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HOW TO MANAGE THE HOME FRUIT GARDEN. 



Whenever the beds or parts of them get dry, give 

 them a good watering through a waterpot rose. 



Don't dabble in artificial manures, or try to reno- 

 vate an exhausted bed, till you know something prac- 

 tically about growing mushrooms. Don't be disappoint- 

 ed if your success is only partial to begin with. If you 

 hope to have fair success don't limit your bed to a 

 couple of bushels of manure or one brick of spawn, 

 but put in a bed two or three yards square or more. 

 Don't scrimp the spawn. Don't use old spawn, in any 

 circumstances. Don't bother yourself about spurious 



fungi ; any child can tell a good mushroom from a bad 

 toadstool. Don't think you can't grow mushrooms, for 

 you can just as well as I or anyone if you only try. 

 There isn't one secret or anything whatever mysterious 

 about growing mushroms, widespread reports to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding Our beds average four-fifths of a 

 pound of mushrooms to the square foot, and my neigh- 

 bor, Mr. Griffin, assures me he gets a pound to the foot, 

 and neither one of us knows of any secret in the whole 

 matter. 



William Falconer. 



HOW TO MANAGE THE HOME FRUIT GARDEN. 



SOME HEALTHFUL LUXURIES AT LITTLE COST. 



YOU wish for a happy home ? 

 Then plant more fruit and live on 

 it. The garden is a real source of 

 comfort, health and wealth. Eat- 

 ing in most families consists in de- 

 m^'^lKj^^F vouring what the stomach has a 

 severe task in digesting. All the 

 heat of the blood must be in the 

 stomach for ten hours of the day to get the work done 

 there. If the head has a job to perform, the blood is 

 called off to do it, and the food is left to ferment, and 

 by and by dyspepsia sets in. 



Blood taken to do brain work from a half performed 

 task in the stomach is charged with poison. In brief, the 

 blood cannot do two things at the same time, and do 

 them well. What is wanted most of all by Americans 

 is good, wholesome, nutritious food that will not re- 

 quire so much time for digestion and assimilation. 

 That means that instead of so much meat and coarser 

 vegetables, we ought to eat more fruit. 



It is the best sign for the people that the consump- 

 tion of fruit is greatly on the increase. I have sold 

 near home one hundred bushels of raspberries this 

 summer. I believe that fifty years ago I could not 

 have sold that much in all New York State. The in- 

 crease in demand has gone on still more rapidly for 

 peaches and grapes, while the consumption of pears 

 and apples, though less noticeable, is quite as great. 

 Here are sixty varieties of grapes in my vineyards. I 

 have no trouble in disposing of two tons of grapes 

 yearly without the aid of commission merchants, and 

 not shipping beyond Utica, which is ten miles away. 

 The bulk of my crop goes to private families, in small 

 baskets for immediate table use. These baskets are 

 assorted stock, white, black and red grapes nicely 

 arranged to please the eye. A few customers prefer 

 one sort — usually Worden. But the demand never 

 slackens for really fine fruit. 



Fifty years ago we only had the Isabella and Ca- 

 tawba. Then came the Delaware, Concord, Diana, in 

 quick succession, and the experiments of Dr. Grant, 

 and Rogers, and Arnold, and Ricketts, gave us at least 

 a dozen choice sorts that are still retained ; and many 



more that are dropping out. I believe a collection of 

 grapes for home use and general comparative culture 

 should include now about forty sorts. Each year adds 

 half a dozen new ones, but knocks out nearly that 

 number of old ones. 



If I were to build a new home, or set about the im- 

 provement of an old one, I would do over again what I 

 have done already — make fruit the prominent feature of 

 the grounds. I would have a full succession from 

 strawberries to winter apples and winter pears. There 

 should be a profusion all along the seasons ; so much, 

 indeed, that there could be no temptation to economize 

 in home use, but nothing to waste. There should be 

 no hobby to ride to the neglect of other fruits, so that 

 if that one failed, there should be no dearth for market 

 and table. I find, however, that those who grow all 

 sorts of fruits take good care of all ; but those who 

 grow only apples, or currants, are very likely to make 

 a bad job of it. I have neighbors whose apple-trees 

 are all the fruit property they have, and these are 

 grown up to suckers. 



Suppose we begin with strawbepri.es. Next follow 

 currants ; then raspberries run over a considerable 

 time until blackberries are ripe. Cherries are followed 

 by early pears and early apples. Blackberries reach 

 over to the earliest grapes ; and plums join hands with 

 cherries on one side, and fall pears on the other. If 

 in a peach section, that fruit covers very nearly 

 the blackberry season running on to winter apples. Of 

 all these, the most wholesome and invaluable are 

 cherries, currants, blackberries, peaches, grapes and 

 apples. Strawberries poison a few persons. Two of 

 my acquaintances cannot swallow one without imme- 

 diately breaking out with a torturing rash. But I 

 believe that for most people the strawberry is very 

 wholesome. For my part, if I have a headache, I 

 climb a Richmond or Morello or Montmorency cherry 

 tree and eat all I care for before a meal. The currants 

 eaten from the bushes are nearly as valuable. Large- 

 seeded grapes ought to be discarded. Some of the 

 Rogers' seedlings have very large seeds. Other sorts, 

 such as Jessica, are half seeds, and are unfit to eat. 

 Hayes, lona', Brighton, are models the other way. 



