INTKODUCTORY REMARKS 



command a market. * * * The farmer, then, who sets out 

 twenty acres of good apple orchard, and takes care of it, may ex- 

 pect, at no remote period, a yearly return of five to fifteen hundred 

 dollars a year." 



DowNijjG, referring to strawherries, says "they are so easily 

 grown that the poorest owner of a few feet of ground may have 

 them in abundance;" and Baery says "any one who can manage 

 a crop of corn or potatoes, can, if he will, grow strawberries." 



Other varieties, both of orchard and garden fruits, it is well 

 known, are about as easily and cheaply grown as apples and straw- 

 berries. 



III. The Culture of Good Fruits is Profitable. 



It may well be doubted whether any branch of agricultural pro- 

 duction pays better than the growing of good fruit for the market 

 — especially where a market is attainable ; and, since railroads are 

 beginning to traverse all portions of our widely-extended country, 

 few localities are found to be beyond the reach of a market. 

 Twenty-five or thirty years ago, as at the present day, men were 

 everywhere found prophesying that in a few years more the mar- 

 kets would be glutted, and the orchards then planting would be 

 useless. Yet the prices of the best kinds of fruit have ever since 

 been steadily advancing ; and we hazard nothing in saying that 

 they will advance, or* that, at least, the present fair prices will be 

 maintained for twenty-five, or even fifty years to come. It should 

 be borne in mind that there will be a continued very large increase 

 in the population of our towns and cities, who are necessarily non- 

 producers of fruit; and further, that the amount of consumption 

 will probably before many years quadruple that of the ratio of in- 

 crease of population. In numberless instances the profits have been 

 enormous ; and while these are to be regarded as only occasional 

 cases, and exceptions to the general rule, yet, in all instances where 

 the business has been properly conducted, and markets not too re- 

 mote, the profits have been exceedingly large. No surer source of 

 income, it may be safely urged, and at highly remunerating prices, 

 can be found, than that of a fruit orchard, consisting of a proper 

 assortment of the best varieties of fruit. 



Even in localities b^-yond the reach of market, structures for 

 drying can be reared at comparatively small expense, which will 



