No. 4.] FRUIT CULTURE. 119 



IlAisiNCi AND Marketing of Fruit. 



BY WALTER F. TABER, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 



Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : The subject upon 

 which I have been requested to address you, although it per- 

 tains principally to small fruits, is no small subject. 



The business of fruit growing has attained to magnificent 

 proportions. Fruit by the car load is more common than 

 was fruit by the wagon load and I may say by the back load 

 in my boyhood days, for the fruit then was like Topsy, — 

 " it just growed." 



The command given to Adam to dress and keep the gar- 

 den was in those days but poorly obeyed, but it holds good 

 and is applicable to every student of horticulture at the 

 present time. Truly speaking, man cannot grow fruit, but 

 a Power beyond the power of man is necessary to carry for- 

 ward all the changes from bud to leaf, from flower to fruit : — 



To paint the leaf in living green, 

 The blush on tiny blossom seen, 

 The roseate tint, the crimson hue 

 That's painted by the Master's hand, — 

 Man does not, cannot e'er command. 



How has he done this? By selection, by hybridization, 

 by fertilization and proper cultivation, and in later years 

 by intelligent care and vigorous application of every known 

 remedy to repel and destroy insect life and fungous growths 

 that seem to multiply with each succeeding year. 



This subject is so broad and so much has been said and 

 written that it seems almost superfluous for me to attempt 

 to say anything new or instructive upon fruit growing ; but, 

 as I scan the pages of our horticultural and agricultural 

 papers, I find recorded there the methods })ursued and the 



