THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



U9 



cultural productions of the Mississippi 

 Valley amounted in the aggregate to 

 one hundred million dollars, and that 

 this was in itself sufficient apology for 

 such a gathering as was present there 

 that evening. He stated that one of 

 the ])rincipal needs of the fruit growers 

 of that valley was some provision for 

 testing in the field embraced within its 

 boundaries the great multitude of new 

 varieties of fruits that were continu- 

 ally being brought out. and new 

 methods of cultivation. He was sure 

 the fruit planters of the west had lost 

 money, sometimes by planting unsuita- 

 ble varieties, sometimes by unsuitable 

 culture of varieties that would have 

 succeeded had the treatment been 

 adapted to their circumstances. The 

 different climates of the Mississippi 

 Valley called for diversity of treatment, 

 and the planting of different varieties. 

 What may be suitable in one place may 

 be very unsuitable in another part of 

 this great valley. The work of experi- 

 mental stations undertaken by some of 

 the States is certainly invaluable, but 

 quite insufficient to produce the infor- 

 mation needed by the ]}lanter. New 

 questions are continually arising to 

 perplex the fruit grower, new difficul- 

 ties seem to be continually springing up, 

 and new claimants for public favour 

 have need to be tested continually. 

 Hence the nece.ssity for such a gather- 

 ing as this, where pi-actical fruit 

 growers, giving their individual atten- 

 tion to the subject in hand, impart to 

 each other the information they have 

 gained and thus make the experience 

 of each the common property of all. 

 Alluding to Canada, he said that 

 reciprocity with Canada in this branch 

 of business was earnestly to \>e> desired ; 

 that the duties imposed by Canada 

 upon such products going into the 

 Dominion were greatly to the disad- 

 vantage of the fruit growers of the 

 Mississippi Valley. He closed his in- 



teresting addi*ess by appealing to the 

 members to do all in their })ower to 

 make rural life attractive, and at the 

 same time pecuniarly profitable, and 

 to disabuse the young men of the notion 

 that occu[)ation of any kind in the city 

 is to be preferred to agriculture or fruit 

 growing. He also warned them not 

 to plant one more shrub, tree or vine 

 than they can intelligently care for, 

 saying that already there had been too 

 much " planting in ignorance and 

 reaping in disgust." 



On the following morning, the Gulf 

 States Association invited the members 

 to a steamboat excursion upon the 

 Mississippi to the truck farm of Mr. 

 A. W. Roundtree. This farm is upon 

 the west bank of the river in Jefferson 

 county, about thirteen miles from New 

 Orleans, consisting of 175 acres, of 

 which 75 are occupied by orange trees, 

 to the number of 7,000 trees. It is 

 pi-obably the largest truck farm in 

 America, making a s})ecialty of cabbage, 

 cucumber and tomato, during the win- 

 ter months. The greatest part of the 

 crop is sent to the Chicago market. 

 He is growing this winter some 170,000 

 heads of cabbage upon a field of about 

 40 acres, and he yearly grows from 

 eight to nine hundred barrels of cucum- 

 bers, and from six to eight hundred 

 boxes of tomatoes. Besides this a con- 

 siderable amount of strawberries, 

 peaches and grapes are grown for family 

 use, and his apiary j)roduces annually 

 from eight to ten barrels of honey. 

 His tomatoes sometimes sell in the 

 Chicago market at the rate of nine 

 dollars a bushel, coming as they do at 

 the time of great scarcity, when the 

 demand far exceeds the supply. 



At the time of the vi.sit of the society 

 the orange trees were just coming into 

 bloom, filling tin; air with delightful fra- 

 grance. The fruit had all been gathei'ed, 

 save that whicli remained upon a few 

 trees of the bitter orangejUot fit for food. 



