ORCHARD AND GARDKN SUGGESTIONS. '22 1 



Our peaches are all said to be descendants of the Persica vulgaris, so 

 called because Persia was credited with being its native country, from 

 where it was brought into the Roman empire during the reign of Em- 

 peror Claudius, and cultivated as an ornamental, as the fruit was, or was 

 at any rate supposed to be, poisonous. 



From the small and single flowering wild roses have no doubt been 

 developed the gorgeous American beauty, the dainty baby ramblers, the 

 rampant growing climbers, the delicately tinted teas, and all the rest of 

 this numerous and interesting family. 



Sometimes, in a highly developed variety, a dormant quality will 

 awaken and then we have what is commonly known as a sport. This 

 may be vastly different in color, or form, or size, or habit of growth, or 

 quality, or to some extent in some, or all, of these from the parent plant. 

 But whether a new variety is a sport or the result of haphazard cross 

 fertilization, or the result of years or even hundreds of years of hybridiz- 

 ing and careful selection, it was there all the time and only needed the 

 proper combination to bring it to light. 



Though man has, and will no doubt continue to the end of time, to 

 improve the fruits and flowers, he is none the less a benefactor who gives 

 part of his life often without receiving even the reward of appreciation, 

 that we may enjoy a more beautiful flower or a better fruit. 



ORCHARD AND GARDEN SUGGESTIONS. 

 C. G. MARSHAXL. 

 PICKING AND MARKETING FRUIT. 



The complaint made by farmers and amateur fruit growers that there 

 is no market for fruit when a crop is produced is very common in east- 

 ern Nebraska. That these conditions do exist to some extent is a fact, 

 and the fault usually lies with the producers. They load the market 

 with inferior fruit packed in almost any kind of box or basket, and one 

 commission merchant tell of receiving one consignment of plums put up 

 in grain sacks. 



The majority of growers seem to think that if they get the fruit into 

 the hands of the merchant that is all that is required of them; the con- 

 dition of the fruit does not enter into their calculations and they expect 

 to receive prices for first class carefully packed fruit when their fruit 

 is second class and thrown together. 



Small fruits are very often picked when the fields are too wet to 

 take a team into the fields and some of the fruit is over-ripe while 

 some is picked too green. This makes a bad appearing package of fruit 

 and one that must be used immediately or it will spoil. A few over-ripe 

 berries in each box will spoil the whole crate in twenty-four hours if not 

 put on ice. 



A farmer in northern Nebraska who has quite a plum orchard tells of 



