CHAPTER XL 



FRUITS TO SUPPLY A FAMILY. 



THE question is often asked, " What shall I plant in order to obtain 

 a full supply of fresh fruit for a family the year round ? " It is diffi- 

 cult to give a precise list, as in some seasons the crop may be many 

 times greater than in others ; and again, some will bear abundantly 

 and others fail in the same season. The following, however, will 

 serve as an approximation : 



The earliest fruits, about the first of summer, will be strawberries. 

 A selection of the most productive sorts, well cultivated, with the 

 runners kept cut off, will afford about one quart a day from each 

 square rod for a month. Three or four square rods will, therefore, 

 give an abundant supply for a family. Four or five hundred plants 

 will be sufficient for this extent of ground. These will be followed 

 by the earliest cherries, and by currants, raspberries, and gooseber- 

 ries. Two dozen bushes of each of the four best sorts of currants, 

 the same number of raspberries, and two dozen of Houghton's 

 gooseberry, will, if well cultivated, furnish an abundant supply. One 

 dozen cherry trees will be enough. Two or three dozen bushes of 

 the blackberry will supply a quart or two a day for some weeks 

 towards the close of summer. Apricots, early apples, and early 

 pears, and a few of the earliest plums, will commence the season of 

 abundance which, with the later varieties of these fruits, will last till 

 near winter. Winter apples and pears, and all the good-keeping 

 varieties of the grape, will continue the supply until spring. Long- 

 keeping apples, such as the Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet, and 

 other sorts, if placed in a good, cool fruit room or cellar, will con- 

 tinue until the commencement of the new supply of strawberries. 



To obtain this supply there may be half-a-dozen apricot-trees, a 

 dozen or two of plums, two dozen of summer and autumn pears, and 

 as many more of winter varieties, the same number of summer and 

 autumn apples, and from fifty to one hundred trees of winter apples. 

 A dozen or more of peach-trees and the same number of well man- 



