INTRODUCTION. 7 



grand thing to place in their hands a fruit fund for the pur- 

 chase of fruits to be plentifully distributed among the poor. 

 Good fruit, especially peaches and apples, during the latter 

 part of summer, keeps the blood cool and prevents feverish- 

 ness. The juices of fruits dilute the blood and keep it in a 

 proper condition of fluidity, quite as well if not better than 

 water. They also keep the kidneys in a high degree of 

 health — a recommendation that cannot be given to any sort 

 of artificial drink, not even to w^ater, except it be pure and 

 soft. It is well enough to disinfect streets and places with 

 carbolic acid, chloride of lime, &c., but it would be better to 

 stave off epidemics by making people too healthy to be as- 

 sailed by them, and this, plenty of good fruit will help greatly 

 to do." 



If ''Agriculture is the nursing mother of the arts, and till- 

 age and pasturage the two breasts of the State," '"'fruit cul- 

 ture'' must come in as furnishing a good supply of the nour- 

 ishment. An esteemed writer. Col. John J. Werth, who has 

 exhibited no little horticultural literature and good judgment, 

 says, in an address to the Virginia Horticultural and Pomo- 

 logical Society: 



"But while it is indispensable, under present discourage- 

 ments, to offer directly profitable results in money actually 

 received, to stimulate the zealous pursuit of any enterprise 

 whatever requiring money, yet we w^ould not be at a loss to 

 find important encouragement for the cultivation of all fruits, 

 small and large, for home consumption, by almost all classes 

 who till the soil, if their value could be rightly appreciated 

 as an economical and healthful, and, may I not venture to 

 add, an elevating element of subsistence. There is good rea- 

 son to believe that if our Southern people could be induced 

 to limit their consumption of animal food, and proportionately 

 increase their consumption of fruit, there would be a gen- 

 eral prevalence of better health and more elastic tempera- 

 ment. It can scarcely have escaped the common observation 

 of those w^ho have mingled with other nations of the earth, 

 at their own homes (or where they were congregated in suffi- 

 cient proportions on other soils to encourage the indulgence 



