STRAWBERRIES 
INTRODUCTORY 
Ir in the olden days, when such strawberries as we now 
have had not come into being, a worthy man believed 
and said, that ‘‘ Doubtless God could have made a better 
berry than the strawberry, but doubtless God never did,” 
how much more shall we at the dawn of the twentieth 
century agree with the old doctor’s sentiments. We 
have such delicious and free cropping varieties, and have 
arrived at such a successful system of culture, that if the 
future holds as much advance in strawberries and straw- 
berry culture as the past half a century has seen, one can 
hardly help hoping to live on for another five decades, 
provided that the years do not bring ‘labour and 
sorrow,” or a cessation of desire. 
The strawberry is the earliest of our hardy fruits to 
ripen, and on this score alone it claims our attention, 
but added to this are delicious flavour and refreshing 
juiciness, coming at a season when the hot summer days 
commence and we are best able to appreciate them. 
Fortunately the strawberry is easily grown, and it is a 
good subject for town and suburban gardens; but as the 
town-dweller has little room or time to cultivate a plot, 
the market-grower a few miles away has undertaken to 
supply him. On the whole the market-gardeners are to 
be congratulated upon their success with strawberries, 
for those who visited the larger centres of industry dur- 
ing the strawberry season of 1901 could not but be struck 
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