estimated. It has
spread over every section of our vast country, taking kindly to every
variety of soil and climate, covering with its robust foliage many
thousands of acres, producing tens of thousands of bushels of fruit,
crowding our markets with abundant supplies, and producing profits to
its cultivators such as no other strawberry has ever yielded. As a
market berry it was quickly recognized as being unsurpassed, nor have
its numerous modern rivals been yet able to shake its strong hold upon
the public favor. I know--at least my reading has taught me--that there
are multitudes of recent candidates for popularity, claiming to be far
superior to this, all struggling to displace the old-time favorite. I am
unable--here at least--to discuss their several merits, and therefore
dismiss the novelties I have never tried for the great standard which
has been so long approved.

We knew it was by means of this prolific berry that our neighbors, so
disagreeable to us, were making themselves so popular. It was the
variety sold by my widow in the market. Its character as a fruit for the
million being thus established, we adopted it without hesitation.

My agricultural journals told me how many plants were to be put upon an
acre, what were to be the distances apart, when to set them, with other
particulars as to the mode of cultivation. But one of the most important
facts taught me by my little library was that I could set the plants in
the fall as advantageously as in the spring. This would give me a great
start. I learned that in the two last autumn months, the temperature of
the earth being higher than that of the air, the former would act as a
sort of forcing-house, stimulating the growth and expansion of the
roots, so that before winter set in they would become so firmly
established as to be enabled to survive the severest weather, and be
pretty sure to give me quite a handsome crop the succeeding summer.
There was nothing to do, then, but to procure the plants and get them
in. Fred undertook to have the ground broken up and put in complete
order for me,--that is, half an acre. We were not able to spare money
enough to buy more plants, but intended to fill up the other half-acre
from the runners that would be thrown out the following summer. I knew
that our ill-natured neighbors had thrown away more plants than I
needed, which they could have given to me without being themselves any
the poorer. But perhaps I ought not to in