The Canadian Horticulturist. 285 



Add to this the value of land, with interest and taxes, and you have the 

 cost at three years. Under favorable conditions the crop the third year will 

 pay the cost of cultivation and harvesting. With the vineyard in full bearing, 

 a crop of 600 baskets per acre would be worth, at i2j^c. per basket, $75. 

 Expenses out: baskets, $12 ; picking, packing, etc., $15 ; pruning, cultivation,, 

 spraying, repairs, etc., $30 ; leaving $18 per acre profit. The^^Concord seems 

 to be the only variety that will sell in unlimited quantities. Other varieties are 

 wanted only in a small way. — American Agriculturist. 



HEALTHFULNESS OF FRUIT. 



^-F English people would only realize the immense importance and value 

 of fruit as an article of diet in the early morning, we should find its 

 appearance far more on the ordinary breakfast table, says the London 

 Family Doctor. Of its healthfulness at this period of the day there 

 can be no doubt whatever, and more fruit and less animal food would 

 undoubtedly conduce to a much healthier condition of the body. In 

 the morning there is an acid state of the secretions, and nothing is so well cal- 

 culated to correct this as subacid fruits, such as peaches, apples and pears. 

 The apple is one of the best fruits ; oranges also are generally acceptable to 

 most people, but the juice alone should be taken and not the pulp, and the 

 same may be said of lemons and pomegranates. Tomatoes act on the liver 

 and bowels, and strawberries, figs, raspberries, currants and blackberries may be 

 classed among the best foods and medicines. The sugar in them is nutritious, 

 the acid is cooling and purifying, and the seeds are laxative. 



Fruits are the natural correctives for disordered digestion, but the way irk 

 which many persons eat them converts them into a curse rather than a blessing- 

 Instead of being taken on an empty stomach, or in combination with simple 

 grain preparations such as bread, they are frequently eaten with oily foods, or 

 they are taken at the end of the meal, after the stomach is already full, and 

 perhaps the whole mass of food washed down with tea, coffee, or other liquid. 

 Fruits to do their best work should be eaten on an empty stomach or simply 

 with bread— never with vegetables. In the morning, before the fast of the 

 night has been broken, they are not only exceedingly refreshing, but they serve 

 as a natural stimulus to the digestive organs. And to produce their fullest, 

 finest effect, they should be ripe, sound, and of good quality. In our climate 

 fresh fruit should constitute not the finishing but the beginning of the meal, 

 particularly the breakfast, for at least six months of the year. The good effects, 

 that would follow the abundant use of fruits are often more than counterbal- 

 anced by the pernicious habit of saturating them with sugar. Very few fruits, 

 if thoroughly ripe and at their best, require any sugar, particularly if eaten i» 

 the raw state ; but it is unfortunately a fact, that what is intended and prepared 

 for us as a great good in the matter of diet, should be transformed into exactly 

 the reverse. 



