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fruit at the various sessions of the American Pomological 

 Society in Richmond, Boston, Chicago, and at the Centen- 

 nial, which have astonished the world with the progress made. 

 Thirty years ago, when this society was formed, the area of 

 fruit-culture and the value of our fruits was so limited, that 

 it was not thought worth while to collect the statistics. 

 Then many States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, had given but 

 little attention to fruit-culture, except that of apples. These 

 and other sections were deemed too far north for successful 

 fruit-cultivation. Now they produce large quantities of fine 

 fruits, even in the cold northern regions; the Nova-Scotia 

 Society having received four medals from the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society in London, and the Ontario Society, at the 

 quarter Centennial session in Boston in 1873, the Wilder 

 Medal, for the best collection of fruits. 



The estimate by the government for the Centennial, last 

 year, furnished the following statistics of the fruit-culture of 

 our country : — 



The number of acres under cultivation in orchards, vines, 

 and small fruits, is estimated at 4,500,000. The number of 

 trees is estimated as follows, — apples, 112,000,000; pears, 

 28,260,000; peaches, 112,270,000 ; grapes, 141,260,000: total, 

 393,790,000. The estimated value of fruit products is, — 

 apples, $50,400,000 ; pears, $14,130,000 ; peaches, $56,135,000 ; 

 grapes, $2,118,900; strawberries, $5,000,000; other fruits, 

 $10,432,800 : making a grand total of $138,216,700, or nearly 

 equal to one-half of the value of our average wheat-crop. 

 California, to say nothing of figs, oranges, olives, and almonds, 

 has sixty thousand acres of vineyards, and forty-three mil- 

 lions of vines, yielding annually, besides grapes and raisins for 

 the market, ten millions of gallons of wines ; to which may be 

 added the wines of Missouri, Ohio, and other States ; the 

 whole annual wine product being fifteen millions of gallons. 



The following are a few illustrations of the immense quan- 

 tities of fruits which are sent to market in addition to what 

 is consumed at home : — 



Of strawberries there were received in one day in the 

 New-York market, at the height of the season, from all 

 sources, seven thousand crates, — more than ten thousand 

 bushels. The crop of peaches raised in this country is so 

 enormous, that we hardly dare state the quantity. The 



