10 SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST. 



snow covers the fields and with the thermometer at zero 

 and call for a dish of strawberries and cream, and he will 

 be supplied as readily as in the month of June. The fruit 

 may not "be quite so good as when first gathered from the 

 plant, but, considering the time of year, it is quite accept- 

 able. Not only do private families, saloons and hotels 

 consume enormous quantities of the small fruits which 

 fiave been preserved in these hermetically sealed cans and 

 jars, but every steamer or sailing vessel that leaves our 

 ports takes with it a supply for use on the voyage, and 

 it often forms a share of the freight. We are not only 

 called upon to produce fruits to supply the home de- 

 mand, but other portions of the world which cannot or 

 do not produce them, and it can readily be seen that 

 it must be many years before anything like an adequate 

 quantity can be produced, even with the rapid strides 

 we are making. The field for production may appear to 

 be a very large one, still it is far less than that of con- 

 sumption. It is not every location or soil that is adapted 

 to the cultivation of the small fruits, neither will every 

 variety succeed equally well on the same place. Conse- 

 quently the favorable regions for particular kinds must 

 furnish the people of other locations ; thus an exchange 

 is made beneficial to both, and to the advantage of trade. 

 The Southern States produce fruit for home consumption 

 and for sale at the North, and vice versa. Different sec- 

 tions produce different fruits, but often both yield the 

 same, and yet they become a market for each other. 



For instance, Strawberries ripen at the South several 

 weeks before they do at the North we purchase their pro- 

 ductions so long as their supply lasts, or until our own be- 

 gins to ripen ; we can then send fruit south where the crop 

 has matured and gone. The same is true with many other 

 fruits ; those from warm regions are shipped to the cool 

 ones, and later in the season a return is made in kind or 

 of some similar productions. 



