10 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



|tptiiiltipi! j^ocieUes, 



PROGRESS IN STRAWBERRY CULTURE, 



An Address before the New Jersey State Horti- 

 cultural Society. 

 By Dr. F. M. Hexamer. 

 Mr. President : The subject you have 

 assigned to me appears, at a first glance, to 

 be rather discouraging — a topic about which 

 there has so much been said and written that 

 it might be feared the very fountains of life 

 of our Strawberry plants had become dry ere 

 this. But as I have to speak to you about 

 Progress in Strawberry Culture, it becomes 

 necessary to survey our ground, to let the eye 

 glance swiftly over the broad fields, endeavor- 

 ing to find some firm landmark from which 

 might be obtained a glimpse of the past as 

 well as a view of the present day. It wanders 

 back to the time when a few wagon-loads of 

 wild Hackensack berries, brought across the 

 river in sailing-sloops, as often as twice a 

 week when wind and tide permitted, con- 

 stituted the entire supply of New York's 

 markets, and when a period of three weeks 

 comprised the limits of the Strawberry 

 season. Let us suppose that we had fallen 

 asleep under one of those piles of quaint 

 splint baskets, Kip Van Winkle like, to 

 awake to-day from our half-century nap in 

 the midst of blooming Strawberry-fields along 

 the shores of the St. John's River, in Florida, 

 where already the pickers are busy on the 

 most southern plantations of our sub-tropical 

 peninsula. 



Small and insignificant, like a snow-flake 

 which, rolling down the mountain side, 

 gathers strength as it moves, increasing 

 in dimensions with every moment until it 

 becomes the huge avalanche which carries 

 everything before it, and meets resistance 

 only on the immovable rocks of the snow- 

 capped alps, so do we now perceive on the 

 far-off horizon the incipient formation of a 

 wave of scarlet and crimson. Like the light 

 ripples of a brook, we see it gently flowing 

 northward along the coast and valleys of 

 Georgia and South Carolina, where, at 

 Charleston, it already has grown to respect- 

 able dimensions ; onward and forward rolls 

 the wave, gathering strength with every 

 moment, and covering a large part of Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland ; still it moves on with 

 unabated vigor, sweeping mountain high 

 across Delaware and New Jersey to dash 

 fiercely against the majestic Palisades, the 

 giant fortress of the noble Hudson. Here 

 its force becomes broken and its current 

 divided into two arms, one to flow northward 

 along the shores of the river, the other to 

 take an easterly direction along the coasts of 

 Long Island Sound ; both spreading as they 

 move, traversing the larger part of New York 

 and New England, crossing the St. Lawrence 

 to be swept northward over the Dominion of 

 Canada, by the balmy breezes of early sum- 

 mer, until sweetness and fragrance congeal 

 on the ice-bound shores of the sub-arctic 

 region. Six months have passed since we 

 picked the first ripe berries, six months since 

 we started on our journey of two thousand 

 miles. A season of three weeks has been 

 lengthened to six months in less than fifty 

 years ; need we look further to perceive 

 Progress in Strawberry Culture ? 



There is another stand-point from which to 



measure the progress in Strawberry culture. 

 In 1872, the Strawberries shipped from 

 Charleston to Northern markets brought an 

 average price of fifty-seven cents per quart ; in 

 1874, thirty-eight cents; in 1876, twenty- 

 one cents ; in 1879, fourteen cents ; and last 

 year, twelve and a half cents per quart. 

 Jueundas from the Knox Farm at Pittsburg 

 brought, in years gone by, from fifty to 

 seventy-five cents per quart at wholesale ; 

 and, for several years after the war, first- 

 class Triumphs and other large varieties sold 

 readily for forty and fifty cents per quart, by 

 the crate, while now the very choicest would 

 not bring half as much. This decline in 

 prices is, of course, mainly caused by the 

 larger quantities of berries raised, and partly 

 by the difference in our currency valuation ; 

 but there is another important factor which 

 causes the present low prices for first-class 

 fruit. In former years, when our selected 

 Jueundas and Triumphs came to market, the 

 only competition they had to encounter was 

 from small Scotch Runners or sour, sandy 

 Wilsons, and the contrast was so great that 

 buyers paid willingly three and four times 

 more for the best. But now, owing to the 

 rapidly increasing competition and the great 

 improvements in new varieties, poor berries 

 can hardly be sold at any price, and the 

 average market fruit has improved so much 

 that there is but little difference between 

 this and the choicest, and here, as in other 

 trades, a plentiful supply of cheap goods 

 depreciates the value of the better grades. 



The most important revolution in Straw- 

 berry culture, however, so far as concerns 

 the grower, at least, has been effected by the 

 changing of our markets. The market cen- 

 ters for fruits, as well as other goods, are 

 rarely permanent ; they are frequently moving 

 from one place to another, or changing in their 

 respective locations. Many of the prominent 

 business houses in New York have changed 

 several times, within our recollection, the 

 location of their stores, have moved with the 

 migrations of their customers, or have trans- 

 formed their business in such a way as to 

 conform with the altered conditions. The 

 Strawberry market is not exempt from these 

 fluctuations of trade. A few years ago, New 

 York was the great distributing center of 

 berries for hundreds of miles along every 

 railroad and steam-boat line entering the 

 metropolis ; but now the markets of most 

 inland towns and large villages are supplied 

 with home-grown fruits, and only an incon- 

 siderable amount of berries is reshipped from 

 New York. It is therefore that, while the 

 demand for products of nearly all kinds has 

 largely increased during the last years, the 

 amount of perishable berries disposed of in 

 New York has decreased, rather ; and while 

 the producers of wheat and corn, of butter 

 and cheese, of beef and pork, and many 

 other farm products find, at home and 

 abroad, new and profitable outlets for their 

 bountiful crops, the small-fruit grower who 

 depends on the New York market finds the 

 demand for his products diminished instead 

 of increased, and, naturally enough, wonders 

 where that mueh-talked-of national prosperity 

 may be found. 



Let us start right here in our search, and 

 we shall find that it is only a few years since 

 Newark obtained its principal supply of 

 Strawberries from New York ; but should we 

 ask now where the magnificent berries, which 

 we saw last June displayed in your markets, 



came from, your Quinns, Durands, Gold- 

 smiths, and other champion Strawberry grow- 

 ers, would resent the question as an insult. 

 To-day the vicinity of this city produces, not 

 only sufficient for its home demands, but 

 enough to return to New York more than what 

 it received in former years, and the growers 

 seem well satisfied with the new order of 

 things. Similar conditions prevail in hun- 

 dreds, if not thousands, of towns ; still, there 

 are many populous inland places which are not 

 yet sufficiently supplied with Strawberries, so 

 that those who start now in fruit culture 

 need have no difficulty in finding favorable 

 locations. 



On the other hand, there are large areas 

 where no home market can be created, where 

 nearly every one raises Strawberries, and 

 some large city offers the only market. 

 What shall the fruit-grower do who sees the 

 demand for his crops steadily falling off, or 

 the prices dwindle down so low that both 

 ends cannot be made to meet f The tiller of 

 the soil cannot, as easily as the merchant, 

 move his business-place and follow his cus- 

 tomers. Generally he has to stay where he 

 is, and has to find out the most suitable and 

 profitable crops for his soil, for his markets, 

 and for his own qualifications. If he can 

 grow Strawberries better and cheaper than 

 his neighbors, those who understand the least 

 of their culture have sooner or later to leave 

 the business. All cannot live by growing 

 Strawberries ; some have to be contented 

 with raising Cabbages, and others with Pea- 

 nuts, each one according to his inclinations 

 and abilities. The law of the survival of the 

 fittest holds as good here as anywhere. The 

 conditions essential for success remain in all 

 places and at all times, but the local and 

 temporary means necessary for its attainment 

 vary in every place and with every year. 



Some people are constantly complaining 

 that "business is overdone," that "times 

 have changed," and so they have. We can- 

 not reverse the order of the universe. Times 

 do change, and unless we change with 

 them we have to go under ; everything 

 changes with every year, with every day, 

 with every moment, — commercial relations, 

 seasons, vegetation, — the earth itself has 

 changed from vapor into solid matter, and 

 continues to change till the end of time. 

 Without change there is no motion ; without 

 motion there is no life ; inertia is death. 

 How can we expect to remain at a stand-still 

 when everything around us moves ? 



These various changes in the progress of 

 Strawberry culture have brought us to the 

 present period ; they have developed two 

 sharply defined systems, each with its ap- 

 propriate modes of cultivation, and with its 

 distinct varieties, specially suited for its 

 requirements — the home market and the ship- 

 pine] system. Strawberry-growing for a home 

 market is almost exclusively a retail business 

 with all its concomitant details, while the 

 grower for a distant market is strictly a 

 wholesaler, who, like the large manufacturer, 

 ships all his goods to a commission merchant, 

 whose business it is to sell to the best advan- 

 tage of the producer. As in other wholesale 

 trades, success depends mainly upon the 

 talent and management of the owner ; and, 

 hardly less, upon sufficient capital, good 

 shipping facilities, competent help, and, in 

 our cases, suitable soil. Where these chief 

 requisites are wanting, no amount of perse- 

 verance and energy can produce satisfactory 



