56 . The Strawberry Book. 
elements of a good market strawberry, and will certainly. 
prove a rival to some now popular kinds. 
In England, Alice Maude, the famous British Queen, and 
I believe Keens’ Seedling, still hold their places as market 
varieties — Alice Maude for an early crop, and the Queen 
. for a later supply. There, as here, there is a host' of con- 
stantly renewed ‘fancy and amateur varieties. 
The market price of English’ strawberries does not vary 
very much from the prices in our markets. In 1867, in 
the English market, Alice Maude strawberries sold early. 
in the season for one shilling and sixpence per-basket, the 
basket holding two thirds of a quart. Later in the season 
- they were sold at the rate of two shillings for three quarts. 
Extra, selected British Queen strawberries sold from one 
to two shillings per basket, and later in the season the | 
price fell to ninepence. 
In France, the Elton and Princesse Royale are, or were 
recently, very largely raised for market. 
I cannot help adding here one word about strawberry 
culture on a small scale — in gardens. 
It is amazing that’so many comparatively good gardens 
can be found in all parts of the country with not a straw- 
~ berry bed in one quarter.of them. I do not speak wholly 
of garden patches, whose. owners have no time to tend 
and weed'‘a strawberry bed, but of gardens belonging to 
land-owners, who have time, men, horses, ploughs, and 
manure at command, and who yet can never firid room 
enough for a'good bed of strawberries. A very little ob- 
servation teaches us that a well-cared-for strawberry bed 
is the exception rather than the rule. Yet strawberries 
are always welcome in their season ; everybody is fond of 
them ; people who can hardly afford so expensive a luxury 
buy them freely, and those who have no beds look with 
longing, and may be envious, eyes at the plantations of 
their more provident neighbors. 
Then, too, those who raise their own fruit on a gen- 
