EXTEXS/ON 01- FRUIT GROWIXG.—H. 



Williams (B).— 



Plants are vigorous 



i^^C^4 ' *-A '^ but somewhat 



.'■t (.y'J*,^ *,' /9X liable to rust: fairly 



r'^'y o 9 ' ' ' <^Sv ["■"ductive; ripens 



K~''ja!«a*'» ':r^ mid season. Berry 



* f large, very seedy : 



and dark crimson, 



and firm. A good 



market variety. 



STRAWHiiRRY Whipped Cream.— Rub 

 two pounds and a half of strawberries 

 through a sieve, and add half a pound 

 of powdered sugar and one quart of 

 whipped cream. Place a layer of maca- 

 roons or any small sweet biscuit in a 

 dish, add a layer of the strawberry whip, 

 then another layer of biscuit, and con- 

 tinue alternately until the cream is used 

 up. Set aside in a very cold place, or 

 on ice, and serve in the dish in which it 

 is prepared 



EXTENSIOX OF FRUIT GROWING. II. 

 By E. D. Smith, Winona. 



'E can grow plums cheaper 

 than any other place of wide 

 area in America. We can 

 grow them and make money 

 at 10 cents per basket, basket included, 

 in a year of heavy crop like the past 

 year ; if we get an occasional crop at 

 good prices, which we are sure to do. 

 There is no limit to the market for plum 

 jams, when our jam factories and can- 

 neries can rely upon a steady supply of 

 plums every year at moderate prices, 

 they can then open up with confidence 

 a trade with the tropical countries, that 

 want our acid fruits and are willing to 

 pay a fair price for them. I believe the 

 low prices for our plum crop of 1896 

 was the best thing in the long run, we 

 could have had. It will introduce our 

 fruits into distant markets where they 

 where hitherto unknown, and create a 

 demand for our plums in countries that 

 will in future become good customers, 

 to say nothing of the home market in 

 Quebec and the North-West, that will 

 take enormous quantities of canned 

 plums if cheap enough to compete with 

 the 2,500,000 pounds of prunes import- 

 ed into this country from ("alifornia. 

 annually. The truth of the matter with 

 regard to jilums is, that in good plum 



districts we have been making unusual 

 and unreasonable profits, but like grapes 

 many years ago, we have up to the 

 pre.>ent, only had small areas under culti- 

 vation. 



Now when our ten acre fields are 

 coming into bearing we must not ex- 

 pect the fabulous profits, per acre, of 

 the past, but must rather compare our 

 profits from a ten acre field of plum 

 trees with the profits from a ten acre 

 field of corn or oats or other farm crop. 

 It costs little more to care for a field of 

 plum trees than a field of corn. We 

 should be content to make a reasonable 

 profit in these days when the major- 

 ity of farm crops are grown at a loss 

 rather than any profit at all. Let any 

 man figure up the net profit of ten 

 acres of oats at 20 cts per bushel, or 10 

 acres of corn at current prices and if he 

 can figure out any profit on the crop 

 and allow wages at $1 per day, and 

 other actual cost's of growing the crop, 

 he is a better arithmetician than 1 am. 

 Now there yet remains two most impor- 

 tant fruit crops to discuss, viz., pears and 

 apples, both of which can be grown over 

 widely extended areas. 1 am very opti- 

 mistic about both of these crops, I 

 believe at present the outlook for the 



