THE SECRET AKT'S PORTFOLIO. 235 



and grain country. I do not say we cannot raise wheat, but I do say we cannot 

 compete successfully with the "New Northwest." In the growth of fruit 

 where arc our competitors? You will find them by studying the isothermal 

 lines of the country, and you will find that the growth of " Michigan apples " 

 is confined to Michigan. 



I would have those who are raising apples know that the value of their crop 

 depends on the gathering and shipping. I would have them know that apples 

 bruised have lost much of their value. One might as well ship wet wheat as 

 bruised apples. I would have them know that apples can be kept till they 

 mature; that farmers have facilities for wintering apples as well as stock; that 

 apples can be saved by utilizing those of the second and third qualities by 

 drying or making into cider or jelly, or feeding to stock. I would have them 

 know that it is no evidence of brains to gather apples carefully and then take 

 them to market by putting them into a flour bag, shoulder the bag and throw 

 them into the lumber wagon and use them for a seat upon which to ride to 

 town. I would have them know that for sound apples there is a market grow- 

 ing up in this new Northwest that not only warrants the gathering of the 

 fruit from the present orchards, but justifies the caring for their orchards with 

 reference to their profits and the setting out of more trees. These remarks 

 apply to the peach and pear as well as to the apple. 



In regard to plums I am not sure what I learned in regard to them. My 

 impression is they are more hardy and withstand the colder climate better. 

 But one need not look abroad for a plum market so long as not one person in a 

 a hundred will fight the curculio to save his fruit. The good God seems to 

 have given us the fruit, let us pray for the brains necessary to utilize it. 



Upon this same topic we take the following from the Indiana Farmer: 

 If any one will take the trouble to look into the facts about the comparative 

 price of the different kinds of fruit grown in tiiis country, they will see how 

 foolish is the idea that tlie country is in danger of being overstocked. The price 

 of apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, grapes, etc., is on the increase and for 

 forty years, dividing that time into four periods of ten years each, statistics show 

 that on an average the price of fruit has constantly increased. In strawberries 

 and other small fruits this has been very marked. Production has grown rapidly 

 in that time, but prices have constantly advanced. Occasionally we have a 

 year of great abundance of apples, and prices are low. But farmers generally 

 do not seem to have realized yet that the surplus in apples may be very profit- 

 ably utilized in fattening both hogs and cattle. The best of meat may be 

 made with a little corn and plenty of apple food. In older countries it is well 

 known that this kind of feed cooked and mixed with ground grain is very 

 healthful for all kinds of stock, and it is doubted that hogs would have the 

 disease known as cholera if fed this kind of ration frequently. >So we see that 

 in years of abundance the surplus fruit, when the price is low, may be profit- 

 ably fed to stock, and thus we may realize a good price for it. Tiiere is no 

 danger of planting too many orchards, or of getting too much fruit. 



APPLES AND HEALTH. 



From the earliest ages apples have been in use for the table as a dessert. 

 The historian Pliny tells us that the Komans cultivated twenty-two varieties of 



