UTILITY OF FRUIT FOR FOOD. 23 



Others whose fruit, burnish'd with golden rind 

 Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, 

 If true, here only, and of delicious taste. 

 Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks 

 Grazing the tender herb, were interposed, 

 Or palmy hillock ; or the flow'ry lap 

 Of some irriguous valley spread her store, 

 Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose. 

 Another side, umbrageous grots and caves 

 Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine 

 Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps 

 Luxuriant; meanwhile murmuring waters fall 

 Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake, 

 That to the fringed bank, with myrtle crown'd, 

 Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams." 



SECTION III. UTILITY OF FRUITS FOR FOOD AND 

 THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 



The fruits of various countries and climes should be 

 regarded as one of the most valuable gifts which divine 

 Providence has bestowed upon man. And the cultivation 

 of those of superior kind should on all accounts be promo- 

 ted, not merely as the source of luxury, but as a substi- 

 tute for pernicious medicine, and as a delicious, healthy, and 

 most nutritious article of food, which, habitually used, palli- 

 ates thirst, thus essentially promoting the great cause of 

 temperance. " The palate," says the-celebrated Mr. Knight, 

 " which relishes fruit, is seldom pleased with strong fer- 

 mented liquors ; and as feeble causes, continually acting, 

 ultimately produce extensive effects, the supplying the 

 public with fruit at a cheap rate, would have a tendency 

 to operate favorably, both on the physical and moral 

 health of the people." 



The belief is but too prevalent, that fruits produce dis- 

 eases during the months of summer and autumn, and 

 especially the dysentery. The belief is untrue ; and the 

 very reverse is certainly true, fruits being the true pre- 

 ventives of disease. I might amplify on this subject, 

 but must be brief, and will only add as proofs, and from 

 celebrated physicians, the following from the "Annales 

 d'florticulture," due to the researches of Gen. Dearborn and 

 the New England Farmer, where I have found them in- 

 serted. It is from the writer of another country a 

 country celebrated for the cultivation of good fruit, and 

 alike celebrated for the remarkably temperate habits of its 



