112 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



same another year. Our berries were perfectly clean. The lor g 

 straw which you can see in the paths (see p. 81) made a nice 

 carpet for the pickers to kneel on, and protected the fruit on 

 the outside, the cut straw doing the same in the beds. Many 

 customers said to us, in substance : " We never used strawbei- 

 ries before without washing them ; but it is labor thrown away 

 on yours." 



Since I wrote the above, the Ohio Farmer for July 5 has 

 come. In it Dr. Chamberlain, now president of the Iowa Ag- 

 ricultural College, says, in speaking of our berries : 



"I did not see his (Terry's) farm this year in hurriedly 

 passing through Hudson, but I saw some of the fruits of it. 

 Passing a grocery I saw finer stands of strawberries than I ever 

 saw in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, or Washington mar- 

 kets. It was nearly nine o'clock at night, and they had just 

 been brought in for next morning's sales. Having a curiosity 

 to test them I said to the grocer, ' Put me up a quart, and count 

 them as you put them in.' He heaped the measure to its ut- 

 most capacity, and there were just twenty eight strawberries." 



Some quarts, the grocer told the writer, counted out but 

 twenty-two berries, earlier in the season. It was a little late 

 when Dr. C. saw them. He continues : 



" I took them in the next door, ordered a dish of ice-cream 

 and a large extra saucer, hulled the twenty-eight strawberries, 

 stirred the ica-creara until it mellowed down, poured it over 

 them, and for one of the first times in my life I realized what 

 perfection in strawberries means. The whole country smihd 

 last year when Mr. Terry told of eating a quart of strawberries 

 at a meal for each member of the family. Shall I confess, with 

 shame and confusion of face, that I performed the same amrz- 

 ing feat, and felt the better for it ? " 



I put this kind notice in along with the photos and my re- 

 port, hoping that all these things together may make it plain 

 to you that strawberries can be grown finer and larger than 



