8 Introductory Remarks. 



take of the fifty best melting pears, out of the thousand varieties 

 which have fruited in this country ? And, especially, who practically 

 knows that a whole yearly circle of fruits is within his reach, begin- 

 ning with the most refreshing strawberries, raspberries, and cherries, 

 for early summer ; including the richest plums, apricots, peaches, and 

 nectarines, for summer and autumn ; and closing with high-flavored 

 pears, apples, and grapes, extending their season of ripening through 

 all autumn and winter, and far into the succeeding spring ? Hap- 

 pily, the number of cultivators is rapidly increasing, who may place 

 upon their tables many delicious sorts, on almost any day of the 

 entire year. 



The cultivation of fruit has been retarded by a mistaken estimate 

 of the time required for young trees to come into bearing. But this 

 error is fast disappearing before skilful culture. It is become well 

 known, that he who plants trees, plants for himself, as well as for his 

 children. Bad treatment may long retard the growth and bearing of 

 a tree. Enveloped in weeds and grass, what young plant could 

 flourish ? What farmer would think a moment of raising good corn 

 in the thick and tall grass of a meadow ? No wonder, then, that a 

 young tree, similarly treated, lingers in feebleness and disease. But 

 give it for a few years a mellow, clean, and fertile soil, and wide- 

 spreading branches will soon bend under copious loads of fruit. To 

 adduce instances : in a single garden, apple-trees, the fifth year from 

 setting out, yielded a bushel each ; peach-trees, the third summer, 

 bore three pecks ; and a Bartlett pear, two years from transplanting, 

 gave a peck of superb fruit ; none of them were an inch in diameter 

 when transplanted, nor was their treatment better than that which 

 every good farmer gives his carrots and potatoes. 



The profits arising from the cultivation and sale of the best fruit 

 are becoming well understood by skilful planters. Even under ordi- 

 nary management, good apple orchards yield more than the best 

 farm crops. From fifty to one hundred dollars per acre is a com- 

 mon yearly return ; while to those who give their orchards the best 

 attention in culture and pruning, and carefully thin out, assort, pack 

 in the best manner, and ship to markets where their reputation is 

 known, the finest sorts have often yielded an annual return of two to 

 three hundred dollars per acre. With such fruits as strawberries, 

 grapes, and pears, where more knowledge and skill are required in 

 raising, picking, and marketing, still larger profits have been 

 obtained. Strawberries, as commonly raised, bring an annual return 

 of two or three hundred dollars per acre ; but the best managers, 

 who obtain large and delicious fruit by high culture, clipping the 



