BOTANICAL INDEX, 
53 
I equaling 00,200 quarts, or 770 tons of fruit; and during the season (187S,) from the 
I same locality was shipped 100,000 boxes, holding a third of a bushels of tomatoes. 
In regard to the amount of land employed as orchards, we learn that Cobden has 
i in its immediate vicinity 4,060 acres, viz.: 1,200 in strawberries, 1,400 in peaches, 
1,500 in apples and S60 in miscellaneous fruit. But it is the efforts of the single indi- 
viduals that makes up this wonderful sum total. Let us. see a few figures lately 
J clipped from the American Agxiculturist. It says: “ A. II. Carey, of Wyoming Sta- 
tion, Del., has 400 acres in orchards, including 15 in pears, 75 in peaches, 80 in black- 
berries, 12 in raspberries and 10 in strawberries. J. G. Brown, same place, has 400 
acres in orchards, including 200 in peaches, and 50 in raspberries. James A. Boss, 
Bridgeport, Del., has 1,200 acres in orchards, including 40 in pears, 350 in peaches, 
75 in peaches, 75 in raspberries, 25 in strawberries. From another source we learn 
i that Robert McKinstry, of Hudson N. Y., has on his fruit farm has 24,000 apple 
trees, 1,700 pears, 200 plums, 500 peach trees, 4,000 cherry trees, 200 crab apples, 1,500 
vines, 6,000 currants.’' We might continue these lists to an indefinite length, but 
enough has been given to convey an idea of the enormity of the business, even in 
America. 
Now, let us see what we can learn from our English cousins about their fruit for 
market. In a recent number of The Garden we find: “From Kent comes the chief 
supplies of small fruit for preserving, and the quantities of these sent annually to 
London and other large towns are enormous. People, indeed, unacquainted with 
fruit culture on a large scale, can form no conception of the vast plantations of or- 
chards and bush fruit that are to be found in Kent. About Swanly and its neigh- 
borhood, from any hill-top, may be seen miles of the higher-lying ground crowned 
with Gooseberries, Currants and Raspberries. * * * * Some growers, in 
good seasons, have been known to gather more than 3,000 bushels of Gooseberries. 
****** Raspberry picking is performed by women and children, 
each- of whome carries two baskets, of the form of a tlower-pot, one in front and 
one behind, slung over the shoulders; these, when full, are emptied by boys into 
wooden tubs, provided for the purpose — that is, if the fruit is intended for preserving; 
but, if for Covent Garden, baskets are used. Few Raspberries, however, come to 
Covent Garden, compared with what go direct to fruit preserving depots. * * * 
Many single growers contract with manufacturers to supply them with ten tons each. 
Few of the Kentish Raspberries are picked with stalks attached to them; most of 
the fruit seen in Covent Garden furnished with stalks, is supplied by growers near 
London, who pick their finest fruit for that purpose, and put them at once in small 
punnets lined with leaves, which are then packed in quantities, in layers one over 
the other, into large, square, wooden boxes, or chests made expressly for the pur- 
pose.” 
Good, wholesome fruit is one of the greatest luxuries within reach of any people; 
in fact, it is almost an indispensable necessity to good health, because the human 
system naturally craves it: while stale fruit is exactly the reverse, and, really, is 
more injurious to the system than all the benefits arising from the use of good, fresh 
fruit; but, if people cannot get it fresh and healthy, they will obtain stale fruit as a 
substitute. What we usually call ripe fruit, is, in reality, only the first step in de- 
compositiou ; and, when fruit is shipped in bulk without due regard to ventilation, 
it heats and ferments, or sours, and is then almost a deadly poison to the human 
system. 
Now, the price of fruit, as well as every other product, is governed, very materi- 
ally, by its quality ; and fruit growers who uniformly deliver large, clean and sound 
fruit, strictly adhering to a fixed determination to maintain a high standard of ex- 
cellence for it, will, as a matter of course, secure the best class of custom. It is a 
well known fact, that too many of our fruit growers cannot resist the temptation of 
I putting in just a few inferior or unsound berries, or a few knotty, wormy or wind- 
fallen apples, pears, peaches, &c., to fill up a certain desired quantity, which might 
otherwise have been quite choice; but, dealers soon learn that a very few defective 
specimens, in an otherwise choice basket, will lower the grade of the whole lot, and, 
in his second purchase, the merchant will seek a new grower for his supply. This 
is a very important question to fruit growers, which they cannot afford to shut their 
eyes to in these days of strong competition. 
In the last number of the Index, (April, 187!)?) page 36, Fig. 101, we gave a cut 
of a fruit protector, which is a step in the right direction; for it is an absolute ne- 
cessity to keep the fruit clean to make it marketable — not by washing it, for wetting 
fruit usually spoils it for market, but by keeping it clean all the time it is growing. 
The purpose of this article, however, was not “how to grow fruit,” but, “how to 
gather it and place it before the people ready for the. table,” and, in a good marketa- 
ble condition. And right here, we wish to acknowledge the favors from our many 
horticultural friends, for the use of cuts to illustrate this article, which will enable 
us to give a better idea of the subject than words will do. 
