ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 513 



FRUIT CULTURE.— The first question 

 may be answered very readily, for most 

 of those who have no fruits, it is simply 

 because they do not try to have them, 

 and this is the very natural result of their 

 ignorance of the means of obtaining an 

 abundance of these blessings upon almost 

 every farm in the United States. 



The latter question may be answered 

 by enumerating some of the great advan- 

 tages of fruit growing. These are prima- 

 rily the health of the familes of the pro- 

 ducers, where fruits are freely consumed 

 upon the table at all seasons of the year ; 

 next, the pleasure attendant upon their 

 propagation, their culture, and, above all, 

 the satisfaction derived from the harvest- 

 ing and consumption of these products. 



It is a well established axiom in the 

 medical profession, that the regular con- 

 sumption of fresh, well ripened fruit, if 

 conducive to health, and it is also a fact 

 that the farmers of our country are not 

 so well fed as they should be. This is 

 nobody's fault but their own. True, they 

 cannot have so great a variety of meats 

 as those who reside in towns and villages, 

 but they may enjoy the greatest profusion 

 of fresh vegetables, and a succession of 

 ripe fruits the year round, if they will but 

 choose to take the trouble to plant and 

 cultivate even a small portion of then- 

 land as a garden and orchard. 



An appeal on behalf of fruit culture 

 may also be made to the more sordid 

 motive of money making. No crops that 

 are produced from the soil yield so great 

 profits. The productiveness of small 

 pieces of land appropriated to fruit cul- 

 ture is truly wonderful, and the money 

 results in some cases are so great as to be 

 worthy of the fashionable term of "fabu- 

 lous." 



It is well for the farmer to recollect 

 that some of our fruit crops may be* con- 

 sumed with great advantage and profit 

 by his stock animals. Hogs, sheep, cat- 

 tle, particularly milch cows, and even 

 horses, may be profitably fed upon some 

 varieties of fruit. It has been asserted 

 by a recent author, that "fruits of all 

 kinds, but particularly what may be 

 called the large fruits, such as are 

 green in our orchards, may be prof- 

 itably cultivated for feeding our do- 

 mestic animals. Sweet apples have been 

 especially recommended for fattening 



33 



swine, and when fed to cows they in- 

 crease the flow of milk, or produce fat, 

 according to the condition of these ani- 

 mals. . . . Orchards have been 

 planted with a succession of sweet apples 

 that will sustain swine in a condition of 

 perfect health, growing and fattening sim- 

 ultaneously from June to November; and 

 the late varieties may be cheaply pre- 

 served for feeding stock of all kinds dur- 

 ing the winter. The farmer may also be 

 reminded that portions of many farms 

 can be appropriated to the culture of 

 fruits, which are not adapted to crops 

 that require cultivation on arable land. 

 It has even been asserted that a given 

 area planted with fruit trees will sustain 

 more stock, or fatten more pork than the 

 same space devoted to grain and forage 

 crops. 



Preparation of the Soil — Disap- 

 pointment from Bad Selections. — 

 Having assigned a portion of the farm to 

 the apple orchard, which should be ele- 

 vated, and of a light porous soil, the ground 

 should be well prepared by thorough 

 plowing, if this be practicable, though it 

 is found that fruit trees will thrive in new- 

 ly cleared land, if set among the stumps \ 

 they have been planted on prairie sod, • 

 and there are many fine orchards on 

 rocky tracts, where the preparation must 

 be done exclusively with the pick, the 

 spade and the shovel. It may be the 

 best economy for the owner of such land 

 to appropriate it to the orchard, because 

 it is unfitted for tillage crops. Even the 

 holes for setting the trees may be made 

 with the plow, by simply marking out the 

 surface at the proper distances, and set- 

 ting the trees at the inter-sections. This 

 is done after the whole ground has been 

 well prepared by a thorough plowing, and 

 the trees are easily planted in the mellow 

 soil in which they will thrive admirably. 

 On low and flat lands that have no good 

 natural drainage, tile should be used, if 

 accessible, but even here surface drainage 

 may be done with the plow, by throwing 

 the furrows together where the rows of 

 trees are to be set, what the farmers call 

 back-furrowing, two or three times, so as 

 to make a little ridge to plant them on. 

 This will also make open furrows between 

 the rows, that will give outlet for the sur- 

 plus rain water, or at least lead it away 

 from immediate contact with the roots. 



