HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



235 



the alert to protect themselves against this great 

 enemy. It is not enough that growers shall protect 

 themselves against insect pests, drouth and flood, for 

 the losses from freezing weather are so great as to 

 demand some security also from a calamity so liable 

 to fall even from a clear blue sky. 



THE EXTENSION OF FRUIT EATING. 



The market for choice fruits is broadening every 

 year as facilities for rapid and safe transportation in- 

 crease and the fruit-handlers acquire broader experi- 

 ence as to methods of shipment. Not only are the 

 growers enabled to reach more distant points, because 

 of improved methods and means of transportation, 

 but the people all over the country are using more 

 and more fruit every year when they can get it; and 

 every margin of legitimate decline in selling price, 

 made possible by increase of acreage devoted to 

 fruit-growing, by improvements in varieties and in 

 methods of cultivation and by cheapening rates of 

 transportation, will greatly broaden the market for 

 the disposal of the product. How short the time 

 seems since California fruits were unknown in our 

 Eastern cities. Now they go beyond the sea. The 

 writer well remembers when, in his locality, oranges 

 were considered a luxury of the very rich, and often 

 buys a dozen of these fruits nowadays for the price 

 of a single one then. It is a cause for congratulation 

 to the people of the whole country that the produc- 

 tion of fruit has so largely increased and an equally 

 gratifying fact that there is still abundant room for 

 an immense increase of the acreage devoted to such 

 production. More apples and less fat meat, more 

 pears, cherries, grapes, berries, and less and less hog 

 and hominy will make healthier, happier, longer- 

 lived people and tend to the betterment of society. 

 Long wave the fruitful bough! 



An Old Dominion Orchard. Two brothers 

 bought a tract of 500 acres in Loudoun County, Va., 

 in 1887, and set it with fruit trees. The location is 

 on the southern slopes of the Blue Ridge, where 

 they believed fruit culture could be undertaken with 

 good prospects of success. The first venture proved 

 so satisfactory that the area has been increased from 

 time to time until now they have 2,400 acres of or- 

 chard containing nearly fifty thousand peach trees, 

 thirty-five thousand of them in bearing; fifteen thou- 

 sand apricot trees; over eight thousand quince 

 and fifty thousand vines. Large numbers of Eng- 

 lish walnut and other nut-bearing trees have also 

 been set out. This is a large venture in the fruit line 

 for Eastern cultivators, and indicates that Western 

 methods are spreading. The next thing we hear 

 will be that such orchards are multiplying, and that 

 irrigation is systematically employed to insure crops. 



Grapes in Texas. A correspondent residing in 

 the semi-tropical fruit belt of Southwest Texas ex- 

 presses the opinion that that region is at least equal 

 to Southern California as a grape country. Among 

 the varieties mentioned as doing well are the White 

 Muscat, Muscat of Alexandria, Black and Flaming 

 Tokay and Purple Damascus. 



most the universal testimony of the men who handle 

 apples extensively in the great markets, that they 

 cannot depend upon the uniformity or strict honesty 

 of home-packed apples. While it is probable that 

 much of the inferior packing observed in all mar- 

 kets where apples are sold does not result from 

 dishonest intentions, it is true that want of judgment, 

 perhaps, and a lack of full knowledge oi trade re- 

 quirements, may create the same final results as 

 deliberate dishonesty in the methods employed. 



In the first place, every one who packs apples or 

 other fruit for market, should do the work honestly 

 and conscientiously. His quart measures should hold 

 a quart of fruit, his bushels should be bushels, and 

 his barrels should not be the smallest package that 

 would pass under that name. The fruit should be 

 carefully assorted as to both size and quality before 

 being placed carefully in the barrel. No damaged 

 fruit should be allowed to go into a barrel of apples 

 whose brand would indicate first-class fruit. The 

 fruit should be uniform in size. Put the large fruit 

 by itself and the small fruit also into separate barrels, 

 and then mark them so that the contents, their qual- 

 ity and size will be known before the barrel is 

 opened. Above all, let no fruit packer be guilty of 

 that transparent fraud of putting inferior stuff into 

 the barrel and then facing at both ends with good 

 fruit. English buyers do what all buyers ought to 

 do. They open a number of barrels at random and 

 dump the contents upon the platform in presence of 

 buyers. It is clear that " faced " barrels fare badly 

 under such treatment, as they ought to in all cases. 

 If a grower grades carefully and packs properly he 

 will never be ashamed to have his name known. 

 All such should, therefore, for their own and their 

 customers' protection, have their names and addresses 

 clearly branded on every package of their fruit. Such 

 a name, accompanied by iruit well packed, will soon 

 be sought for by purchasers, and the reward of care- 

 ful and straightforward business methods will surely 

 come to him who fully deserves them. 



In trade circles, the term "deacon packed " is an 

 opprobrious epithet used to designate home packing 

 by the "honest farmer." While farmers as a class 

 are as honest as other men, it is no doubt true that 

 very many of them do not realize the importance of 

 absolute integrity in little things, not merely because 

 "honesty is the best policy," but because it is right, 

 which after all is the final test. But it must be re- 

 membered, especially in packing apples for ship- 

 ment, that if not properly graded and packed, they 

 almost invariably sell at the lowest value of the 

 lower grades rather than the highest value of the 

 highest grade, as is almost always the case with well 

 graded and properly packed fruit. A considerable 

 demand for our apples has already come from the 

 markets of Great Britain, and if pains be taken to 

 give our British brethren good value for their money, 

 the market for our surplus apples in years to come 

 may be very greatly enlarged. Honest packing of 

 good, well graded fruit will surely meet all reason- 

 able conditions of any market. 



Packing Apples For Market. The apple 

 season is at hand, and a word about packing for mar- 

 ket may not be out of order. It may be said at the 

 outset that farmer-packed apples are not generally 

 approved by dealers. Whether true or not, it is al- 



Sottie Facts About Bees. The bee is certainly 

 the most interesting of the winged insects with which 

 we come into social or commercial relations. From 

 time immemorial this industrious and wholly selfish 

 insect has been held up to us as a model worthy for 

 our adoption along many lines of endeavor. It would 

 be impossible to estimate the value of the bee when 



