INTRODUCTION. 11 



terest that is still in its infancy, amounted to nearly three 

 and one-quarter millions ; and that the valuation of mar- 

 ket-garden products sums up to more than sixteen millions 

 of dollars' worth. It is to be regretted that for our present 

 purpose, the data are not sufficiently distinct to enable us 

 to ascertain the relative value of the productions of our 

 orchards of apples, pears, peaches, quinces, and the amount 

 and value of the small fruits, as they are termed, since 

 these are variously grouped in the returns of the census 

 takers, and cannot now be separated. Of their great 

 value, however, we may draw our conclusions from sep-" 

 arate records that have been kept and reported by indi- 

 viduals, who assert the products of vineyards in some 

 cases to have been as high as three thousand dollars per 

 acre ; of strawberries, at one thousand dollars ; of pears, 

 at one hundred dollars per tree, which would be four 

 thousand dollars per acre ; of apples, at twenty-five bush- 

 els per tree, or one thousand bushels per acre, which, at 

 fifty cents per bushel, would produce five hundred dollars. 

 But, leaving this matter of dollars and cents, who will 

 portray for us the delights incident to fruit-culture ? They 

 are of a quiet nature, though solid and enduring. They 

 carry us back to the early days of the history of our race, 

 when " the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden 



and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow 



every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for 



food and the Lord God took the man and put him 



into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it." We 

 are left to infer that this dressing and keeping of the gar- 

 den was but a light and pleasant occupation, unattended 

 with toil and trouble, and that in their natural condition 



