12 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Foreign markets are just being opened for them; and we 

 near the seacoast have the advantage for shipping of those 

 living inland. Let us learn to pick and sort our apples with 

 more care, and put them up honestly in clean nice barrels, 

 then our fruit will soon have a reputation abroad, and will 

 be always sought for at good remunerative prices. 



There are other fruits which might be raised to advantage 

 in this county, and with experience, and a fair amount of 

 skill, could be made as profitable as any other farm-crop. 



Pears, peaches, quinces, and plums are adapted to this sec- 

 tion, and can be grown here to perfection. Grapes, which 

 ripen tardily in our New-England climate, are desirable for 

 family use : some of the earliest varieties should be culti- 

 vated, and may possibly be raised with profit for the market. 

 ' Cherries are a luxury ; but they add much to the pleasures 

 ■of home, and no fruit-garden is complete without them. 

 Strawberries and the other small fruits are a fixed fact; no 

 town or village in the future but will have them : even at 

 the present low prices, they are a paying crop. While peo- 

 j)le in cities, even of moderate means, have learned to use 

 fruit freely as a necessary article of food, it is to be feared, 

 that, in the country, the fruit-garden has been too often 

 neglected. This is next in importance to the vegetable- 

 garden ; and no farmer should fail to furnish his family with 

 a supply of fruit, from the earliest strawberries to the latest 

 whiter apples and pears. 



It is to be regretted that many varieties of fruit which 

 were formerly raised here in great abundance should have 

 been almost wholly abandoned. For instance, winter pears, 

 very delicious for cooking, were found on many farms almost 

 : as plenty as apples ; now the trees are cut away and de- 

 stroyed: instead, we see long-named exotics, which never 

 • can or will fill the places of our former favorites. The same 

 will apply to plums and some other fruits. While it may be 

 said that the varieties have deteriorated, or the soil become 

 exhausted, or that insects have increased more than formerly, 

 it may be replied that what is worth little costs us little ; 

 what is worth having is worth working for ; that he who 

 becomes discouraged or faint-hearted because of drought, 

 mildew, or a few insects, is not deserving of the fruits wliich 

 a bountiful Providence would bestow upon us. 



