Introductory Remarks, g 



the residence he occupies, he may plant fruit-trees which are to 

 grow and bear for many years to come, including cherries and 

 apricots, and early pears and peaches for summer use ; and a 

 greater abundance of pears and apples for the succeeding autumn, 

 winter, and spring. If he is a transient occupant of his home, a 

 bed of strawberries will afford an abundant supply of this delicious 

 fruit the following season, and raspberries and currants will give, 

 by the second year, handsome returns, and grapes one year later. 



It is not necessary to wait long for fruit-trees to bear, if early 

 bearers are selected and good cultivation is given them. To ad- 

 duce instances : in a single garden, apple-trees, the fifth year from 

 setting out, yielded a bushel each ; peach-trees, the third summer, 

 bore three pecks ; a Bartlett pear gave a peck of superb fruit in 

 two years ; although in all these and other equally successful in- 

 stances the treatment was not better than that which every good 

 farmer gives to his carrots and potatoes. 



The family which is at all times supplied with delicious and re- 

 freshing fruit from its own gardens, has within its reach not only a 

 very important means of economy, but of real domestic comfort. 

 An influence is thus introduced of an exalted character ; a tendency 

 is directly exerted towards the improvement of the manners of the 

 people. Every addition to the attractions of home has a salutary 

 iDearing on a rising family of children. The difference between a 

 dwelling with well-planted grounds, well furnished with every rural 

 enjoyment, and another where scarcely a single fruit-tree softens 

 the bleakness and desolation, may, in many instances, to a young 

 man just approaching active life, prove the turning influence be- 

 tween a life of virtue and refinement on the one hand, and one of 

 dissipation and ruin from the effects of a repulsive home, on the 

 other. Nor can any man, even in the noon or approaching evening 

 of life, scarcely fail to enjoy a higher happiness, with at least an 

 occasional intercourse with the blossoming and loaded trees which 

 his own hand has planted and pruned, than in the noise of the 

 crowd and tumult of the busy world. 



