122 Success with Small Fruits. 



the spring of '79, every week four steamers were loaded for New York, 

 and strawberries formed no insignificant proportion of the freight. 

 Indeed, the supply from Charleston was so large that the price in April 

 scarcely repaid the cost of some shipments. The proprietor of a commis- 

 sion house, largely engaged in the southern fruit trade, told me he 

 thought that about one-third as many strawberries came from Charleston 

 as from Norfolk. From careful inquiries made on the ground, I am led 

 to believe if it has not already attained this position that Norfolk is 

 rapidly becoming the largest strawberry center in the world, though 

 Charleston is unquestionably destined to become its chief rival in the 

 South. The latter city, however, has not been able to monopolize the 

 far southern trade, and never have I seen a finer field of strawberries 

 than was shown me in the suburbs of Savannah. It consisted of a 

 square of four acres, set with Neunan's Prolific, the celebrated Charleston 

 berry. 



And now Florida, with its unrivaled oranges, is beginning to furnish 

 tons of strawberries, that begin ripening in our midwinter ; and, with its 

 quick, sandy soil and sunny skies, threatens to render the growing of this 

 fruit under glass unprofitable. I saw last winter, at Mandarin, quite an 

 extensive strawberry farm, under the care of Messrs. Bowen Brothers, and 

 was shown their skillful appliances for shipping the fruit. At Jacksonville, 

 also, Captain William James is succeeding finely in the culture of some of 

 our northern varieties, the Seth Boyden taking the lead. 



I think I can better present the characteristics of strawberry culture in 

 the South by aiming to give a graphic picture of the scenes and life on a 

 single farm, than is possible by general statements of what I have witnessed 

 here and there. I have therefore selected for description a plantation at 

 Norfolk, since this city is the center of the largest trade, and nearly midway 

 in the Atlantic strawberry belt. I am also led to make this choice because 

 here is to be found, I believe, the largest strawberry farm in the world, and 

 its varied labors illustrate most of the southern aspects of the question. 



The reader may imagine himself joining our little party on a lovely 

 afternoon about the middle of May. We took one of the fine, stanch 

 steamers of the Old Dominion line at three P. M., and soon were enjoying, 

 with a pleasure that never palls, the sail from the city to the sea. Our 

 artistic leader, whose eye and taste were to illumine and cast a glamour over 

 my otherwise matter-of-fact text, was all aglow with the varied beauties 

 of the scene, and he faced the prospect beyond the " Hook " with no more 

 misgivings than if it were a " painted ocean." But there are occasions 

 when the most heroic courage is of no avail. 



