84 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



nutritious bread and butter than to have the mother slave herself to 

 death from day to day in preparing some health destroying com- 

 pound of grease and spices in the shape of loaf cake, doughnuts or 

 mince pie to tempt the appetite and destroy the stomach as well as 

 a lot of good flour, eggs and butter that might be used to give 

 health and strength rather than destroy it. 



I note with pleasure in my travels about that fruit growers and 

 such farmers as have plenty of fruits very seldom have pastry of 

 any kind upon their tables, its place being supplied with fruit, 

 either fresh or canned, and since the improved method of canning 

 that has been adopted in the past few years it is possible to have 

 fruit at any season of the year, approaching in flavor that fresh 

 from the vines, red raspberries retaining their flavor best of all. 



The taste for fresh fruit is growing fast, and while many of our 

 farmers know that they ought to supply it to their families they still 

 fight shy of planting and say they can buy what berries they want 

 cheaper than they can grow them, yet they will not buy one- 

 hundredth part of what their families would use if it could be had 

 for the picking. My own family is not a large one, yet we manage 

 to dispose of from six to ten quarts of strawberries, raspberries, 

 currants and blackberries per day through June, July and August, 

 and the next three months we worrj' along on peaches, pears and 

 the product of one hundred and sixteen grape vines. 



A friend of mine having a half-acre city lot bought his fertilizers, 

 hired the land plowed, planted thereon twenty-six dollars' worth of 

 plants, kept an account of all money paid out for labor for five 

 years, and charged the family at market rates for all fruit consumed, 

 told me that this half acre paid him a profit of one hundred and 

 sixty dollars annually, and such a half acre should be on every 

 farm. Wife and loved ones will appreciate it. Tell the children 

 that on the half-acre lot back of the barn, or not far away from the 

 house, there are twenty bushels of strawberries, ten each of red and 

 black raspberries, five bushels of currants, ten bushels of black- 

 berries, five of Lucretia dewberry, a bushel of gooseberries, a ton 

 of grapes, a wagon load of delicious canned fruits. How their little 

 eyes would open, and with what shouts of joy and gladness would 

 they rush out after such a rich treat ; and all are there, even if the 

 little ones do fail to find them on some farms. 



Farmers, open your eyes ! Why be blind to the fact that these 

 delicious articles of food and home comforts may be found on many 

 good half acres of your farms, and it only requires a light expendi- 



