CHAPTEE XIX. 

 THE STRAWBERRY AND ITS CULTURE. 



254. Some Historical Notes. — Without much doubt the 

 first settlers on the Atlantic coast found larger and better 

 wild strawberries than were at that time under cultivation 

 in Europe. Mr. G. E. Stone, in " Garden and Forest," 

 gives many facts from early N"ew England history to sus- 

 tain this statement. He quotes from Dr. Dwight this 

 statement, written in 1817: "The meadow strawberry of 

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

 I have seen several that were four and a half inches in cir- 

 cumference, many which were four, and bushels which 

 were between three and four." Professor Bailey also 

 quotes Eoger Williams in 1843 as follows: " This berry is 

 the wonder of all the fruits growing naturally in these 

 parts. It is of itself excellent, so that one of the chiefest 

 doctors of England was wont to say that God could have 

 made, but never did, a better berry. In some parts where 

 the natives have planted I have many times seen as many 

 as would fill a good ship within a few miles' compass." 



The best varieties of the New England and Virginia 

 species were taken to west Europe early in the seventeenth 

 century. Their larger size and superior quality led to the 

 neglect of the native wood varieties [Frag aria vesca), and 

 it was soon found that what was known as the Virginia 

 strawberries gave new and improved varieties from the 



263 



