THE STEAWBERRY. 15 



Of the many varieties on our own grounds one sea- 

 son, more than twenty different kinds, without special 

 effort, produced specimens four inches in circumference, 

 while the largest were six. There is a positive plea- 

 sure in raising such fruit, and our aim in this work is 

 to enable many persons to make that pleasure their 

 own. The interest on this subject has so increased and 

 become so well-nign universal, that every village and 

 neighborhood can call out a little company who will 

 be glad to know how easily it can be done. 



Mr. Downing says, " The strawberry is perhaps the 

 most wholesome of all fruits, being very easy of diges- 

 tion, and never growing acid by fermentation, as most 

 other fruits do. The oft-quoted instance of the great 

 Linnaeus curing himself of the gout by partaking 

 freely of strawberries — a proof of its great wholesome- 

 ness — is a letter of credit which this tempting fruit has 

 long enjoyed, for the consolation of those who are 

 looking for a bitter concealed under every sweet." 



An unknown writer in the last Patent Office Report 

 says, "The strawberry was described by Juan di Cuba 

 in his ' Ortus Sanitatis^'' in 1485, in which its medical 

 and other properties are treated at length." He also 

 eloquently says : — " When we contemplate the rela- 

 tions which the strawberry plant bears to other parts of 

 nature — to the sun which expands its blossom — to the 

 winds which sow its seeds — to the brooks whose banks 



