STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



disappear from his wagon at a round price, with cash in hand. 

 The demand for superior fruits of all kinds has within the past 

 decade increased to a remarkable extent. I will not instance the 

 exorbitant rates often paid for specimens of fruit produced by arti- 

 ficial forcing, months or weeks before their natural season ; but I 

 refer my auditors to the testimony of fruit dealers and consumers 

 in the city, that nice, large fruit in its proper season always bears 

 a paying price, while small-sized, unripe fruit of all kinds has to 

 go begging for customers. 



But I will not pursue this reasoning further. If I have appeared 

 to exhibit any undue prejudice in favor of the subject of my essay, 

 I trust no one will suppose I desire to advocate a heedless rush- 

 ing into, or even the deliberate adoption of, any enterprise which 

 may not be practically beneficial to my brother farmers. 



Small Fruits, and their Culture. 



BY LTMAN P. ABBOTT, OF WILTON. 



A few years since, small fruit culture as a distinct branch of 

 horticulture, was unknown. Indeed, it is but very recently that, 

 even in the vicinity of our cities and larger villages, small fruits 

 have been cultivated as a source of profit. In former years there 

 were a few men that "went berrying," and from their success 

 others caught the enthusiasm and roamed the fields of horticulture 

 till a demand has been created for the luscious, perishable small 

 fruits, that in most localities far exceeds the supply. I presume 

 there are localities where in some seasons the markets are over- 

 stocked with certain fruits, as strawberries and blackberries, and 

 in consequence the price at such times is crowded down to a low 

 figure and the profits are correspondingly small; but here in Maine 

 I have yet to learn of any such instance when, taking the season 

 through, the demand and price have not both been good. 



And while this branch of agriculture may be made a specialty 

 and realize good profits from the labor and capital invested, es- 

 pecially by those living on the lines of railroads or near our cities 

 and larger towns, it ofiers to the farmer the means of supplying 

 his family with palatable and wholesome fruits which are peculiar- 

 ly desirable at a season when that derived from the orchard is im- 

 mature. 



We don't know whether our good old ancestors in their primeval 

 estate cultivated small fruits with their apple orchard or not, but 

 it is painfully evident that as a class we have wofully fallen from 



