270 STATE BOARD OF AGKICULTUKE. 



sary to their successful culture opens up ;i new source of thought and supplies 

 a pure source of eujoyinent. 



Mr. II. Collins, of White Pigeon, read the following essay on 



FRUIT CULTURE ON THE FARM. 



The growing of fruit on the farm for the use of the family is a matter of the 

 highest importance and deserving of far more attention than it has yet received 

 because, lirst, fruit is the highest development of vegetable life ; second, it is 

 the only product of the farm suitable for human food without previous culinary 

 preparation; third, fresh, ripe fruit eaten at proper times and in suitable 

 quantities, as part of the regular meal, is easy of digestion, nourishing, and 

 healthful. 



The fact has been demonstrated that it is possible to have fresh, ripe fruit the 

 year round. This would be true even had we no other than the apple. By 

 selecting varieties ripening in succession from the Early Harvest and Tetofsky, 

 ripening in July and August, to the Golden and English liusset, which, under 

 favorable circumstances, may be kept during most of the year, this result may 

 be reached. But we are not confined to apples alone. First, we have the 

 strawberry, with its fine and delicate aroma, ripening in June, and followed by 

 raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, cherries, peaches, plums, 

 grapes, and pears, filling up the whole summer and constituting a variety that 

 ought to satisfy the most delicate palate. It is possible for farmers even, to 

 have some of these on their tables at every meal ; but eternal vigilance in 

 waging a war of extermination against their insect enemies, would be necessary 

 to the successful culture of some of them. It is not my purpose to treat of 

 this branch of the subject in this paper — that will be done by others more 

 competent. What I want to urge most strongly is the importance of having the 

 family well supplied with good and choice fruit ; that few comparatively are, 

 is not to be wondered at when it is remembered that the taste of most men has 

 been vitiated by long chewing of the filthy weed, which is more sought after 

 than the best of fruit. 



Profitableness of Fniit Culture. 



In considering the profitableness of "fruit culture for the farm" in St. 

 Joseph county, I shall confine niy attention principally to the apple, as suc- 

 cessfully raising the finer fruits so as to insure profit, requires greater care and 

 attention than the ordinary farmer will devote to it. 



I often hear the remark from farmers that the apple is not a profitable crop, 

 — that in seasons when the cro[> is abundant the price is so low that they are 

 scarcely worth marketing at all. True, the prices obtained by our farmers for 

 the crop of 1878 have not filled their pockets with greenbacks, as in some 

 former years, but good apples are now worth two dollars per barrel, and had 

 our farmers been prepared to keep them through the winter, better prices 

 might have been realized. 



But I believe I can show that apples can be grown at a profit feven at seventy- 

 five cents per barrel, which was about the average price obtained last fall. 



I will give one example in the township of White Pigeon : 



An orchard of five acres, on a poor sandy knoli, with very little care in prun- 

 ing, no culture at all and no manure (one half of which is common fruit, fit 

 only for cider), i)roduced the following in 1878 : 



