Fruits to Supply a Family. 131 



Underdraining an acre of land, at intervals two rods apart, . $25 oo 

 Subsoiling twice, trench ploughing four times, and harrow- 

 ing twenty-five times, 22 oo 



TOO loads of manure and drawing, say, 50 oo 



$97 oo 



This expenditure will probably be returned, on an average, at 

 least every year, in the increased value of the crop, after the first 

 five years of growth. 



The annual expense of cultivating such a fruit garden would be 

 about as follows : 



Ploughing once in spring, to break up the settled earth, . $2 oo 

 Cultivating with horse, or harrowing six times, . . . 3 oo 



Whole annual cost, . . ... . . . . $5 oo 



HOW TO OBTAIN FRUIT FOR NEW PLACES. 



This is an inquiry that often occurs in the minds of many owners 

 of new places, or who have built new houses on unimproved spots. 

 We can inform such residents that much may be done towards an 

 immediate supply with proper selection and management, and that 

 the assertion which they often hear, that " it will take a lifetime to 

 get fruit " from a new plantation, is an absurd error. 



The quickest return is from planting Strawberries. If set out early 

 in spring, they will bear a moderate crop the same season. We have 

 repeatedly obtained fine ripe berries seven weeks from the day they 

 were set out. The second year, if the bed is kept clean, the pro- 

 duct will be abundant. Wilson's Albany will safely yield any year a 

 bushel from a square rod, or about two quarts a day for half a month. 



Muskmelons and Watermelons will yield their delicious products 

 four months after planting. 



Gooseberries, Currants, Raspberries, and Blackberries, all bear at 

 about the same period from the time of setting out. Good-sized 

 gooseberry plants, say a foot and a half high, will give a good crop 

 for bushes of their size, the second year. We have had a bushel of 

 Cherry currants the third summer after setting out quite small 

 plants, from a row thirty feet long. A bush of Brinckle's Orange 

 raspberry has been known repeatedly to bear about a hundred ber- 

 ries the same year that it was transplanted the fruit, however, was 

 not full size. 



