The Fruit Garden. 25 



dealers abound in novelties. The majority of them cannot endure the 

 test of being grown by the side of our well-known standard kinds, but 

 now and then an exceedingly valuable variety, remarkable for certain 

 qualities or peculiarly adapted to special localities and uses, is developed. 

 There is not only an unfailing pleasure in making these discoveries, but 

 often a large profit. If, three or four years ago, a country boy had 

 bought a dozen Sharpless strawberry plants, and propagated from them, 

 he might now obtain several hundred dollars from their increased 



o 



numbers. Time only can show whether this novelty will become a 

 standard variety, but at present the plants are in great demand. 



The young people of a country home may become deeply interested 

 in originating new seedlings. A thousand strawberry seeds will produce a 

 thousand new kinds, and, although the prospects are that none of them 

 will equal those now in favor, something very fine and superior may be 

 obtained. Be this as it may, if these simple natural interests prevent boys 

 and girls from being drawn into the maelstrom of city life, until character 

 is formed, each plant will have a value beyond silver or gold. 



One of the supreme rewards of human endeavor is a true home, and 

 surely it is as stupid as it is wrong to neglect some of the simplest and 

 yet most effectual means of securing this crown of earthly life. A home 

 is the product of many and varied causes, but I have yet to see the man 

 who will deny that delicious small fruits for eight months of the year and 

 the richer pleasure even of cultivating and gathering them, may become 

 one of the chief contributions to this result. I use the words " eight 

 months " advisedly, for even now, January 29, we are enjoying grapes 

 that were buried in the ground last October. I suppose my children are 

 very material and unlike the good little people who do not live long, but 

 they place a white mark against the days on which we unearth a jar of 

 grapes. 



