2 Strawberries. 



its extensive cultivation, — a thing that could not then have been said of the 

 larger foreign varieties in cultivation. In order to produce these, he resetted 

 to artificial hybridization. From a large number raised from seed that had 

 been thus crossed, he produced the well-known Hovey's Seedling and Boston 

 Pine. Their introduction marked a new epoch in the cultivation of this 

 fruit. The public could not deny their own senses : but many thought that 

 it was by some strange legerdemain that berries measuring five or six inches 

 in circumference were produced; for they were perfectly enormous as com- 

 pared with the Wood and Early Virginia. The plants of this new and 

 wonderful variety were sent out at five dollars a dozen ; and well we remem- 

 ber the first plants we obtained of this same Hovey's Seedling, that has 

 since become so well known and valuable throughout the country. Then 

 but few strawberries were grown, and those wholly about the large cities. 

 But what a change has taken place since that year 1836, when this vanety 

 was introduced ! Then not a mile of railroad was built in this countr) . all 

 the fruit (which was not much) was carried to market in wagons. Then 

 the warm soils of New Jersey, that now produce strawberries by the tens 

 of thousands of bushels, were covered with pines. The hillsides and 

 valleys of New York and Pennsylvania did not, as now, yield their fragrant 

 offerings to tempt the palate of the strawberr}--eater. Then the vast prairies 

 of the West were an untrodden solitude. But how changed ! how like a 

 dream it seems ! — the country covered all over with belts of iron, over 

 which are constantly running ponderous engines, dragging behind them, 

 at more than racehorse-speed, cars loaded with strawberries and other 

 fruits, all destined for the large cities, where they command good prices. 

 This variety once introduced was rapidly extended, and soon could be 

 found in almost every garden about Boston. Its large size, its fine color 

 and flavor, added to its hardiness and productiveness when properly treated, 

 made it extremely valuable ; so that it has stood for more than thirty years 

 without a riv^al. Thousands, yes, tens of thousands, of seedlings have 

 been grown, fruited, and most of them destroyed by the producer as entirely 

 unworthy of cultivation ; but Hovey's Seedling had maintained its place so. 

 long, that it is barely possible our friend Hovey began to think that he had 

 reached perfection, and that an attempt to further improve the strawberry 

 would onlv end in failure. But there were others at work in the same 



