SBASOBABIiE HINTS. 
Marketing Fruits.—A good deal of gratui¬ 
tous advice is frequently given to fruit-grow¬ 
ers about the advantages of home markets. 
There is no doubt that many gardeners near 
inland cities and large villages could increase 
their receipts considerably by creating and 
supplying home markets^ instead of shipping 
all their crops to the great fruit centers, 
thereby saving freights, commissions, and 
various iucidental expenses. But it must be 
borne in mind that in fruit-growing, as in 
trades, all cannot be retailers, The large 
cities must be supplied through the agency 
of those who make a business of selling what 
others raise and produce. 
Selling is as much a business as producing 
goods, and requires as much, and frequently 
more knowledge, skUl, experience, and capi¬ 
tal. The average cost of selling and trans¬ 
porting agricultural and industrial products 
from the farm and workshop to the hands of 
the consumer is decidedly greater than the 
cost of production, and this has to be paid 
by some one, and some have to be paid for 
doing the work and incurring the risks of the 
trade. It is apparent that those who devote 
all their time to the study of the markets 
and the securing of customers can sell with 
less expense and to better advantage than 
those who carry on another business which 
requires all thefr time and thought at the 
same time. Each one has to decide for him¬ 
self according to his inclinations and capa¬ 
bilities ; but farmers and gardeners can no 
more dispose of all their crops at retail 
prices than manufacturers of dry goods and 
hai’dware can. Local markets would soon 
become overstocked and prices dwindle down 
to nothing. 
Home markets offer, nevertheless, excellent 
opportunities to capable and energetic gar¬ 
deners if, at the same time, they are good, 
active salesmen ; but these qualifications are 
not often combined in one person, as rarely, 
in fact, as men eminent in professions are 
found to be good business men. 
Partnerships .—Unless gardening is carried 
on at a very small scale, to make home 
markets profitable there should be two per¬ 
sons interested in the business—one to 
devote his principal attention to the garden, 
the other to the sale of the products. We 
know of several partnerships of this kind 
which work very satisfactorily. 
We are led to these remarks in answer to 
several inquiries about this subject, and also 
because the season to commence active oper¬ 
ations is already on hand. 
Securing Orders. — Those intending to em¬ 
bark in local market-gardening should lose 
no time to canvass the neighboi’hood for 
prospective purchasers, and to ascertain 
what their probable requirements may be. 
If definite orders from hotels or large sum¬ 
mer boarding-houses can be secured, these 
alone may sustain a fair-sized fruit and mar¬ 
ket-garden. But let no one suppose that he 
can build up a profitable business, if he dis¬ 
appoints his customers and is not able to 
fulfill his contracts. The hotel-keoper who 
is left without berries and vegetables, just 
when his house is most crowded, is not apt 
to depend upon the local grower again, but 
will order his supplies from market centers. 
auLi ran™ 
s„.ll trait e,Jt™ is 0. 
Tu nf damage from weathei and an 
lihood of damage necessary 
mated enemies; that is, tne fUg 
trunk and the fewer necessary branch 
better. It follows that small fruits arej. 
and more reliable than tree frui . 
the Mto. Fungi, Insects, 
.nd lent prove injnrions to •!>» ‘""‘J "f 
brmehes of trees, iopsirins " o .L 
ness and cutting short their hves. Wrth the 
exception of Grapes, the enemies o 
fruits are neither so numerous nor virulent. 
I am inclined to believe that the reason ot 
this is that the culture of small fruits is in 
its infancy; and the exception which I have 
noted proves the proposition that culture 
may develop enemies of small fruits as dam¬ 
aging as those that now assail tree fruits. 
Yet, the fact will always remain that the 
former will have less wood, bark, and foliage 
to be molested. On this account, too, the 
loss of one shrub will be less serious than 
the loss of one tree, occupying, as it does, 
less ground, and being the equivalent of less 
care and labor. Again, small fruits are the 
least damaged by extremes of temperatiu’e. 
Where it is impossible to make the produc¬ 
tion of Plums, Pears, and Peaches a success, 
and an Apple orchard is the price of eternal 
vigilance. Blackberries, Kaspberries, Goose¬ 
berries, Currants, etc., successfully resist 
the weather. On the plains and prairies of 
our country, comprising the greater part of 
its extent, where high winds greatly prevail, 
small fruits are best; for they sustain no 
damage from the gales that prostrate trees. 
They probably require less culture. The 
pruning of small fruits is not such a serious 
matter as it is of tree fruits ; but the ground 
which they occupy must receive more culti¬ 
vation. 
Considering our country as a whole, our 
small fruits are the greater bearers. With 
the exception of a'few localities especially 
adapted to the production of some particular 
tree fruit, as Delaware is of Peaches, the 
crop of tree fruits is uncertain. The ab¬ 
sence of trees on our prairies would indicate 
that there tree fruits w'ould labor under 
serious disadvantages ; and it is certain that 
there those fruits cannot be depended uijou. 
Nor is this drawback confined to our prairies. 
Trees bear every other year; that is, each 
alternate crop is light, and total failures are 
not infrequent. During many years em¬ 
ployed in the culture of fruits on the western 
prairies, I have never had a short crop of 
berries, and very rarely of Grapes ; but tree 
fruits have failed often. In the Eastern 
States, I have found this phenomenon loss 
marked ; but it exists. 
The greatest di’awback to the culture of 
small fruits has been the difficulty of mar¬ 
keting and preserving thorn. But this diffi¬ 
culty has almost disappeared. I do not 
suppose that it will over bo as easy to 
handle and preserve small fruits as it is 
Apples, for they will always lack the firm 
te.\turo and self-keeping quality. But later 
ingenuity and experience in the construction 
of boxes and crates, in the manner of hand¬ 
ling as well as later appliances and means 
for transportation, have made marketing no 
serious matter. Fifty years ao-n „ 
Ws was almost unk^nolrbSotTS 
assumed such large proportions, is 
aged as to retain the flavor so little impj^ 
and can be done so cheaply and easily ■fjj’ 
the preservation of small fruits is a 
as easy as of any tree fruit except AppieJ^ 
and these can now boast of but little supe^, 
ority in this respect. 
This topic might receive further attention 
But I must close, contenting m:fself with'nj 
prediction that in the future- the develop, 
ment of the cultui'e of small fruits will fai 
exceed the development of the culture ol 
tree fruits. 
John M. Stahl. 
• BULBS BOB NAMIHG FBUITS. 
At the recent meeting of the American 
Pomological Society, held in Philadelphia, 
the following rules for naming and deserih- 
ing new fruits were adopted: 
Bide 1. The originator or introducer (in 
the order named) has the prior right to 
bestow a name upon a new or unnamed 
fruit. 
Bide 2. The Society reserves the right, in 
ease of long, inappropriate, or otherwise 
objectionable names, to shorten, modify, or 
w'holly change the same, when they shall 
occur in its discussions or reports : and also 
to recommend such changes for general 
adoption. 
Bide 3. The names of fruits should, pref¬ 
erably, express, as far as practicable by a 
single word, the characteristics of the va¬ 
riety, the name of the originator, or the 
place of its origin. Under no ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances should more than a single word 
be employed. 
Bide 4. Should the question of priority 
arise between different names for the same 
variety of fruit, other circumstances being 
equal, the name first publicly bestowed will 
be given precedence. 
Bide 5. To entitle a new fruit to the 
award or commendation of the Society, it- 
must possess (at least for the locality for 
which it is recommended) some valuable or 
desirable quality or combination of qualities, 
in a higher degi-ee than any previously known 
variety of its class and season. 
Bide 6. A variety of fr'uit, having been 
once exhibited, examined, and reported upon, 
as a new fruit, by a- committee of the Society, 
will not, thereafter, be recognized as such, 
so far as subsequent reports are concerned. 
THE IONA GBAPE. 
Wherever climate and soil are favorable to 
its perfect development, there are but few 
if any varieties superior to this exquisi ® 
Grape, and wo are glad to learn through t ® 
Santa Barhara Press that California grap®^ 
growers are graduall.v discovering its go 
qualities. It says: 
“ The most beautiful Grape of the seasosi 
for color, taste, grace of cluster, and 
ripening quality, is the Iona. - 
cousin to the Catawba with an Isabella spj® ^ 
It is a glowing, translucent garnet, vri 
purplisli bloom, and ought to make a 
table Grape, as, framed in its own o 
green leaves and tendrils, with yellow B® ^ 
for contrast, no prettier center-pioo® 
dainty lunch or dinner-table could be de _ 
Only a few of our vintagers as yoi* ^ 
found out how well this Grape 
"blit tboftn "Paw nva Tviolriwir# if. O. 
