Florida for home consumption only to a slight degree; they are mostly produced for shipment to the north, hence there is very little scientific interest attaching to the pursuit so far as the discovery of new varieties is concerned, and the development of old varieties to that stage of perfection to which northern growers are stimulated by frequent competitive exhibitors at the fairs. The Florida grower pursues a system of Spartan simplicity; the two questions of paramount importance with him are to grow, first, a berry that will carry well; second, and dependent on the first quality, one that will sell well.

. There is practically only one variety in Florida, the Noon an Improved; and that is a berry so inferior for home consumption, that among the many luscious varieties of the north, it would probably not occupy a place higher than the tenth, even if so far advanced as that. It is a berry rather under the medium size, varying in shape from obtusely conical to nearly round, hard, tolerably acid, ripening unevenly in the winter or early spring, when it frequently becomes brilliantly sunburned on one side, with a gloss almost like glass, while the lower is yet white or even green. Towards the end of April and in May, however, it ripens up more evenly, owing to the warmth of the ground and of the atmosphere during the night; and it then becomes a passable berry. But during February and in March and April it is so hard and sour that the market-goers in Florida generally give it the go-by, being well content to let their northern brethren have it. In short, then, the Floridians grow strawberries rather to please their northern customers than to please themselves; and it is a standing marvel to us what an immense appetite the people of the north have for this little, hard, acid berry.

One thing may be urged in explanation; the northern people are generally able to smother it in cream, while the cowless Floridians must be content with the emollient influences of sugar alone; hence the latter demand a sweeter berry than the north.

But the Florida picking season lasts so long that we are able to ship to the north until our pickers are completely tired out and go home, and still have a month or six weeks left in which to pick and enjoy for ourselves after the time for the profitable northern shipment has passed. There are few northern people who comprehend the length of our strawberry season. The writer has picked a pint of berries February 1; begun to ship by the 20th, and continued up to May 5 ; then picked for wine, for canning, preserves, etc., two or three weeks longer, and finally gathered enough to make a last shortcake on the 4th of July, all from one variety, the Noonan.

This season has been phenomenal. We began to ship in considerable quantities by January 10, and continued up to March, when the two frosts of the 3rd and 17th bisected the season, by cutting off all the bloom and young berries, so that we shall not ship any more to profit before April 10, and shall do well if we can continue to ship up to May 10.

Some of these very early shipments bring fabulous prices. A grower who had acquaintances in Chicago once received an order for a few quarts in January to supply the guests at a "swell" wedding. By carefully gleaning his patch he got a pint at a time. He put the pint in a quart basket, lining it thickly all around with cotton, and sent it by mail. In this way he "shipped" four quarts, and they brought him a check for forty dollars.

The writer once had a few quarts in a bushel contributed by different growers which was sold in Boston and netted $52.80.

On the other hand, there are often shipments made which go to utter loss or even bring the shippers in debt for freight charges. They are picked too soon after a rain, or there comes a sudden spell of warm weather in the north before they reach the end of their long journey, or a blizzard strikes the northern city, and the berries are totally lost or sell for a song. Early in the season berries can be shipped 1,000 or 1,200 miles with perfect success in ventilated "gift crates" without ice, but by the last of March or April 10, this becomes hazardous and the ice-car comes in demand. At present the refrigerator car service costs nearly twice as much (10 cents a quart, $3.20 a bushel) as it does to ship them by open express, and this greater cheapness sometimes tempts growers to their sorrow.

This enormous transportation charge is one of the drawbacks of the industry, but the growers hope to be able by an other year to induce the railroads to make a substantial reduction. Nearly, if not quite, half the acreage of the state is in this (Bradford) county, in what is locally known as "flatwoods" soil. This is so level that in the midsummer rainy season, acres of the surface in the piney woods will be covered with sheets of water an inch or two in depth ; and this soil carries so much humus or vegetable matter as to make it very retentive of moisture and render necessary a thorough system of surface drainage.

The land is thrown up into beds from eight to twenty feet wide, containing each from four to ten rows. The plants are always set singly and kept so. The sun in winter is so low and slanting that each plant must be isolated and have a good exposure, or else the fruit will be "off color".

After the bedding is done the work of cultivation and fertilizing is performed with hand plows by man power; this is found cheaper for the small patches, which generally prevail, than it is to keep a horse on northern grain and hay.

Commercial fertilizers are almost exclusively employed; cut-worms and crab-grass so abound in Florida that it is found necessary to use every resort to avoid giving them encouragement. Besides that, saline manures and bone dust are found to give firmer, sweeter fruit, with better shipping qualities, than animal manure produces. Cotton seed meal and nitrate of soda are used to force late and backward plants, but these must be employed with caution. Early in the growth of the plant they are good to produce foliage, to give it body; but later in the season they are apt to roast the roots and produce soft berries; at this stage mineral manures are preferred to give the berries firmness.

The best growers frequently apply 1¾ or 2 tons per acre, costing from $60 or $70. Where the general management is correspondingly good, it is found that the last half ton gives a greater profit than the first ton, or all the rest put together. J

To take an acre of raw pine woods, clear, stump, break, ditch and plant it, will cost $125 to $140. The mulching and cultivation will bring the expense up to $ 175 or $200 per acre before a berry is picked.

A hundred bushels an acre up to the end of the shipping season is a fairly good yield, but frequently 35 or 40 bushels more might be gathered up to the end of May, The writer has shipped 332 bushels, up to May 5, from a patch of about 2¾ acres. The first year the writer netted $6.21 a bushel; the second year, $7.21; the third year, about $5. $5 a bushel the season through is a very fair return.

The best growers get from $350 to $700 an acre, or say $200 to $550 an acre clear of all expenses whatever. Many of the less thrifty ones barely make a living; they pledge the crop in advance, like the old cotton planters, to procure a supply of fertilizers and the necessaries of life. Thrift counts here, to profit, just as it does in the north.

Florida. Stephen Powers.