12 FRUIT CULTURE IN GENERAL. 



well-ripeaed fruit. Our own limited observations abundantly con- 

 firm this opinion. This being the case, what millions in losses, to 

 say nothing of the untold discomforts and sufterings experienced by 

 the settlers of the Great West, might thus be prevented or miti- 

 gated ! Our Western emigrants could carry no better mediciie-chest 

 with them than a box well packed with a well-selected assortment 

 of early-bearing fi*uit-trees. Dwarf pears, for instance, often bear 

 even the first year, and sometimes produce abundantly in the course 

 of the first two or three seasons ; we have known a peach-tree to 

 yield three pecks the third summer. The smaller kinds, such as 

 strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and currants, afford a quick 

 return of very wholesome fruit. A little attention and care of tiiis 

 kind, in connection with a moderate share of information and intel- 

 ligence, would doubtless prevent many serious losses, and avert a 

 vast amount of positive suffering during the first few years of fron- 

 tier life, when a sufficient degree of privation and inconvenience is 

 often experienced, even with the blessing of uninterrupted health."*' 

 The apple, for instance, contains a large amount of nutrient ma- 

 terial. It is used much more plentifully in Germany, France, and 

 other European countries than with us. The common laborers fre- 

 quently make a meal of apples, with perhaps an addition of bread 

 alone. It is stated that the operatives in Cornwall, England, regard 

 them as nearly as nourishing as bread, and more so than potatoes ; 

 and they have been known to assert that they could stand their 

 work better on baked apples than with any other kind of diet, 

 without meat. In our own country, those who make a free use of 

 apples and other fruits for food are seldom troubled with dyspepsia, 

 or any form of indigestion. 



II. Feuit is a Cheap Article or Food. 



Apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, and even strawberries, 

 and many other small fruits, can be produced as cheaply as wheat 

 or pork, corn or potatoes. A well-set orchard of healthy trees, 

 eight to ten years old, will produce, at a moderate estimate, from 

 one hundred to three hundred bushels per acre. These, at twenty- 

 five cents per bushel, at which price they can be affbrded as food 

 even for stock, will yield a very fair income — much more than can 

 be ordinarily obtained on large farms at other branches of farming. 

 Th<^)MA8, in hi;', Fruit Culturist^ says: "Good winter apples always 



