82 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



from fruit growing in tlie way of product each year — and for this pur- 

 pose I will commence with the fruit that requires the least time. 



The Strawberry . If one is fortunate enough to get strong, local- 

 grown plants in the spring they will produce some berries the same 

 season, though the rule is, the following season will be the most produc- 

 tive, and having once started a bed there is no need of ever being 

 without the delicious fruit. By using potted plants in late summer a 

 fair crop may be raised in ten months and a good crop from same vines 

 the next year. 



Raspberries and Blacliberries will require two years growth before 

 they will produce very much fruit, after which crops may be expected 

 for five or six years and perhaps longer. 



Currants and Gooseberries grow rapidly, and when good, strong 

 roots are used will bear some the third year — and for years after. 

 When cuttings are used it requires two or three years more. 



Cherries and Plunks are not likely to bear much under four or five 

 years, and I imagine it is more likely to be more than less. 



Pears I do not know very much about, though dwarf trees of some 

 varieties will bear in three or four years, but if the trees are standard 

 it will take a 3"ear or two longer, in some cases ten or a dozen years 

 and sometimes more. 



Grajyes, when good, strong vines are set, will begin to bear the 

 second year, and after the third and fourth years will usually bear quite 

 heavily. 



Apples. In my own case scions commenced bearing the third 

 year, so did some very small apple ti-ees, though they are the much 

 abused Ben Davis. We cannot expect much from grafts of our own 

 setting in less than five years, while from trees set the time of bear- 

 ing will vary much in the difterent varieties, but with good stock and 

 good culture apples ma}' be expected in from five to ten years. 



The possibilities assure us then as we have shown that in from one 

 year to ten, any man may have a succession of large and small fruits 

 in abundance for home use, and, if he chooses, a surplus for market. 

 Under these circumstances it seems an inexcusable neglect that so few 

 of our farmers permit themselves and their families to be deprived of 

 all or even a part of these health-giving luxuries. In my opinion they 

 cost less than drugs and are vastly more beneficial. 



