STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 207 



this State, our main dependence, or rather what is wanted most, it 

 seems to us, is some awakening among the masses as to the import- 

 ance of providing liberal supplies of home grown fruits. 



We wish to emphasize this point. There is no wisdom in the farm- 

 er bending all his energies at raising wheat and totally neglecting the 

 "plum thicket" and the strawberry "patch." In nine times out of 

 ten the farmer who neglects to grow sufficient fruit for home and 

 family use because it "costs" too much, will go without this almost 

 priceless blessing, which surely is within the easy reach of all. The 

 business of raising home grown fruits for family use should take a 

 new momentum right away. While there is progress in some locali- 

 ties in this direction quite marked and most encouraging indeed, the 

 industry should be increased a hundred-fold throughout the State. 



There is good logic in the following in a recent issue of the Farm, 

 Stock and Home: " Increase the gardens and small fruits of a coun- 

 try and you increase the comfort and happiness of its people." 



THE PAST YEAR 



In some respects has been unfavorable for fruit. The drouth had been 

 severe in several western states the previous year, and being still pro- 

 tracted into 1887, results were quite disastrous to the farming interests 

 of the State. The ravages of chinch bugs were more extensive and de- 

 structive than ever known before, especially to our leading staple, 

 wheat. The ill effects of drouth were equally as marked, we think, on 

 fruits as on the cere;^ls and vegetable productions. One cause of short- 

 age in our crop of fruits lies in the further fact that many of our orchards 

 have not yet become restored from the effects of our late trying win- 

 ter; some orchards being totally destroyed. In some localities, how- 

 ever, there was a gratifying show of fruit. The orchards yielding 

 well were mainly those in favorable situations and the varieties 

 produced were of the hardier kinds. 



SMALL FRUITS. 



The small fruit products of the State were greatly shortened by the 



drouth; but this deficiency was partly counterbalanced by excellence 



.in quality of fruit produced. Strawberries ripened earlier than 



usual, and quite a number of our local growers reported satisfactory 



yields of fruit. 



Grapes seldom ever have been known to be a better or a larger crop. 

 The dry and heated spell of weather which prevailed so long proved 



