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Union, its use is as general as that of any other commodity, 

 sugar not excepted. One may dilate upon the beauty of an 

 orange grove; go into ecstacies of enthusiasm over the aroma, 

 color, and taste of the fruit, yet it is but a luxury and always 

 will remain such. The man or woman who seeks to satisfy 

 the craving of hunger with an orange, seeks in vain, though 

 we readily admit that a sweet ripe orange is always grateful 

 to the palate and cooling to the system. The growing of 

 lemons, figs, and dates, may be poetic, but we must remember 

 that only a small section of our country is suitable for the 

 growth of citrous fruits, and that the demand for them does 

 not keep pace with the production. We do not say this to dis- 

 courage anyone from seeking to engage in the growing of 

 citrous fruits if they have a liking for it, but to call attention 

 to the fact that there is another side, other than the rosy one 

 so often painted to the home-seeker, by men who have land to 

 sell or are interested in some water or flume company. 

 The apple, however, is a 



STAPLE ARTICLE OF FOOD, 



either raw or cooked, and as satisfying to the appetite as any 

 vegetable production. What excels for delicacy an apple 

 cooked and eaten with sugar and cream? What more satis- 

 fying to the appetite than bread and butter and apple sauce? 

 What pleasure of the imagination can for a moment hold its 

 own with the recollection of the apple pies that "mother" made 

 when we were boys, and which often served to reward us when 

 we were good, and whose coveted squares were refused us as a 

 punishment when naughty. Apple dumplings is a dish fa- 

 miliar to every American and the term a household word. Who, 

 knowing the many methods by which the apple is and can be 

 made palatable, can deny that it heads the list of fruits and is 

 justly entitled to rank as the monarch of all. It is the first 

 fruit mentioned in scripture, and though to its first eating the 

 many ills to which humanity is heir is attributed, still we must 

 think that there is certainly some mistake about this, consid- 

 ering the part that the apple has borne in the economy of the 

 nations who inhabit the greater part of the temperate zone. 



