STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 63 



FRUIT AND FRUIT CULTURE. 



By J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, Ct. 



I have not come here with any fixed lecture in mind, with any 

 prepared talk, but just as one fruit grower to another I will talk 

 to you a little while on some of the subjects that interest us all. 

 The first one is this question of fruit that is here before us, and 

 did you ever think that of all the choice food products that God 

 has given man, that come to us from the farm, fruit is the only 

 one that comes to us ready finished as palatable and wholesome 

 food without any other manipulation or preparation? It is in 

 its best possible condition, and no amount of cooking, no amount 

 of witchery of any sort that the housewife can put upon it can 

 improve it. Now all of our other food products have to go 

 through some cooking process, some butchering process, some 

 more or less great amount of work before they are fit for food of 

 men, but here is one good product that is ready without any such 

 expense, and that is an item to be thought of ; and while fruit a 

 few years ago was considered a luxury, people are finding that 

 fruit is one of the staple articles of food the country over, and 

 people are using fruit three times a day upon the table and a 

 dozen times a day between meals if they can get it, and are saving 

 a great expense and a great amount of work, and above all are 

 adding to their health. This idea has been caught on to by men 

 who are interested in fruit culture, men who must make a living 

 out of something, and the planting of fruit in the United States 

 of America to-day is something enormous. In my own fruit 

 growing industries both north and south I have had to look into 

 the fruit growing of other sections of this great United States, 

 and it is astonishing the rapidity with which acres and acres, and 

 hundreds and thousands are being planted in every section of our 

 country. A few years ago Delaware and a little section of Mich- 

 igan were considered the only peach regions in the United States 

 and now Connecticut, my little state of Connecticut, grows more 

 peaches than Delaware. Peaches are now practically grown in 

 every state in the Union and immense tracts are being planted in 

 Georgia, Alabama, Texas and Missouri. I know of one concern 

 that is to plant out more than 2,000 acres in Texas this coming 



