2 SUCCESSFUL FRUIT CULTURE 



AS A LUXURY 



From the above point of view fruit is an indis- 

 pensable article of food. Fresh ripe fruit is always ac- 

 ceptable with meals, or for the midday lunch it is far 

 more refreshing than any fermented beverage and more 

 nutritious than the choicest pastry or confectionery. 

 What a variety of delicious dishes can be prepared from 

 fresh fruit or from the dried or canned product that 

 keeps in a perfect condition so long after its natural 

 season. What fond recollections often in later years 

 linger around the old home where an abundance of fruit 

 was the lot of youth now grown gray in the service 

 of mankind. What a source of pleasure and refreshment 

 to the laboring mechanic or tiller of the soil after a long 

 day's toil in the summer or autumn or during the cold 

 days of winter, and yet how few of our laboring people 

 can enjoy more than a small fraction of the fruit needed 

 for health and enjoyment. 



AS A MONEY CROP 



Some idea of the importance of the fruit crops 

 of the United States may be obtained when we consider 

 the extent of land occupied by some of our fruits, 

 although accurate statistics are not available for all 

 kinds of fruits, and the immense quantity of fruit 

 produced for our own consumption and for shipping to 

 other countries. The census of 1900 gives the number 

 of apple trees of bearing age in the United States, 

 201,794,764, and the crop of apples produced 175,397,- 

 626 bushels; the number of peach trees 99,919,428, 

 with a crop of 15,433,601 bushels; the number of grape- 

 vines over 200,000,000, while the grape crop was over 

 1,200,000,000 pounds. 



Statistics of acreage and products of the other 

 hardy fruits to be found are so unsatisfactory that they 



