WINTER MEETING. 281 



for fruit than a pestiferous little burr, while the corn, with no flower at 

 all to speak of, when it comes to fruit just takes the cake ; at any 

 rate it makes the cake, and whether the same appear under the corre- 

 lative of Johnny ( diminutive of John ), or in the semi-fluid manifesta- 

 tion of mush, the same is a prominent factor in every well-regulated 

 American household. 



POOREST FRUIT, FINEST FLOWEBS. 



Even in plants of the same kind, it must be correct in the main to^ 

 say that the poorest fruit grows with the finest flowers. My attention 

 was called to this phenomenon last spring when the peaches were in 

 bloom. The peach named Mountain Rose, which, to my mind, repre- 

 sents the very high-water mark of delectableness in fruit of whatever 

 name, came out with comparatively tame blossoms, while a little ornery 

 seedling cling-stone bloomed forth like a garden. I do not feel like 

 laying down any hard and fast laws on this point in the domain of hor- 

 ticulture, where I am, as it were, but a novice, but in my own familiar 

 field of ornithology the inverse ratio that obtains between fine feathers 

 and fine birds has passed into a proverb. 



Thrice and four times blessed is the one fruit that does not have 

 to advertise itself by its flowers, though sometimes out of good na- 

 ture it may present them. I refer to that delicious tickler of the 

 palate, the rich man's luxury and the poor man's necessity, the pomtne 

 4e terre of the French, or apple of the ground, better known with us 

 as the fruit which grows at the root, and to which, out of respect for 

 the nationality of its most advanced admirers, we fix the word "Irish," 

 or call it, in the language of the market place, "spuds." 



My subject, I ought to remind you, is not one of my own selecting. 

 It was chosen for me by a committee that means to be fair to all, and 

 in pursuit of its duties it gave out subjects for these monthly essays, 

 poetical and otherwise, suited to our different capacities. In my case 

 I am a victim of one of their mistakes. They got the names mixed 

 like the twin babies in the story, and I, who am no poet, drew a poet's 

 part. My theme is, indeed, full of possibilities for one with an ear for 

 numbers, but saddening to one who in three long years has sat up 

 nights to get the returns from an orchard that don't come in. 



Had the harmonies and proprieties been observed, my subject 

 would have been "Flour and Fruit," with a judicious mingling of such 

 additions of shortening and sugar, salt and saleratus as taste demands. 

 Upon that text I could discourse with the feeling of a confirmed pic- 

 nicker, for the conclusion of the whole matter so formulated is that 

 delicious American confection, pie. 



