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The special thorn I am speaking of is called the Cockspur thorn, which is more easily 
described to the ordinary individual as a species having a perfectly smooth leaf and being 
thickly set with thorns. After several failures in our experiments with this we got both 
the method of growth and the plant that answered the purpose as a hedge plant. Our _ 
error in growing it was in allowing it to grow too high before cutting it off, and as a 
consequence in one o1 two years there were bare spaces below, but after we had some 
experience we found that we must get a strong bottom growth after which there is no 
difficulty in getting a perfectly impenetrable hedge, and a hedge that will last for ever. 
The advantages of this thorn are these: First, it is a perfectly hardy plant ; you cannot. 
kill it by any ordinary method. It will stand dry weather, cold weather, or wet land to any 
degree found in land fit for cultivation ; it will stand browsing which cnly improves it, and, 
in every way, it makes a splendid hedge. Its growth, however, is too siow to satisfy 
most people, and it has one other fatal defect [ am afraid. So far we have always been 
able to get our supply of the plant from a river bottom flat, but if the plant is ever to 
become a hedge plant it ust be propagated in some other way, and I do not know how 
it can be cheaply propagated. I was informed by Prof. Saunders that the seeds are ex- 
ceedingly slow of germination, and if that is the case it is a serious defect, but I think it 
is worth while to experiment with root cuttings, from which some of the same family are 
very readily developed. Our experience is simply that we take these plants from a river 
bottom and plant them out, and in about four years they mske a hedge that will turn 
anything and that gives little or no trouble in the way of trimming or pruning. The 
hedge in question is so close that nothing can make its way through it, but mice or small — 
birds. The birds make their nests in it, and it is a most excellent protection for them, 
and if for nothing else I think hedges should be grown for the protection of the birds. 
which are such friends of the fruit grower. 
FRUIT AS FOOD. 
At the evening session a paper was read by Mr. L. Woolverton, Secretary of the 
Association, on this subject, as follows : 
One of the best ways of increasing the selling price of our fruits is to educate the 
public into a freer use of them. Fruits are too often looked upon as mere luxuries, agree- 
able to the taste but useless when nourishing food is required. We find the citizens buying 
meat and potatoes regularly, but the fruits are only purchased occasionally as a special 
treat. When the family go from the city to the country in summer, the mother is in 
constant anxiety about the amount of fruit her children consume, and is surprised when 
the dreadful results anticipated do not follow. This craving which children have for ripe 
fruit is one proof of my first point, viz.: (1) The free use of ripe fruits at our meals tends 
to health and longevity. No doubt there are many persons present who can verify this 
position from actual experience. I have heard men say that in the autumn, when har- 
vesting grapes and eating freely of the fruit, they have noticed an increase of weight of 
from five to fifteen pounds. So well acknowleged has the healthfulness of the grape been 
that, in France and Germany, patients are treated with what is called the ‘ grape cure” 
for many diseases due to overfeeding. A French physician says that nothing does more 
to rid him of his patients than the daily use of fruits; and another says that since the 
apple has been more freely used in Paris, there has been a decrease of dyspepsia and of 
bilious affections. We all know with what avidity the fevered patient sucks the cooling 
juice of the ripe cherry. I have in a previous paper, referred to the healthfulness of the 
currant in dispelling headaches and reinvigorating the system. 
Not only on the score of health, but also on that of economy, we can speak a word 
for the use of fruit. Meat is one of the most expensive articles of diet, and in summer 
time not the most wholesome. Indeed, some physicians trace autumnal diarrhea to the 
use of meat in the hot weather, giving rise to alkaloids which are purgative in their 
effects. The fruit often gets the blame for what is due after all to the meat. <A grain 
and fruit diet, according to an eminent English physician, is in summer more healthfal 
and less expensive than a meat diet. 
