"Just when cultivated berries made their appearance, I am unable to say, but I am inclined to think they were derived from seedlings of the wild fruit. From the information I have gathered, I think that the cultivation of the fruit for the market originated in the vicinity of Hackensack, Bergen county, and from there spread over the State. As there were no railroads in that section at that early date, all the berries had to be carted to New York in wagons, crossing the Hudson at Hoboken. Quite recently I met with Mr. Andrew M. Hopper, of Pascack, who gave me several interesting points from his early recollections.
"Mr. Hopper said: 'I am sixty-five years old, and can well remember picking berries for my father, when a boy ten years of age. At that time we had no crates as we have now, but packed them in large baskets that we called hampers.
"'Our only shipping point to New York was Piermont, on the Hudson, New
York State, a distance of about eight miles.
"'At this point there was a line of sloops that sailed semi-weekly, when wind and tide permitted. In those days there were no commission merchants in New York that dealt in berries, and each farmer was compelled to go with and sell his own fruit. The fare on these vessels was one shilling for a round trip, board not included; and as it sometimes required two days to reach the city, each farmer provided a lunch for himself before starting from home, as well as provender for his team, which was left at the landing to await his return. The usual fee for caring for the team while they were gone was twenty-five cents.'
"The Hautbois was the first named variety he could remember, which was introduced among them in 1835. In about 1840 the Scotch Runner was introduced at Hackensack. It was a valuable variety for the growers, as it was hardy, a good bearer, and the fruit grew unusually large for that period. An incident connected with the introduction of this variety is worth mentioning, showing the eagerness of the cultivators to procure the plants.
"A gentleman living at 'Old Bridge,' which is a few miles above Hackensack, secured quite a number of plants and set them out in his garden for the purpose of propagating them, so that he could in due time plant a large patch of them. The vines being in great demand, his neighbors insisted upon his selling them; but this proposition he positively refused, and the consequence was that, one night, some person entered his garden and stole every plant he had. At this period and up to the introduction of the Wilson, all strawberries in that section were picked and marketed without the hulls.
"For a long time I have been trying to find out the originator of the quart-berry-box and crate, and, thinking Mr. Hopper might possess some knowledge on this point, I inquired of him. He replied: 'I know nothing about the quart box, for I never used them, but I do about the crate.
"'In 1840 I made the first crate ever used in our section, if not in the State, and I will tell you how I came to do it. In those days I raised large quantities of apricots, and marketed them in such baskets as we happened to have. In the year named my fruit was very large and finely colored, and knowing they would be damaged by carting in the usual way, I had a number of small baskets made, and then I constructed a crate to fit them. The next day after I made them, Gen. Acker, who was an old fruit grower, called on me, admired the arrangement, and suggested that they would answer to pack berries in, and requested me to make two for him, which I did. From these the use of them became general.'
"The cases referred to were skeleton cases, some with and others without lids, each grower making them to suit his own convenience for handling; but they generally contained from one to two hundred baskets each. The number of baskets in each was marked either on the lid or slat."
From the above quotation, the reader can realize what vast changes have taken place within the last fifty years. A few sable pedlers, with little baskets strung on poles, form a decided contrast with a Charleston steamer, bringing in one trip North far more strawberries, in patent refrigerators, than were then sold in a year; or with an Old Dominion steamship, discharging six thousand bushels as a single item of cargo. Ninety-four car-loads of strawberries have passed over the Delaware railroad in one day. According to one computation already given, New York consumes $25,000,000 worth of small fruits annually. If the business has grown to such proportions within the last half-century, may we not expect even greater increase in the future? The appliances for preserving fruit, and for transporting it quickly and safely, become more perfect every year. Thus a market is created in vast regions which, though populous, are not adapted to the raising of fruit.