The Canadian Horticulturist. 



353 



PROFIT OF RAISING LARGE FRUIT. 



"^'' • " " "■^ HE material composing large fruit is less costly than that which 

 enters into the composition of small fruit. We use the terms 



large and small fruit to distinguish specimens of the same variety, 

 as large Lombard plums and small Lombard plums, not to dis- 

 tinguish plums and cherries from grapes and currants. 



Compositioii of Fruit. — Like other vegetable products, fruits are mostly com- 

 posed of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, potash, soda, magnesia, lime, 

 phosphoric acid, and sulphuric acid. With the exception of nitrogen, potash, 

 and phosphoric acid, all these elements are abundantly supplied by the air or 

 the soil. A deficiency of one or more of these three substances impairs the 

 fertility of the soil, which must be restored and maintained by compounds con- 

 taining one or more of these three elements. Each crop taken off the land 

 carries with it a certain amount of these three elements, and lessens by so much 

 the raw material at the command of the farmer. 



Let us apply these principles in reckoning the cost of producing large and 

 small fruit of the same variety. An apple three inches in diameter contains 

 twenty-seven times as much substance as one only one inch in diameter, but the 

 skins, cores and seeds form a much larger percentage of entire substance of the 

 smaller apple than of the larger one. 



By a chemical analysis of the apple we find that the seeds, skins, and cores 

 contain about twice as large a percentage of ash and five times as large a per- 

 centage of nitrogen as the flesh of the apple does. Not only is the ash of the 

 refuse in greater abundance, but it is also richer in phosphoric acid. These 

 facts show that the soil is more rapidly exhausted by the production of small 

 fruit. 



Injurious to the Tree. — The tree is more injured by a large crop of small 

 fruit than by an equal weight of large fruit. The fruit tree which bears a heavy 

 crop of small fruit makes very little growth of wood, while one which bears the 

 same we'ght of large fruit makes sufficient wood-growth. Both the growth of 

 the tree is retarded and its health is much impaired by an undue amount of 

 seed. 



Besides this, the raising of large fruit is more profitable because it com- 

 mands a higher price in the market. 



Tiverton, Ont. A. H. Cameron. 



Turnip Sprouts. — It is stated that the Swede turnip placed in compara- 

 tively warm cellars in the fall of the year will send out sprouts, which, when 

 cooked, are equal to the best asparagus ; and, in some parts of the Old World, it 

 is becoming a regular part of good gardening to put away a few turnips for 

 supplying the article during the winter season. — Meehans' Monthly for Octobei 



