CROPS AND PROFITS 



red clusters, but the spurs are somewhat mossy 

 and the boughs have a straggHng, dejected air. 

 With a Httle care, severe pruning, due enrich- 

 ment, and a proper regard to varieties (Cherry 

 and White-Grape being the best), it may be 

 brought to make a very pretty show as a des- 

 sert fruit. But as I never knew it to be eaten 

 very freely at dessert, however finely it might 

 look, I have not thought it worth while to push 

 its proportions for a mere show upon the exhi- 

 bition tables. The amateurs would smile at 

 those I have; but I console myself with re- 

 flecting that they smile at a great deal of good- 

 ness which is not their own. They are full 

 of conceit — I say it charitably. I like to upset 

 their proprieties. 



There was one of them, an excellent fellow 

 (if he had not been pomologically starched and 

 jaundiced), who paid me a visit in my garden 

 not long ago, bringing his little son, who had 

 been educated strictly in the belief that all fine 

 fruit was made — not to be enjoyed, but for 

 pomological consideration. The dilettante 

 papa was tip-toeing along with a look of serene 

 and well-bred contempt for my mildewed 

 gooseberries and scrawny currants, when T 

 broke off a brave bough loaded with Tartarian 

 cherries, and handed it to the lad, with— "Here, 



193 



