PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 23 



•wholesome of all the fruits is often entirely neglected by farmers, or, like 

 Tusser of old, they turn the matter over to their wives, saying: 



" Wife, into the garden and set me a plot, 

 AVith strawberry roots, the best to be got." 



Certainly such hardly deserve 



"A dish of ripe strawberries smothered in cream." 



Rdspbci'ry and Blaclxherry : The raspberry and blackberry are naturally 

 placed after the strawberry, as they closely follow it in time of ripening. 

 The red raspberry is derived both from American and European species, 

 while the black raspberry and blackberry are of American origin. The 

 European raspberry is known as Idfieus, having been found by the Greeks 

 on Mount Ida. The blackberries and red raspberries are grown from 

 sucters and cuttings of the roots, while the black raspberry is propagated 

 by layering the tips of the branches. To produce the largest and best 

 fruits, good care and cultivation should be given. 



Pnnona: What is this that now presents itself? 



G''ape: Although not a member of the rose family, the grape desires 

 to sDeak a word in its own behalf. Dating back to the time of Noah, the 

 grape is one of the oldest fruits in cultivation. Most of our American 

 sorls have been derived from native species, but many of them are the 

 resialt of hybridization with the European wine grape. The grape should 

 be tmined to stakes or trellises, carefully pruned in the fall, laid on the 

 ground if inclined to be tender, and after the fruit has set it should be 

 thinuKl by the removal of the smaller bunches. 



Poiiona : What fruits do the tropics furnish us? 



Fig The fig is thought to be the first fruit cultivated by man. Its 

 home V, in Asia and Africa but it flourishes in all warm countries. It was 

 the favorite fruit of the Bomans, who grew over twenty varieties. The 

 Greeks also cultivated them largely, while the ideal of happiness, by the 

 Hebrev«, was to sit under one's own vine and fig tree. The blossoms of the 

 fruit art produced upon the inside of what later on becomes the fruit. The 

 fig prodices naturally two crops of fruit in a year. The spreading banyan, 

 the sycanore fig, and one of the rubber trees also belong to the same 

 genus. En the southern states the fig produces abundant crops, and in the 

 middle ftates it will fruit in the open air if the trees are given a slight 

 protectici. 



Pomori: Does no one speak for the orange? 



Oran(j>: No fruits are more aj^preciated than those of the orange family. 

 Besides tie orange it includes the lemon, lime, citron, and shaddock. The 

 trees greyly resemble each other but differ in the character of their fruit. 

 Althoughnatives of warm countries, they will withstand severe frosts. The 

 orange coabines in itself many attractions in the beauty of the trees, the 

 fragrance^f the flowers, and the luscious golden fruit. A few years ago. 

 the orangs used in this country were brought from the West Indies or 

 the Mediterranean, but now the orange groves of Florida and California 

 furnish gL'at quantities. 



Pomona What fruit is this which last comes? 



Banana A wanderer from afar, but not a stranger in your midst, the 

 banana clams to be, in its home, one of the greatest fruit producing plants, 

 being mor than a hundred times as productive per acre as wheat. The 



