STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 85 



THE MODEL FRUIT GARDEN. 

 By .J. F. XORRis, Foxcroft. 



First, why should every farmer have a fruit garden ? Because a 

 generous supply of it is necessary to the health of his family. Give 

 the children all the well-ripened fruit they need and discharge the 

 doctors with their ghastly list of mineral drugs. 



It is beginning to be found also, that fruits are even more need- 

 ful to the aged. Medical science tells us that chalky deposits in 

 our bodies bring sluggish circulation of the blood, make brittle 

 bones, shrunken limbs and the tottering steps of wrinkled age. 

 Fruits do not contain these chalky ingredients, and could we rheu- 

 matic and crippled" farmers substitute largely for hard water and 

 hard meats, also for bread stuffs, fruits and their unfermented 

 juices, we might put off the evil day of hoary decrepitude. The 

 farmer who neglects to raise fruits, neglects the most important 

 item in his own diet. 



No doubt it was the model fruit garden into which the Creator 

 put Adam and Eve ; and the antidiluvians lived each a thousand 

 years because they used a fruit diet. 



Let us have the model fruit garden because it will add to the 

 attraction of farm life, and will increase also the money value of 

 the farm more than any other improvement we can make with a 

 small outlay of time and money. 



OUR SHORT SEASON'S 



are not unfavorable to the small fruits. The strawberry, currant, 

 gooseberry, blackberry, raspberry, are indigenous to and abound 

 in the forests far to the north of us, and this is true also of the 

 cherry, plum and apple. We have less insect enemies here in 

 northern Maine for small fruits than south and west, and the great 

 enemy, both of small fruits and stone fruits — severe summer 

 drouths, which in the South, Northeast, Middle and Western states 

 is making the fruit crop increasingly uncertain, loes not trouble us 

 here. Our deep snows help us also in giving us protection. 



Suppose you devote one-half acre to your model fruit garden, 

 you will be surprised at the long list of large and small fruits you 

 can grow on it, and yet give them very ample room. 



