PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 113 



seeds, the one or the other preponderating-, according to the character of 

 the seed sown. Downing-, Wm. Prince, Longworth, Thomas, Hovey, 

 Elliott and Hooper, in their works, and Dr. J. H. Baj'^ne, and all other cul- 

 tivators who have examined the wild strawberries of our country, have 

 found the same two sexual varieties, and no man who will use his eyes can 

 deny so universal and so evident a fact. At the present time these sexual 

 distinctions form the basis of the strawberry culture of America, and 

 Europe will be compelled to adopt the same course. 



AMERICAN STRAWBERRY FARMS. 



As the growing of this healthful and delicious fruit is now attaining a 

 very extensive development, it would appear to be an object of primary 

 importance that we should ascertain who are the most extensive and suc- 

 cessful growers of this fruit, and also as to what the great success of the 

 most eminent is to be attributed. Whether it is to be accounted for by a 

 superior modo of culture and system of manuring; to the judicious selec- 

 tion of appropriate varieties; or to the scientific sexual combination of 

 staminates, hermaphrodites and pistillates; or to the adoption of some two, 

 or perhaps of all these means, for insuring the most advantageous results, 

 it would appear that the largest area of ground appropriated to the 

 growing of strawberries in any of the States, is comprised in the straw- 

 berry farms of Maryland, New York, Ohio and Kentucky, and next to 

 these. New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the aggregate 

 portion of land so appropriated in each State is in the same ratio in wdiich 

 I have named these States. In Maryland, in the single county of Anne 

 Arundel, there are 680 acres devoted to the culture of strawberries. Two 

 of the largest growers, Rezin Hammond and Joseph M. Bryan, have each 

 about 120 acres, and the daily av^erage that each has sent to market for the 

 last two years, during the fruiting season, has been about 12,000 quarts 

 per day, and Mr. Hammond received from an agent who attended to the 

 sale of most of his crop for one season, $10,000. The other leading grow- 

 ers have from ninety acres down to 25 acres; besides which there are very 

 many small growers who have from two to ten acres. In the vicinity of 

 Washington city there are eight or ten extensive strawberry plantations. 

 One of the most extensive is that of Dr. John H. Bayne, who has devoted 

 his attention to this culture for more than twenty years. In Pennsylvania 

 there are some considerable plantations, but the great market of Philadel- 

 phia derives a large portion of its supplies from Maryland and New Jersey. 

 A. L. Fetton, and Mr. Knox, of Pittsburg, have devoted their attention to 

 strawberry culture. The latter began most ardently with the Wilson, but 

 after trial cast it out and adopted the Triomphe de Gand, which cannot fail 

 to prove even a greater failure than the former. In New Jersey we haVe 

 a host of not less than sixty growers, and among the most important we 

 have Wm. Parry, John Mitchell, Clayton Lippincott, W. R. and Jacob 

 Shediker, B. J. Lord, etc. In the vicinity of Keyport there are more than 

 thirty growers, and they send the most of their crop to the New York mar- 

 ket. In the State of New York there are a vast number of growers located 

 in the counties which border the Hudson river, and throughout the western 

 section of the State, and very many on Long Island. In the vicinity of 



I Am. Inst.1 8 



