WILD STRAWBERRIES 425 



varieties: The Red Meadow, White Meadow, Field, Hudson and 

 Hautboy. Dr. Dwight says: K The Meadow strawberry of tliis 

 country is the best fruit of the kind which I have seen. It is 

 rather larger than the Chili Bweet, and more prolific. 11 

 improves greatly by culture. I have Been Beveral which were 

 four and a half inches in circumference, many which were four, 

 and bushels which were between three and four." And he father 

 : "I have cultivated the Wild Meadow strawberry more 

 than twenty years, and during that time it lias increased to 

 twice its original size." 



Iu regard to the Field strawberry, he says that il " - 

 r, ten days earlier, but much smaller than the Meadow 

 strawberry, and has not increased in size by a cultivation of 

 eight years in my garden. The plants become immediately much 

 larger, but the fruit has not been changed at all." He also 

 mentions the Hautboy and Hudson vai etiea as having been in 

 cultivation for many years in his garden. The former variety is 

 a well-known European form; the latter is a form I am not 

 familiar with, although I suspect it to be an old cultivated 

 variety common in these days. These statements of Dr. Dwight, 

 who died in 1817, show that tin- Btrawberry was in cultivation in 

 .\.w England before the beginning of this century. 



II"-, moreover, at the Hautboy strawberrry, Fragaria 



elatior, has been found growing spontaneously in two distinct 



and remote localities in Connecticut. This statement, if true, 



; undoubtedly indicate thai they were introduced through 

 the agency of birds 



The White .Meadow strawberry which he calls attention to 

 i- a mere Bport or variety of the ordinary lied Btrawberry. It is 

 mentioned by Dr. Dewey, in his "Plants of Massachus* 



page 59, a- i urring plentifully in the Berkshire Mills. 



In regard to the abundance of the Btrawberry in early I 

 there appears to be some mi — uception a Every one is 



that then- an- i'.w places in Massachusetts where it would 



be possible now for one to gather more than a few pints ..t' 



strawberries in a whole day. In early times, however, when 



there was more virgin -oil than there is to-day in New England, 



I 



will, • 1. II I'. 



