GREEN’S NURSERY COMPANY, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
HINTS ON HOW TO PLANT AND GROW FRUIT 
BY CHARLES A. GREEN 
A change has occurred which promises great things for 
fruit growers. Fruit growing in past years has been the most 
profitable method of occupying the soil and yet no phenomenal 
prices have been paid for fruits. During the past three years 
there has been an enormous' increase in the price of rasp¬ 
berries, strawberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries and 
most of the large fruits. I paid 30 cents a quart for straw¬ 
berries this season simply to have it said that I had paid the 
most remarkable price on record for strawberries in the midst 
of the strawberry season. Raspberries and other small fruits 
have sold at nearly proportionately high prices. During my 
experience of nearly forty years I have not before known such 
high prices. I have sold many wagon loads of strawberries 
and black raspberries at 6 cents a quart and have thought 
myself fortunate to turn my crops into money at this price. 
At the prevailing high prices today a man can soon pay for 
his farm or roll up a fortune. A moderate sized wagon load 
of currants, raspberries, gooseberries and cherries at Green’s 
Fruit Farm sold for S150.35. 
In consequence of the high prices, particularly for small 
fruits, the demand for plants has been unprecedented. 
There have not been produced enough small fruit plants to 
supply the demand. Last spring it seemed as though the 
demand for strawberry plants would never cease. I suspect 
that we sold nearly a million plants; but probably this is 
something of an exaggeration. 
FRUITS ARE A NECESSITY 
The nation would not be so effective, so healthy and vigor¬ 
ous, if it w'ere not for the various fruits which are produced and 
consumed so freely in this country. Last year, though apples 
were scarce, several carloads were collected near Rochester, 
N. Y., and given without price to our soldiers fighting our 
battles in France, but fresh fruits are but a small portion of 
those consumed. The quantity used in jellies, extracts, 
syrups for soda fountains, dried fruit, evaporated fruit, and 
in various other forms, is enormous. Those who are produc¬ 
ing fmits in abundance and who supply the markets may feel 
satisfaction in the thought that they are sustaining our armies 
at home and abroad and our navies as well. 
FRUIT PLANTS, VINES, SHRUBS AND TREES ARE 
CLASSED BY THE GOVERNMENT 
AS ESSENTIAL CROPS 
These plants and trees have precedence, have the right of 
way over the railroads in preference to imperishable objects 
as brick, steel, etc. This indicates the full appreciation of 
the value of the fruit grower’s and nurseryman’s products. 
POETRY AND ROMANCE IN THE PLANTING OF 
TREES 
Every tree designed to outlive the planter is a witness to 
lovemaking and to romantic incidents. It is not unusual for 
an apple or pear tree or a grape vine to exist for over a hun¬ 
dred years. What changes such a tree or vine may witness 
or experience during this long period, provided it has eyes 
and ears, and scientific men now claim that trees have eyes 
and ears so different from those of human beings that we can 
scarcely distinguish them. The poet says that he who plants 
a tree plants hope, a place for nesting song birds, a shade at 
noonday for the wayfarer, an object of beauty for the artist. 
THE FRUIT GARDEN 
Do you know of any fruit gardens? I am sure you will 
hesitate when I ask this question. No, we do not know of 
many. But even in the early days when our pioneers were 
struggling to remove the stumps and rocks from their soil 
and to drain it there were fruit gardens. My father was the 
owner of one of these pioneer day fruit gardens. It was 
adjacent to the western side of the dwelling in which I was 
bom. There were black cherry trees, red cherry trees, plums 
of enormous size, marvelously juicy and sweet, a row of pear 
trees, a group of Sweetwater peach trees, most delicious, 
gooseberry and currant bushes, an asparagus bed, a butter¬ 
nut tree ever fruitful, and strange.to relate, a crab apple tree 
of large size, bearing the most, villainous fruit that I have 
ever heard of.. Not far from this fruit garden was the apple 
orchard, seedling apple trees, since there were no improved 
varieties grown in the nurseries at that early date. Many of 
the trees have been grafted to improved varieties. 
Who can express fully the attractions of this home garden 
that my father had planted so many years ago? For what 
sum of money would any sensible man annihilate this fruit 
garden? Its cost is trifling compared with its value. I need 
not explain here how such a fruit garden can be made attrac¬ 
tive not only,, but can be made a means for prolonging the 
life of the family and of making rural life attractive. 
VISITING THE ORCHARD 
What pleasant memories are recalled in thinking or talk¬ 
ing or dreaming of the orchard. When we speak of the orchard 
we refer to something enticing. We can see the barefooted 
children hunting in the. orchard the first ripe apple, peach, 
plum or cherry. Today in driving through an unknown street 
I came suddenly upon a cherry orchard. The automobile 
was checked in its speed and every passenger clambered out 
to. enjoy closer communion with this beautiful object. One 
friend exclaimed: “Why there are so many cherries we cannot 
see the trees!’’ The fruit hung so plenteously upon the 
boughs it was more conspicuous than the. foliage, just a 
blaze of red. It was a young orchard, possibly bearing its 
first crop of fruit. Owing to the scarcity of labor the soil 
had not been cultivated as it should have been and yet the 
trees were loaded down with beautiful fruit. I tried to make 
some estimate, of the value of this fruit in the home market 
in these war times but found it difficult to do so. The crop 
will sell for fully twice the ordinary price for cherries and 
they need not be shipped to other cities for there is an active 
demand for them at home, saving express charges and com¬ 
missions. Cherries are one of the easiest fruits to produce 
and one of the most inexpensive. Cherries come soon after 
strawberries, at an early date when fruit is particularly in 
demand. But an apple orchard is equally as attractive. 
The apple trees are far more sturdy and wide-branching, and 
as a food product the apple excels all other fruits. The peach, 
plum, pear and quince each has its peculiar attractions. 
DELICATE PLANTS 
It must be borne in mind that strawberry and black rasp¬ 
berry plants are delicate and require careful handling and 
planting.- If you have not had experience in planting these 
things you should deem yourself fortunate if you secure a 
full stand the first year. Do not complain to your nursery¬ 
man if the strawberry and raspberry tip plants he sends you 
do not all grow, for even the experienced planter expects to 
lose.some of. the. plants at transplanting. For this reason I 
advise planting in moderate amounts and then to increase 
your planting from the young plants that have been produced 
upon your own place. This will admit of your planting the 
strawberry and raspberry at the most favorable moment 
after a shower ancf without the slightest exposure. Notice 
that the delicate roots of the strawberry and tip raspberry 
will perish in a few moments when exposed fully to the sun 
and wind in transplanting or in digging. 
