96 Success with Small Fruits. 



Such beds would also be of very great service in suggesting the varieties 

 that can be grown with profit in certain localities. While the behavior of 

 different kinds differs greatly in varying soils and latitudes, there is no such 

 arbitrary mystery in the matter as many imagine. I am satisfied that the 

 sorts which did best in my trial-bed give the best promise of success 

 wherever the soil and climate are similar. In contrast, let a trial-bed be 

 made on a light soil in Delaware or Virginia, and 100 varieties be planted. 

 Many that are justly favorites in our locality would there shrivel and burn, 

 proving valueless ; but those that did thrive and produce well, exhibiting a 

 power to endure a Southern sun and to flourish in sand, should be the 

 choice for all that region. To the far South and North, and in the 

 extremes of the East and West, trial-beds would give still varying results ; 

 but such results would apply to the soils and climate of the region if 

 proper culture were given. A horse can be mismanaged on a Kentucky 

 stock-farm, and there are those who would have ill luck with strawberries in 

 the Garden of Eden, they are so skillful and persistent in doing the wrong 

 thing. It would well remunerate large planters to maintain trial-beds of 

 all the small fruits, and their neighbors could afford to pay well for the 

 privilege of visiting them and learning the kinds adapted to their locality. 



I think it may be laid down as a general truth, that those kinds which 

 do well on a light soil in one locality tend to do well on such soils in all 

 localities. The same principle applies to those requiring heavy land. 

 There will be exceptions, and but few of those containing foreign blood 

 will thrive in the far South. 



In the brief limits of this chapter I shall merely offer suggestions and 

 the results of some experience, premising that I give but one man's 

 opinion, and that all have a right to differ from me. At the close of this 

 volume may be found more accurate descriptions of the varieties that I 

 have thought worth naming. 



Among the innumerable candidates for favor, here and there one will 

 establish itself by persistent well-doing as a standard sort. We then 

 learn that some of these strawberry princes, like the Jucunda, Triomphe 

 de Gand, and President Wilder, flourish only in certain soils and latitudes, 

 while others, like the Charles Downing, Monarch of the West, and Wil- 

 son, adapt themselves to almost every condition and locality. Varieties 

 of this class are superseded very slowly ; but it would seem, with the 

 exception of Wilson's Albany, that the standards of one generation have 

 not been the favorites of the next. The demand of our age is for large 

 fruit. The demand has created a supply, and the old standard varieties 

 have given way to a new class, of which the Monarch and Seth Boyden 



