190 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



some special varieties of fruits, among those adapted to the 

 climate, and this in the face of the fact, staring him in the 

 eyes, that right in his own neighborhood. I care not where 

 that may be, some neighbor has an abundant and prolific 

 garden, not only of vegetables and small fruits, but an or- 

 chard that seldom fails yearly to produce fruit enough for 

 the family, and in abundant seasons has largely to spare. 



WHENCE COME OUR FRUITS ? 



Let us look for a moment from whence come the vast 

 daily inpouring of fruits to Chicago, and the other great 

 distributing cities of the country. They come from every 

 habitable quarter ©f the globe. The shores of the Gulf and 

 Central America, California, Bermuda and the West Indies, 

 France, Spain, Italy, and the countries of the Mediterranean 

 sea; all these contribute largely. Oranges, lemons, pine 

 apples, bananas, figs and all dried fruits are abundant the 

 year round, in some form, and cheap either in their fresh or 

 preserved state. This is rendered possible by cheap and 

 swift railway transit — that wonderful system that has 

 brought up the value of western farms within the last forty 

 years, from a wilderness of grass, going a begging at 81.25 

 an acre, to a value of $10, $20, $50, and $100 an acre, accord- 

 ing as it is located near or far from the station. It has en- 

 abled the farmers of this great and fertile Mississippi 

 Valley to barter at prices favorable to all, wheat, corn, 

 barley, oats, horses, cattle, sheep, swine, chickens, eggs, milk, 

 butter and cheese; the gardener, his potatoes, and other 

 vegetable wealth; the horticulturist, his apples, pears, plums, 

 cherries, grapes, nuts and all small fruits; has enabled them, 

 I repeat, to barter these for necessaries and luxuries of life, 

 for all that other countries can bestow, and upon a fair 

 basis of value. There only remains then for the farmer, to 

 enable him to enjoy life as well as the best, that he cultivate' 

 an orchard of select varieties of fruit, natural to the climate, 

 a garden of vegetables, and of small fruits, with the same 

 care and diligence he does his corn field, to enable him to 

 live truly on the fat of the land. A single acre is ample. 



Why then is it neglected? 



