n a full oar when it
came upon the table. One or two cases were related of young girls having
made quite a handsome sum from a small garden-bed. But the general
testimony went to prove that strawberry-growing was so simple an art
that any woman who had sufficient good sense to keep herself tidy could
successfully practise it, more especially if she had a taste for
horticultural occupations. I concluded, therefore, that the true reason
why women had not engaged more extensively in this employment was
because no one had taken pains to call their attention to it.

There was one branch of the subject which it was difficult to understand
exactly. Almost every person who wrote about strawberries seemed to have
the best variety that had ever been known or heard of. This was
especially noticeable in the statements of those who had plants to sell.
After reading one advertisement, I felt satisfied that the particular
fruit therein described was what I ought to have. But on examining the
next announcement, I was confounded at learning that there was a still
better kind. So it ran through probably half a dozen: every one was
best. Indeed, there appeared to be no inferior strawberry-plants for
sale. I had no friend to consult with who could explain this remarkable
state of things; and being thus left in doubt as to whether there was
really any merit in plants thus extravagantly praised, I came to the
conclusion that the safer way would be to let them all go, and adopt
some well-established kind, that was known to be a sure bearer, and
which could be had at a moderate price, leaving the costly novelties to
be patronized by those who had more money to spare. In two or three of
these florid descriptions of new varieties I observed that great stress
was laid on the enormous size of the fruit, as well as their unequalled
productiveness; but there was no mention of quality: what that was
appeared to be studiously suppressed. An orange solitary may be as large
as a pumpkin; but if it be proportionably coarse and flavorless, one
would conclude, that, the greater the size, the less desirable the
fruit. It was important for me to begin right; so, abandoning these new
and costly varieties, I determined to have something nearer home, about
whose value there could be no doubt. I was to produce fruit for the
public, not for our own private use, and therefore must have a
well-established market berry.

I do not mean to undervalue the great hortic