100 STATE POMOLOGICAI. SOCIETY. 



Although there are 1,867 individual plants upon this acre of land 

 it is so planned that practically all the cultivation can be done 

 v^ith horse power. While the strawberries are planted to form 

 matted rows all other plantations are so arranged as to admit of 

 horse cultivation in both directions. Beside affording a supply 

 of fruit for the average family such a fruit plantation will afford 

 the amateur ample opportunity to carry out any novel ideas he 

 may entertain in regard to pruning, training, hybridization, etc. 

 In this day of intense commercialism the amateur art of fruit 

 growing should be encouraged in every legitimate way. It was 

 from the horticulturists of this class that the present commercial 

 generation received not only their knowledge but their inspira- 

 tion and it is to this class rather than to the commercial growers 

 that we must look for the future improvement in varieties. The 

 amateur has a beneficial influence upon the community for he 

 teaches from the text, quality. The education of the purchaser 

 and consumer reacts upon the commercial grower to force him 

 to grow fruits and vegetables of superior quality rather than 

 making quantity alone, his goal. 



Fruits and vegetables have an aesthetic as well as a commercial 

 value. A sprig of parsley served with mutton or turkey makes 

 a pleasing contrast and whets one's appetite ; a salad is never so 

 inviting as when served on a nicely blanched, crisp lettuce leaf, 

 and a table is never better dressed than when garnished with 

 inviting trays of crisp nutty celery. These fresh, delicately 

 flavored products of the garden beside adding beauty to the table 

 give relish to the meal. They are as useful in their sphere as 

 are cut flowers and potted plants in theirs. Fruits and nuts both 

 fresh and preserved are highly esteemed as foods and in addi- 

 tion they have as well a decided aesthetic value. Fruits lend 

 themselves to table decoration as kindly as do cut flowers. The 

 variety in color offered by apples, peaches, plums, grapes, and 

 the other small fruits which can be grown at the north afford a 

 pleasing and appetizing dish for each season. And during 

 autumn when the great wealth of the region's fruit harvest is 

 on a dainty dish laden wath luscious apples, peaches, pears, and 

 grapes is an offering worthy of the palate of a prince, aye, I 

 may say, the palate of a Freeman. 



We pride ourselves on our schools, our colleges, and our 

 political institutions, and seem to forget that these are only 



