3o6 THE FRUIT GARDEN 



to the climate. Tools and methods of culture were crude. But within the 

 last fifty years there has been more improvement in those respects ten times 

 over than in all the time before. The most fanciful dreams of the fruit growers 

 of the early part of the last century have been more than realised. This 

 industry in America has fully kept pace with the march of progress in the 

 sciences and arts by the improvement of varieties, of methods of culture, and 

 extension of planting. The Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865, was 

 the dividing line between the two great eras of our horticultural progress. 

 Before that time the culture of fruits was chiefly experimental. Many of the 

 foreign varieties had not proved satisfactory, and they were under trial, or being 

 gradually abandoned. There were many noble-minded men who gave their 

 best endeavours to the origination of new varieties and the testing of others. 

 Among them were C. M. Hovey and Marshall P. Wilder of Massachusetts ; 

 Charles Downing and Patrick Barry of New York ; Dr. John A. Warder, 

 George W. Campbell, Jared P. Kirtland of Ohio, and many more. 



During the first fifty years of the last century the eastern half of the great 

 Mississippi Valley, which lies between the Alleghany Mountains and the 

 Mississippi River, was being settled. The pioneers carried the seeds, cuttings, 

 and plants of the best fruits from their eastern homes across the Appalachian 

 chain of mountains, and planted them in the virgin soil of the territory then 

 called " The West." It was not long before a greater interest was manifest in 

 fruit-growing by reason of the larger crops and finer specimens grown there 

 than had ever been seen in the older parts of the country. The first commercial 

 orchards of considerable size, of the apple, pear, and peach with a very few 

 exceptions, were planted then and there. The Southern States had not yet 

 awakened to their possibilities in fruit culture, for under slave labour scarcely 

 any other crops than cotton, tobacco, and sugar were produced. The Rocky 

 Mountains and Pacific States were mere territories covered by roving bands of 

 Indians and a few trappers, miners, and stockmen, with here and there some 

 trees or vines planted around the pioneers' cabins. 



After the Civil War there was a great expansion of our industries and popula- 

 tion. Many of the Federal soldiers, who had seen the natural advantages of the 

 Southern States, purchased land, and began to improve the country they had 

 helped to devastate. They planted orchards, vineyards, and berry fields on the 

 old cotton and tobacco plantations. A large portion of Florida was turned into 

 a fruit garden. The building of the Transcontinental railways solved the 

 question of the settlement of the Pacific Slope and the mythical American desert 

 that was supposed to lie in that direction. The great prairies were dotted with 

 farms and orchards. The dry plains and tablelands of the Rocky Mountain 

 regions, sparsely covered with brush, cacti, and stunted grass, being naturally 

 fertile, were irrigated and made to produce the best fruits in abundance. 

 The giant forests of Oregon and Washington were invaded by lumbermen 

 and home-seekers, and they have been partly replaced by orchards and berry 

 fields that now yield some of the largest and best fruits grown in America. 

 The fruits of California are known almost all over the globe for their abundance 

 and excellence. In its early days California was thought to be suitable only 



