GOOD VARIETIES OF FRUIT FOR THE FARMER. 413 
grocers’ stock are as different in every way as—comparison is impossible. 
When I think oi it discouraged fancy drops her pencil at once and says its no 
use. Oh, Adam! the people that dwell together in cities, how are they pun- 
ished for thy transgressions! 
The most attractive berry by reason of size or color, or the firmest berry, 
is not the best by any means. There are many kinds that will give the farm- 
er much better satisfaction. The variety that yields well, is healthy and 
gives a berry whose flavor nearest approaches that of the wild berry of the 
meadow or the woodland, is the best one for the farmer to plant for family 
use. There are many such. But I will not go into a discussion of varieties, 
for the reason that I have found that what does well with me may not be 
satisfactory with my neighbor, where soil and conditions are slightly differ- 
ent; and kinds that succeed best with my neighbor have failed entirely on my 
grounds. So it only remains for the farmer to make his selection of varieties 
and give them a fair test. He will then be in a position to know what he 
wants for permanent and more liberal planting. 
Strawberries and raspberries bear in abundance the second year after 
planting; blackberries, grapes, currants and gooseberries the third year; 
plums and the early bearing varieties of apples the fourth and fifth year. 
This topic of ‘Good Varieties of Fruit for the Farmer” I have found pro- 
pounds more questions than can be satisfactorily answered in one meeting, 
and I will leave the subject for some time in the future. 
I must say in conclusion, every farmer who owns his farm owes it to 
his wife and to his children—who don’t get to town every rainy day—to 
plant—in this year of our Lord—a fruit garden. To plant in it many ol 
those things that are “pleasant to the eye,” and especially plant liberally of 
those things that are “good for food.” 
There is no excuse—that common sense or reason will accept—for the 
farmer buying grocery vegetables and canned fruit when a garden of fair size, 
faid out in long rows that can be easily worked with a horse, will furnish” 
luxuries for the table every day in the year from spring till spring again. 
The sorriest sight to my mind that imagination could picture is a farmer 
coming to town to sell his butter and eggs and take home a few heads of 
wilted cabbage and some green peas that have had the goodness all fried 
out of them by lying all day in the sun at the grocers, and, perhaps, a case 
of sour, mouldy strawberries from Sparta, as a treat for his wife. Treat in- 
deed! Such treatment is a downright insult and beneath the dignity of a 
good citizen. A billy-goat would turn up his nose in disgust at the whole 
outfit. Why, Mister President, he can raise enough of vegetables and fruit 
on a small piece of ground in one-tenth the time he takes to talk politics up 
town in the saloon and grocery and never win an argument. Such a garden 
would not only add to the selling value of the farm but would increase the 
attachment of the owner and his family to their own premises. It would 
make the present more enjoyable, the future would look far brighter, and, 
as the years go by, he could view the past with a great deal more of satis— 
faction and a great deal less of regret. 
