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as a business; then how much more so to find what has 

 been written about it during tlie past hundred years, and 

 how the new varieties of fruit have come into existence, 

 and then pushed their way into market. But to follow 

 all this would take more time than your other studies will 

 allow. For example in 1S17 one hundred varieties of 

 apples were grown in this country. In 1S1>2 the number 

 of varieties had swelled to more than two thousand. 



Siraicberry Picking in Southern Illinois. 



So vou see we cannot hope to do more than go by 

 leaps and bounds over the field which horticulture covers 

 in all its divisiuns. 



Fiftv vears agfo there were no larofe fields of straw- 

 berries to be found in the United States. To-day there 

 are hundreds of acres of this fruit in Illinois alone. The 



