KANSAS FRUITS. 



By Alexander Hyde, Lee, Mass. 



The award of a gold medal, by the Pennsylvania Horticultural 

 Society, to Kansas, for her display of fruits at the recent session of 

 the American Pomological Society, in Philadelphia, has turned the 

 attention of fruit raisers to this land of promise. We have been ac- 

 customed to think that California was the Paradise of fruit growers 

 as well as the Eldorado of gold-seekers ; but a formidable rival to this 

 distant sunset land has sprung up in the very heart of the country. 

 We have recently made a flying trip to Kansas, have examined her 

 fruits in the cellars of the farmers and the fruit stores, have communed 

 with some of her prominent horticulturists, studied her climate and 

 soil as well as we could at this unfavorable season ; and some of the 

 lessons we learned may not be uninteresting to the readers of the 

 Journal of Horticulture. 



In the first place, the Kansas fruits, especially the apples, far sur- 

 passed our expectations. We had heard President Wilder expatiate 



VOL. VII. 17 129 



