CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS — HISTORY AND ADVANCEMENT OF 

 FRUITS IN OHIO AND THE WE^T — VALUE AS FOOD. 



A SUBJECT SO boundless, in a country of such extent and capacity 

 of soil and climate as ours for the production of all the finer fruits ; 

 in a country which, until within a few years, was but a wilderness — 

 a wild, uncultivated tract, now yielding, with the most common, or 

 rather with no care, immense quantities of luscious ripe fruits for 

 transportation to countries where the arts of culture were fully 

 known and understood before we were, filling our store-houses with 

 food, our hearts with gladness, adding to our wealth while contribu- 

 ting to the blessings of others ; (for what meets the eye or gladdens 

 the heart more pleasantly than the sight of the perfect fruits of the 

 earth]) — a subject, we say, then so boundless, merits more of 

 enwreathing plaudit than our limits here may allow, though our 

 fancy picture it. Nor have we space, although especially applicable 

 to the practical use of our work, to more than commend the study 

 and practice, in a scientific view, of man to perfection of that de- 

 picted in the following stanza : ^ 



" The heaven-taught gardener-s wondrous skill 



Shall wreath the earth with flowers, 

 While new and luscious fruits shall grow 

 Throughout her Eden bowers." 



As yet the western soils present comparatively little toward the 

 inducementof study and practice ; for so freely does every variety 

 of fruit grow, that- man has only to plant in order to reap. Soon, 

 however, the grower will learn that skill and care only will reward 

 him with product from his trees — skill, in the thorough understand- 

 ing of the principles of vegetable physiology ; the care and practice, 

 necessary in applying the same. 



Rapidly as the West has grown from a tract of country only 

 inhabited by the red man and beasts, to the presenting almost, at 

 this day, of the " Garden of America ;" her prairies, her limestone- 

 hills and broad levels ; her sandy alluvial bottoms, located in almost 

 as many different climates as positions, abound with all of nature's 

 food, stored for yeai's in the production of tree, fruit, and flower, t4» 



15 ,^^ . 



