The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-09-17
TIE PRESS
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD,
Fruit Culture in the United states.

classic haunts, and by steerage passage or
otherwise emigrated to this favored land OF
ours. Just when the genial goddess arrived,
or by what particular steamer, ID not a
matter Of record, but some time doubtless
within the past fifteen years, during which
period this country has attained a develop
ment in abundance and excellence of fruit
age far beyond that of any other in the
world. In commercial statistics the United
States has heretofore figured chiefly in con-
nection with SO much wheat, corn and cot
ton, but OF late years the enormous quantity
and value OF our perishable fruits has begun
to impress itself upon the public and COM
mercal mind. Europeans, especially, En-
glishmen, now look to America, not only for
its surplus breadstufs and cotton, but for its
toothsome apples and other fruits, canned
and dried in great variety. They have tried
our beef and liked it and become regular and
remunerative customers, our oysters have
touched tender spot in the English palate,
thousands of tons of American cheeses are
annually consumed abroad, and the latest
craving of the British appetite is for Ameri-
can apples and our other yet more tender
fruits. Among the latter may be mentioned
the tomato, which successfully completes with
the English varieties and sells at retail for
from 80 cents to 81 per dozen. ALI this COM
merce in our fruits has grown up recently,
and has increased with arithmetical proper
ton within the past two or three years. This
year the demand is likely to be greatly aug
mented by the almost utter failure of the Eng
lish fruit crop, and London paper prophesies
the importation of vast quantity of Ameri
can apples, which will be held at very high
prices.
But this foreign appreciation of American
fruits and the growing remunerative demand
for them are, at present, secondary consd-
Grafton. 1t is their benefcent value as an ad-
dition to the dietary of this country that lends
the chief significance to these superintendent,
juicy products of the earth. Not 10 the rich
alone, as formerly, are these choice treasures
of vine and tree confined, but so plentiful
and cheap have they become that for few
cents the poor man may have placed before
him a dish of fruit that would have made the
eyes of monarch glisten with delight at it's
rarity century ago. And this cheapness
and commences of wholesome fruits is
doubtless having widespread effect upon the
public health and longevity. The whole de-
States is within the memory of its midde-aged
inhabitants. There is the tomato, which has
become the most valuable of the minor fruits
In the variety and extent of Its uses. It was
only the other day that we heard a rosy
checked matron laughingly describe its intro.
duction into rural New England community
during her childhood. As the fruit began to
swell the anxious query with the good folks
was, when and how to eat it. Should it be
picked green, like cucumbers, and eaten with
pepper and vinegar? or should it be boiled,
like squashes? For experiments sake a
number were boiled green and eaten with
condiments, and of course the homelY verdict
was that this new-fangled fruit was emo great
Shakes" after all. But the chickens liked to
pick at the tomatoes, and so the obtuse old
farmers kept raising them till the chickens
taught them the lesson of eating the ripe fruit
themselves. Take that most prolific and val
liable of all our fruits, the apple. Time was
when its chief merit seemed to consist in its
cider-making quality. What the apple of the
fathers was, the curious may ascertain from
the scanty and grabbed fruitage of now and
then an antique apple-tree to be found in the
back-country pasture lots. Now, this most
satisfying and nutritious fruit of the northern
States numbers no less than 1880 varieties.
"a- them possessing delicacy of flavor
re fit to tickle the palate of royal
There are our pears, which, from a
all, insipid kinds, have increased with
eneration to 1910 varieties of varying
des OF JUICY luscousness. Ofstrawberries,
q the common field berry we have attained
300 varieties; peaches also are of 300 kinds;
1erries, 230; currants, 80; while blackberries
and raspberries have been redeemed from the
fields and produce proliicly in all our gardens
there are the semi-tropical products of Flori-
da, which, latest of all, have become sensi-
pie addition to the country's fruit production.
The orange groves of that State will ere long
be the source OF the country's entire winter
supply of oranges, and lemons, figs, pine-ap-
pies and bananas will more and more abound
there and find their market at the North.
II is only in recent years that the South
nas T22eee north in the matter of fruit and veg.
etabie raising. In the great staple of apples.
the northern states possess an incontestable
superiority. New York. A1isAiea.., AIissO~ri
e~and Kansas ALWAYS excepting from every
comparison California; can beat the world
for magnificent apples; but aside from this
pre-eminence, with like superiority perhaps
In the production of pears, there is hardly a
berry or fruit that the South cannot raise
In greater luxuriance and abundance, This
is getting notably to be the case with peaches.
Formerly this fruit found congenial soil in
New England, later, New Jersey was its ia.
vorite habitat, and now Delaware and Mary
land are conspicuously at the head, while the
empire of the peach still seems steadily pro-
crossing southwark. With increasing facili-
ties and cheapness of shipment and a wider
knowledge of supply and demand, South Car
DINA and middle Georgia threaten to become
the next great peach growing and exporting
centers. They have the advantage of a
month in ripening the fruit, and as it steadily
improves in flavor and size as the summer
advances, constantly outrivals and antici-
pates the northern raised varieties in the
market. The vicinities of Norfolk. Va. and
Charleston, s. c., portions of Georgia and TO
limited extent Florida, are at present the
principal centers of competition with the
North In the raising of small fruits. From
them come STRAWBERRIES in lmitless quantity.
while perhaps the snow yet fingers about the
northern fences. and when the tardy native |
berry arrives our appetites are likely enough |
stated with plentiful indulgence in the south |
ern fruit; and likewise, too, they furnish |
largely blackberries, cherries, plums and
watermelons by the million. This southern
supply OF early fruits is comparatively new
thing and the business is bound to vet in |
crease immensely. Florida has but just dem /
onstrated her ability to raise great variety /
OF rare fruits which have hitherto been inn. /
ported. That state Is now gaining large /
permanent immigration of the energetic /
northern element whose whole future seems /
to turn upon the culture of these fruits. and /
the capacity of Florida for such production. |
and the character of the people engaged in it, |
promise great results in the future.
But in the thrifty soul there is room for dis
satisfaction over the riotous abundance of the |
country's fruitage. Consumption. cheap.
quick transportation, and methods of presery-
atlon, nave not kept pace with the bountiful /
yield, and enormous quantities of good fruit
go TO waste in various ways every year. How
to prevent this breach of economy is more
and more exciting the attention Of scientists
and inventors. Canning is an expedient ex-
tensiyely resorted to at the North, where in
places it has grown to the proportions of a
great and valuable industry, but it is little
practiced yet in systematic way at the
South. Drying fruit is perhaps the Oldest and
most practiced method Of preservation, and in
this art the inventor has come to the assis-
lance OF the housewife with effective machin-
cry. This was noticeable in the agricultural |
department of the centennial exhibition.
where might be seen apparatuses by which
apples and other fruit could be pared. cut and
artifcially dried with marvellous CELEBRITY, the
result presenting such clean and sweet con.
trast with that of the homely old-fashioned
methods as to appeal at once to the least fas-
tidious person. But the ideal method of fruit |
preservation is neither of these. What is
wanted is some cheap and simple way by
which all decay can he arrested and the fruit
Kept an indefinite period and yet retain all its
natural qualities. This may be an impossible
ity, although it was only recently claimed that