very pleasing for variety, and to the writer, at 

 least, certainly healthful. I get very much used up attending 

 farmers' institutes winters. Often when I get home Saturday 

 night I feel as though I could not eat a mouthful of any thing. 

 Not long since I returned home late one evening in this shape, 

 and wife said : " What can I get you to eat ? " 



I replied, " I do not want to see a particle of any thing;" 

 but nevertheless she got me a can of strawberries and some 

 nice bread and butter and a glass of milk, not whitened water 

 such as I get at the hotels, and as soon as I saw the berries I 

 felt better. Quite a hole was made in that can. No fruit agrees 

 with me so thoroughly well as the strawberry, fresh when it can 

 be had, and canned occasionally, after the fresh ones are gone. 

 But we are not all built alike. My wife cares little for canned 

 strawberries. Some who read this will not care for them ; but 



