pints m iht ^atlrning u^ ginning 0f»^ttmnur Iruits, 



E believe that full three-fourths of all the summer fruits consumed in this 

 country, reach the hands of consumers in a totally unfit state for the use of 

 human beings who are not prepared to commit suicide. So alarming has this traffic 

 become, and more especially in cholera times, that the humane and enlightened public 

 authorities of such well-regulated cities as Rochester have actually published an ordi- 

 nance prohibiting the sale of fruit, thus placing it on an equal footing with the very 

 worst of public nuisances ! The man who offers fruit for sale at his door, is con- 

 sidered as great an enemy to the public welfare as he who would let a mad dog 

 loose in the public streets. Is not this something to be surprized at, and regretted ? 

 Fruits, which should be the most healthy and refreshing articles of human food, and 

 especially during the sultry season of the year, (when strong animal food is out of the 

 question,) forbidden, as though they were poison ! It is high time, surely, for some 

 reformation in the manner of preparing and offering fruits in the market. Green 

 Apples, rotten Pears, and fermented Peaches, will not much longer be tolerated by 

 law anywhere, even if permitted by the necessities and ignorance of the public. Those 

 who grow fruits for market must therefore make up their minds at once that they 

 must prepare them properly, just as farmers do their grain, beef, pork, or poultry. 

 All these things must by common consent be dressed and put in fair marketable con- 

 dition before being exposed for sale, and why not fruits ? Look at the economy of 

 the matter. One man comes into town with a few bushels of nice, selected, ripe 

 Apples, or carefully hand-picked and house-ripened, delicious Pears, and without any 

 peddling about the streets he disposes of them at his own price ; while another, who 

 has shaken some fruits off his trees, thrown them into a wagon box, and brought 

 them into market, is shunned and driven out of town with his load, as though he were 

 freighted with a plague. 



All the fruits that are grown, and ten times as many more, would not be enough to 

 supply the public wants in this country, were they properly ripened. Carelessness is 

 largely at the bottom of the abuses that prevail in these matters. Fruit-growing, 

 with a great majority of those who supply the markets with, fruit, is not a regular 

 profession, but a sort of subordinate incidental one ; other branches of their pursuit 

 are considered more important, and the fruits are passed hurriedly and negligently 

 through their hands, the object being to get rid of them with the least possible waste 

 of time. There is a great field open to those who will embark in this business sys- 

 tematically and thoroughly. We remember, at a conversational meeting of fruit- 

 growers and those interested in the subject, at Saratoga, last year,* some statements 

 being made, showing the advantages that resulted from the exercise of skill and care 

 in gathering, ripening, and assorting fruits for market. It was stated that Bartlett 

 Pears, gathered at a proper time, and matured in the house, sold for three or four 



♦ See page 517 of oiir last volume. 



Sei'tember 1, 1854. No, IX. 



