Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-01-04

! recently had the advantage, in
visiting a group of small holdings, of
seeing something of the work of the
strawberry and apple grower, writes
James Long in the Manchester Guar
dian. | take an instance-one of a
number of similar eharacter-in
which strawberries covered a quarter
of the area of a ive-acre holding. On
this comparatively small plot a crop
VISA grown which realized $50 In the
market, the work being practically
all performed by the holder and his
wife. These persons, like their
neighbors, had originally been en-
gagged in mechanical work, and sim
ply acquired their knowledge OF fruit
culture, like the strawberry growers
of Botley, from those who had picked
1t up before them. In another case Il
grower owning a larger area of land
was combining himself to potatoes on
his arabic and apples and plums on
his planted land. The plantation, five
or six acres in extent, is five years
old, and is being supplemented by an
other, for which young trees have
been produced on the property; and
thus 1t is that the beginner, compelled
1T first to buy his trees from the nur-
Del IMAM, 10 dDlC W cAlCuu HIS acre
age by growing them for himself,
avoiding a cost which is always a SER
ious item. Just as the strawberry
grower referred to by doing his own
work knows the best fruit and keeps
it clean with straw, seeking to OBJ
tain early and late crops either of
which realize better prices than the
main crop, so does the apple grower,
by systematic and continuous exper-
fment-for fruit culture is all exper-
iment-seek to ascertain which vari-
cites suit his soil and climate best,
and how to produce a large and GER
tain crop by careful pruning and by
spraying in spring to prevent destruc-
ton by parasitic life.
The advantage of the bush tree is
that the branches, like the fruit, are
within reach of the hands, so that
pruning is rendered easy, the trees
kept open, and the fruit hand-picked,
and thus, too, the best fruit can be
picked when it is fttest for the mar
ket, carefully sorted and packed, and
sold to realize the highest price. The
grower in question fully realizes all
this. Just as eggs are handled
separately, sorted into sizes and col
ors, and, it is to be feared, in o
many cases, sold as new laid, when
they have crossed the sea, SO will the
apple grower of the future pay atten-
ton to every individual fruit, that it
may be presented in boxes or baskets
to the buyer in it's most attractive
condition. The return of the straw
berry grower is much more rapid
than that of the apple grower who
nlapts his own land, but it cannot be
doubted, bearing in mind the results
of the last season, that, next to the
very earliest fruit, late fruit-that
available up to August 10, for ex-
ample-is the most profitable. On
many heavy soils black c%urrants, If
free from disease, are profitable; on
many medium soils gooseberries pay
we'll, and in one case | walked
through a plantation of some twenty
acres in area which the owner was
content to sell annually at f13 an
acre, for others to pick and to mar
ket, which, | believe, they did with
great advantage to themselves. The
/ cost to the owner of the plantation
was chiefly confined to hoeing. occa-
SIGNAL manuring, and the replacing
of lead bushes. To sell well, fruit
should be attractive in color as in
flavor. which it chiefly owes to the
sugars and acids, chiefly malic and
citric, it contains.
AS 10 the value of fruit as food, we
have only to consult reliable data
showing of what it is composed. For
instance. the full value of a pound OF
bananas or grapes is three times as
large as that of a pound OF straw
berries, and much larger than in the
case of the apple, the fig or the cur
rant, all of which are much superior
to the orange or the pear, the value
of which in this respect is very low
but little indeed, above that OF the
watermelon. The water contents OF
fresh fruits vary, for example, from
seventy-five in panama to ninety-two
in the watermelon. Few fruits con-
tain more than w per cent. OF pro-
TEN, which is poor in the apple and
the peach, while the sugar and SINH
lar carbohydrates are richest in the
banana among fruits known in this
country, the pear, the cherry, the
| grape and the apple, the last-named
containing some 13 per cent, while
the banana contains 21 per cent.
A change takes place In the rela-
| tive proportions of feeding matter
and water when fruit is dried. Here
the pear takes precedence OF n ap-
pie and the banana. The remark
equally applies to the raspberry, the
raisin and the fig. The raisin, for
example, contains 70 per cent. OF
carbohydrates, against So in the ban
ana and 81 in the apple, but it is
closely approached by the Zante cur
rant and the prune. Yet in almost
all cases dried fruits are poor In pro-
- ...r10 xoo1rfnn nnoffor the
apple standing at III, the banana
5H, the pear IN, the raisin and the
currant IN, and the raspberry IN,
the last named when dried containing
a very small quantity of water. In
| the apple, which is so often regarded
as a model fruit, 25 per cent. is re-
fuse, while IS per cent. of the edible
portion consists Of water; but the
banana, rightly considered as a use
full food, contains 35 per cent. of re-
fuse.