From a time when strawberries reigned large in Sussex

This photograph from Delaware’s Department of Agriculture shows the streets of Selbyville crowded with farmers bringing strawberries to market in late May of 1925.

Strawberries in that era, when railroads were just opening markets to the north to Sussex farmers, became an important seasonal cash crop in a time when many of the county’s farmers ate what they grew and had few sources of hard cash. Selbyville was at the center of the Sussex strawberry industry where sandy soils proved especially accommodating for growing the sweet and juicy crop just as popular then as it is now.