The Fruit-Garden 35 



or connoisseur growing was relatively more important, 

 even in North America; that time preceded the great 

 commercial extension. The prominent American porno- 

 logical writers made their reputation mostly in the ama- 

 teur field, as the Downings, Robert Manning, Wilder, 

 Thomas, Kendrick, Cox, and others. At one time, a 

 pleasant collection or museum of growing fruits was 

 considered to be a part of a good private estate ; but instead 

 of the fruit-garden for fancy and for keen enjoyment, it is 

 now the custom to grow collections of shrubs, native 

 plants, roses or other plants, and to pay great heed to 

 lawns, ornamental planting, and landscape designs. 



It is much to be desired that the fruit-garden shall 

 return to men's minds, with its personal appeal and its 

 collections of many choice varieties, even the names of 

 which are now unknown to the fruit-loving public. The 

 discriminating admiration of fruits for odor, good form 

 and color, and for choice quality is little known amongst 

 us today. Our desire for fruits is mostly uncritical, easily 

 contented, and confined within narrow and uninteresting 

 limits. Such fruits as the Ben Davis apple, Kieffer pear, 

 and Elberta peach have done much to deprave the pub- 

 lic taste and to lower the level of appreciation. The 

 commercial market ideals have come to be controlling, 

 and most fruit-eaters have never eaten a first-class apple 

 or pear or peach, and do not know what such fruits 

 are; and the names of the choice varieties have mostly 

 dropped from the lists of nurserymen. All this is as much 

 to be deplored as a loss of standards of excellence in 

 literature and music, for it is an expression of a lack of 

 resources and a failure of sensitiveness. 



In practically any part of the country, a small collection 

 of fruits can be grown in a well-placed plot. In fact, to 



