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SOMETHING ABOUT THE FRUIT CONVENTIONS. 



round. It now measures ten feet in diame- 

 ter, presenting in all its parts a perfect mass 

 of flowers and foliage, — being the finest 

 specimen I have ever witnessed of plant 

 cultivation. 



The principal points to be attended to, 

 in growing it to perfection, are to give it 

 plenty of moisture by frequent syringing, 

 and to stop the young shoots till it has 

 acquired the desired form, when it may be 

 allowed to ramble at pleasure. It is also 



excellently adapted for planting in vases, 

 or placing round a fountain, always select- 

 ing for it situations where it will be shaded 

 from the mid-day sun. We have planted 

 it out here, in the border, where it is fully 

 exposed ; but the leaves are turning brown, 

 and it looks altogether as if out of its lati- 

 tude, and showing distinctly that it needs 

 more shade and moisture. It is easily 

 struck from cuttings, rooting at every joint 

 like a Verbena. R. Scott. 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE FRUIT CONVENTIONS, 



BY AN OLD DIGGER. 



I am, as you know, too much of an "old 

 digger," to attend political meetings, agri- 

 cultural fairs, or even fruit conventions. I 

 am not only a little stiff in my joints, but 

 it makes me nervous and irritable to see 

 mere spouters and stump-speechifyers hav- 

 ing most of the talk to themselves in such 

 places, while the honest, sensible men, 

 who have something to say, sit with their 

 mouths closed. 



However, I am fond of fruit ; and as it 

 is plain that we are to be a great fruit 

 country, and that orchards, good apples, 

 pears and peaches, are to be every land- 

 holder's possession, who cares enough for 

 them to plant the trees, I look with a little 

 more interest than common on these fruit 

 conventions. 



There is no doubt at all that a great 

 deal of good will grow out of annual meet- 

 ings of all the most experienced fruit- 

 growers in the country. There is a great 

 deal of knowledge among practical men, 

 which never gets into the books ; and 

 many a rough hand, who writes his own 

 name as if he were jumping a bog meadow, 

 has picked up certain bits of experience in 



his life time that are worth, if you can get 

 it out of him by talking, a good many 

 more chapters than are to be found in 

 many current books on the same subject. 

 It is quite natural that when such men get 

 together they should set each other agoing, 

 if not by set speeches, at any rate by a 

 chat in the corner ; and I have no doubt 

 that as much good is done in this sort of 

 familiar intercourse among brother culti- 

 vators as in all others. 



But when people go to a national or 

 general convention, they must not take 

 crab apples and choke pears in their pock- 

 ets. I mean, in plain English, that they 

 must not go crammed full of sectional feel- 

 ings and local jealousies. It is very pro- 

 per and very praiseworthy for me to be 

 fond of my own horses and dogs, my own 

 cornfields and meadows ; but it will not 

 do for me to imagine them better than any 

 body else's, and tell my neighbors so to 

 their faces. All sorts of social intercourse, 

 societies, associations and communities, are 

 based upon a spirit of compromise ; that 

 is, every man gives up something of his 

 own pride and selfishness, in order that 



