252 TBANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



farming pay?" Your committee asks : "What is to be done with 

 surplus fruit?" 



The fruit-growers, who make a calling of the art of growing 

 fruits, have to compete with not only those of their own calling, but 

 with the amateur in the village lands, and the farmers throughout 

 the State. The men of this calling are of a generous mind, and give 

 freely of all they know about growing fruit, and insist that every 

 farmer should plant new orchards before the old ones decay, and that 

 every one owning a piece of ground should have the luxury of a good 

 strawberry bed. 



The farmer should have a large plateau of strawberries, plant 

 raspberries around his fields, and blackberries should be grown in 

 what would be waste spots. He can take the surplus fruit, with his 

 eggs and butter, to the nearest market. A full market makes surplus 

 fruit. 



It is no longer a debated question : " Can we grow fruits suf- 

 ficient for the demand of the State?" Our last exhibition, at Alton, 

 answered it for apples. A finer collection has rarely been seen any- 

 where. 



The market of every town and village of the State is well sup- 

 plied with small fruits during their season. Fruits that are second 

 in grade may be marketed, but third and fourth grades are surplus. 



1 do not think we have yet reached what might be called a sur- 

 plus of good fruits, but we are after it, and unless there be sotne 

 interposition of Providence, in the form of some new plant disease, 

 or insects that are proof against arsenic poison, we may reach it in a 

 few years. At present our surplus consists of wind-falls and large 

 quantities of fall apples in the orchards, and of small fruits ; the 

 middle picking, on the first Monday and Tuesday after the full pick- 

 ing, is reached. This would look like a surplus of good fruit. It is 

 a surplus resulting only from an imperfect distribution. 



Between the demand for table use and the preserving of fruits, 

 there is often a day or two of stagnation in the market for berries. 

 The grower is apt to put as much on the market during those two 

 days as he does on any four days of the season. All small straw- 

 berries, half-dried, and imperfect blackberries are with the surplus. 

 The question is not a very serious one with us yet, but it is coming. 



The question which underlies this one is, "■ How can we make 

 the business of growing fruits more profitable, or — looking toward 

 the future — how can we contrive the business so as to secure a 

 living?" The orchardist will think of cider, cider vinegar, and, per- 

 haps, of jelly and apple butter as commercial articles ; the grower of 

 small fruits thinks of jam, jellies, preserves and fruit juices. All 

 questions of economy are moving westward, but they find little of 

 interest, except on the subject of utilization of materials. How to 



