IKTRODUCTIOX. 



7 



great progress was made in the cultivation of the different 

 kinds of Small Fruits until several years later. 



The progress of fruit-culture in the United States is 

 probably more apparent than in other countries^ for we 

 have only to go back to a period within the memory of 

 horticulturists still living, to ascertain nearly every fact in 

 regard to its history. Ask any of our older horticulturists 

 concerning the markets of forty years ago, and they will 

 tell us that there were no Hovey or Wilson Strawberries 

 offered for sale in those days ; no Cherry or White Grape 

 Currants ; no New Eochelle or Kittatinny Blackberries ; 

 but that they were wholly supplied with berries from the 

 woods and uncultivated fields. 



The progress we have made in Small Fruit Culture dur- 

 ing the past tAventy years is certainly something of which 

 our horticulturists may well feel proud, but the limits in 

 the way of advancement have not as yet been reached, 

 and there is room enough for those who may wish to enter 

 this field to work out many an unsolved problem. 



The cause of our advancement is, in a great measure, 

 due to the dissemination of information upon the subject 

 through the horticultural and agricultural press. It is 

 by reading these that the masses have learned where to 

 obtain the plants they desire and how to cultivate them. 

 Thus, by having a medium through which both parties 

 are benefited, trade is augmented and progress made more 

 certain. 



The originators of new varieties have been stimulated 

 to make great exertions, because of the high prices paid 

 for their products in times past, but it is quite probable 

 that new sorts will not hereafter command so much at- 

 tention as they have in years gone by, at least it will not 

 be so easy to obtain high prices for a second-rate article. 

 What may be termed the ''Small Fruit Craze" has had 

 its day, and hereafter it will be only the really valuable 

 sorts— the intrinsic worth of which has become fully 



