STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 139 



Here again is where horticulture comes to the New England 

 farmer's assistance, if he courts it. If the nine-acre man had 

 devoted his attention to some horticultural crops, such as an 

 acre or so of currants or combination of any of the following 

 crops as — raspberries, onions, squashes, cabbage, tomatoes, 

 celery, cucumbers, gooseberries, strawberries, peas, sweet corn, 

 etc.; or orchard fruits if well taken care of, his chances for 

 success would be possible. 



I know of one man in New Hampshire who netted $200 on 

 currants from one acre four years after the plants were set. 

 An acre of currant bushes set 4X 5 feet takes 2178 plants. 



Mr. Crawford of Ohio, has raised 7,000 quarts of straw- 

 berries on a single acre. You and I ought to raise one-half that 

 amount, or 3,500 quarts, which at ten cents, equals $350. 



Muskmelons in hills 5x6 feet make 1,452 hills to the acre, 

 and the small netted gem kinds will average ten or more to the 

 hill under good culture, or 14^520 melons, which at four cents 

 a piece would bring $580. 



Tomatoes are as commonly used as almost any crop grown. 

 Although the tomato is one of the rankest of plants and an 

 assured producer, it is ever in demand in New England. Even 

 with an increased demand for the canned product, which largely 

 is shipped into New England, our local markets continue firm. 

 Not only do we find a market for all ripe fruit, but I find 

 gardeners who are growing the late Buckeye state variety 

 simply for green tomatoes. The green fruit when well graded 

 brings fifty cents a bushel at retail, or forty cents at wholesale. 

 Five hundred bushels per acre of green fruit is a fair estimate 

 which at forty cents equals $200, which can be relied upon. 

 For ripe fruit the price will average seventy-five cents or more 

 for the season. Our Earlianas, one of the newly introduced 

 early varieties, sold during the fore part of the past season at 

 $3.00 a bushel. 



Small fruits of all kinds sell well here in New England. I 

 have already referred to the red currant, but raspberries, both 

 the red and black caps, are in good demand, and from my expe- 

 rience usually sell for a third to a half higher price per quart 

 than in the west. Blackberries and gooseberries are often not 

 to be had in some of our fairly good sized towns. 



The plum crop should receive more attention generally on our 

 farms. While the black knot, plum curculio, and fruit rot, are 



