STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 97 



and conformity with the character of the place should always be 

 foremost. 



While trees, shrubs, flowers, and grassy lawns are all essential 

 to our highest enjoyment and while they are important factors 

 in the development of one's higher nature yet it can not be said 

 that these attributes are essential factors in the maintenance of 

 human life. We are told that man has three primary wants, 

 namely, food, clothing and shelter. The trees, flowers, shrubs, 

 and grass contribute to one of these primary wants only — shelter. 

 But no home acre whether in the town, village, or country can 

 be considered complete unless it has upon it the means of meet- 

 ing, in part at least, one more of these primary wants — food. 

 The home acre should be provided with a fruit garden as well as 

 with a vegetable garden. One will not materially interfere with 

 the other and both will contribute liberally to the support and 

 comifort of the family. The satisfaction of serving fresh fruits 

 and vegetables of one's own growing is in itself a pleasure for 

 which it is worth striving. One does not appreciate these privi- 

 leges until deprived of them. The resident of the country with 

 a good garden, an ample supply of fresh fruit in season and a 

 cow and chickens, knows nothing of what it means to supply the 

 wants of every meal from the market house. It is often said 

 that the variety from the home place is limited and restricted to 

 certain seasons. This if true is not necessary. A few hotbed 

 sashes will greatly extend the seasons at both ends. A judicious 

 selection of crops with frequent plantings throughout the season 

 will insure lettuce radishes, peas, beans, onions, beets, cabbage, 

 turnips, spinach, tomatoes, etc., in succession from early spring- 

 to late autumn. With no system of horticulture can so much be 

 secured from a given area in one year as from a well planned 

 and well tended vegetable garden and yet only about fifty per 

 cent of the farms of the country even so much as maintain a veg- 

 etable garden. This condition of affairs exists in the face of 

 the fact that the census shows the area devoted to this use is 

 about five times as remunerative as the same area devoted to the 

 grains or to cotton. 



In the State of Maine there are 59.299 farms 27,392 of which 

 maintain vegetable gardens of one-third acre in extent, that 

 being the average size of garden for the farms of the State. 

 The estimated return per acre from these gardens is $64.73 while 



