STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 99 



power implements. Upon the town or suburban place unless one 

 owns a horse the work of the garden aside from plowing in the 

 spring will be done by hand. Notwithstanding this I will ven- 

 ture to say that I believe there are a larger percentage of gardens 

 maintained under these more difficult conditions than are main- 

 tained upon the farm. The trouble is farmers as a class do not 

 appreciate the value of small things like the garden. They do- 

 not maintain a garden, neither do they use vegetables, they get 

 along without them, and yet it is safe to say that if the vegetable 

 garden were to be properly maintained that the actual profit 

 derived from it would be more than the averages above stated. 

 While it is not possible to produce statistics to illustrate the 

 value of fruit in the economy of the family, I am convinced that 

 their value is even greater than that of vegetables, particularly 

 from the standpoint of dietetics. The actual money value of the 

 fruit which can be produced on a carefully planted and cultivated 

 acre will be equal to that from the vegetable garden. To illus- 

 trate what can be planted on an acre I wall give you a list of the 

 plants w^hich are now growing upon one acre at the government 

 experiment farm. The list is as follows : 25 standard apples ;. 

 5 crab apples; 45 peaches; 32 dw^arf pears; 10 standard pears; 

 18 plums; 18 cherries; 9 quinces; 50 dew^berries ; 150 black- 

 berries; 150 red raspberries ; 150 black raspberries; 75 currants; 

 50 gooseberries ; 80 grapes, and i ,000 strawberries. With the 

 exception of the peaches there is not a fruit in this collection that 

 can not be successfully grown throughout New England. Local 

 growers can give the names of the varieties which will prove 

 most successful for each locality, as well as those which will 

 cover the greatest period. In apples, for instance, those which 

 ripen from July to October can be chosen and the late ripening 

 one should again be divided among early winter and late winter 

 sorts in order that the supply of fresh apples may not be inter- 

 rupted for more than three months at most. It will not be 

 possible to secure such a wide variation in season of maturity 

 in the other fruits. Yet attention to the selection of early and 

 late maturing sorts will materially lengthen the season for straw- 

 berries, raspberries, cherries and grapes. From the list of 

 plants already given it is an easy matter to form a rough esti- 

 mate, at least, of what may be obtained from an acre so planted. 



