Fruit preserve

“ Fruit and nut trees supply us with large quantities of the most wholesome and delicious food. The apple, pear, peach, plum, and cherry grow in the central part of the United States, and oranges, lemons, figs, olives and apricots in the warmer parts.
By planting these trees in suitable places one may have a rich harvest for many years to come. If a small fraction of the seeds of fruit trees which are wasted each year were planted, the general food supply would be greatly increased, and many benefits would be derived from the trees themselves. ”

“ If the ground is kept mellow and bare under the bushes, the fruit will be so splashed with earth as to be unsalable, and washed fruit is scarcely fit for the table. We very properly wish it with just the bloom and coloring which Nature is a month or more in elaborating. Muddy or rinsed fruit suggests the sty, not a dining-room. A mulch of leaves, straw, evergreen boughs—anything that will keep the ground clean—applied immediately after the early spring culture, is the best and most obvious way of preserving the fruit ”

“ Fruit farming is divided between orchard fruits, with which vegetable farming is usually combined and those fruits which may be grown in fields on a large scale. In the one class are apples, pears, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, grapes, figs, quinces, pomegranates and mulberries, in addition to walnut, pistacia, the edible pine and rhubarb, which grow wild in the northern and eastern highlands. ”

“ The grape-vine in particular, the cherry, plum, and apple-trees, have annually suffered by their depredations; many other fruit-trees and shrubs, garden vegetables and corn, and even the trees of the forest, and the grass of the fields, have been laid under contribution by these indiscriminate feeders, by whom leaves, flowers, and fruits are alike consumed. ”

“ The planter of extensive commercial orchards, on the contrary, will need but a limited number of varieties, which should be selected with a view to the wants of the markets he intends to supply, as well as to the productiveness of the fruit, and its ability to bear transportation. While it is desirable to have but a few well selected varieties in such an orchard, it must be recollected that even when there is a general failure of the crop, there are always some sorts that bear fruit, and this is an argument against making the list too small. ”

“ The bread-fruit is the most abundant of all the trees, and grows to a very large size; the cocoa-nut, the wild orange, and the lime, are all to be found. Bamboos, wild sugar-cane, wild nutmeg, besides many others, only require cultivation. Caoutchouc, gum arabic, castor beans, ginger, orris root, and coffee, will in time be added to these productions. Lemons and sweet oranges have already been planted, and promise a large product.
Swine are abundant and cattle rapidly increasing. Poultry of all kinds is very plentiful, and fish are taken in abundance. ”

“ Just as sure as the conditions of climate and soil remain as they are, will this new industry eventually hold first place in every respect. In the immediate vicinity of the capital city, where only a few years ago was nothing but barren prairie, there are now hundreds of acres in orchards and vineyards. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, and numerous varieties of grapes are grown in abundance, and with such success that the [275] fruit acreage is annually increasing. ”

“ Still, I would advise any one who is supplying the market, thoroughly to prepare and enrich an acre or more of moist but well drained land, and plant some of the large, showy berries, like the Sharpless, Monarch, and Seth Boyden. If he has heavy, rich soil, let him also try the Jucunda, President Lincoln, and, especially, the Triomphe de Gand. These varieties always have a ready sale, even when the market is glutted with common fruit, and they often command very high prices. When the soil suits them, they frequently yield crops that are not so far below the Wilson in quantity. ”

“ In the same way, birds which naturally eat weed seeds frequently find these almost altogether lacking where the farms are most carefully cultivated, but in their place are fields of grain whose seed also furnishes them desirable food. Is it any wonder, then, that, their natural food being taken from them, they turn to the cultivated crops? The fruit eating birds seem always to choose the wild fruits, but where these are not to be had they enter the orchards and soon become known as enemies of the farmer. ”

“ It is a common thing for us to send to the States for choice fruit, and the pomologist who receives our orders cuts off scions from the best fruit trees, and sends to us the summer, the fall and the winter apples, and we also get the pear, the plum, the cherry and the peach. We graft those various kinds of good fruit into our seedlings, and then the tree produces fruit according to the kind that was grafted into it, and in this way we procure good fruit. ”

“ Care must be taken to separate, as far as possible, all ripe berries from those which are green, as otherwise the crop will be made of inferior quality. The fruit, which necessarily ripens on the tree, before the bulk of the crop is harvested, falls to the ground and is of no commercial value, as it has lost its aromatic properties. The problem which the planter has to contend with of harvesting his crop before it ripens is a serious one, for the harvesting often must be done rapidly, and it is often difficult to obtain help enough among the indolent natives to pick the crop. ”

“ One-third of the vegetable food consists of cultivated fruits, or those which may be cultivated, such as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries; but while we debit the bird with the whole of this, it is probable—and in the eastern and well-wooded part of the country almost certain—that a large part was obtained from wild vines. The rest of the vegetable matter is mostly wild fruit, such as cherries, dogwood, sour gum, elder berries, greenbriar, spice berries, black alder, sumac, and poison ivy. ”

“ From this fact we should take our start in every process of orchard, nursery, and garden cultivation of fruit-trees; and if philosophically employed it will, we will not say revolutionize, but materially modify the processes of cultivation peculiar to colder climates and poorer soils. In respect to esculent vegetables—cabbages, radishes, celery, rhubarb, lettuce, etc., this rank and rapid growth is beneficial, since it is not the fruit but the plant which we eat. ”

“ Instead of producing larger crops, those vines which were given more room produced only more wood and more leaves. They followed that law of nature, which causes any animal or vegetable to grow luxuriantly when overfed, and which, on the contrary, causes seed and fruit to form when the vegetable system is restricted to certain proportions, which, of course, we can only determine by actual experience. By giving the vines less space, some inconvenience will be experienced in working the soil, and in drying the crop between the rows. ”

“ Tinned and bottled preserves soon become insipid to the palate, but dried fruit, such as apples, apricots and prunes, we found far more attractive, and they should always be carried when native supplies are uncertain. ”

“ The trees are rapid growers, come into bearing very early, and often bear enormous crops of fruit. They are good fruits for home consumption or for the fresh-fruit trade, but are not equal to European varieties of plums for preserving, drying, or jam-making. In this State they have one very great drawback, and that is their liability to the attack of the fruit fly, a pest that very frequently destroys the entire crop. ”

“ It certainly is the best of the fall-bearing kinds, and deserves a place in every garden. There are more profitable market varieties, however; but, if the suckers are vigorously destroyed, and the bearing canes cut well back, the fruit is often very large, abundant, and attractive, bringing the highest prices. As a plantation grows older, the tendency to sucker immoderately decreases, and the fruit improves. ”

“ For town or city lots, fruit trees should always be chosen, because they bear in a short time and will add to the family food supply, and so lessen the cost of living and increase the variety of food. Every farm should have a good assortment of fruit. ”

“ If our market is one in which strawberries are sold simply as such, without much regard to flavor or size, there is not the same inducement to produce fine fruit. But even when quantity is the chief object, deeply prepared and enriched land retains that essential moisture of which we have spoken, and enables the plant not only to form, but also to develop and mature, a great deal of fruit. In the majority of markets, however, each year, size and beauty count for more, and these qualities can be secured, even from a favorable soil, only after thorough preparation and enriching. ”

“ CHAPTER XVII PRUNING, SPRAYING, HARVESTING The day has gone, probably forever, when setting out fruit trees and giving them occasional cultivation, "plowing up the orchard" once in several years, would produce fruit. Apples and pears and peaches have occupied no preferred position against the general invasion of the realm of horticulture by insect and fungous enemies. The fruits have, indeed, suffered more than most plants. ”

“ Or does the success of it depend principally upon the varieties of fruit set out together with the after cultivation, pruning and spraying? First of all you must interest people in your work by producing something that they really want, and half of your problem will then be solved.
There are any number of places in the northwest where the demand far exceeds the supply. I do not mean for the common run of fruit full of worms and covered with scab, but, instead, strictly No. 1 fruit of the very best varieties. ”

“ The first consists of established farmers, who, finding markets within their reach, extend their patches of raspberries, currants, or strawberries to such a degree that they have a surplus to sell. To the extent that such sales are remunerative, they increase the area of fruits, until in many instances they become virtually fruit farmers. More often a few acres are devoted to horticulture, and the rest of the farm is carried on in the old way. ”

“ There is some reason to believe that some trees which seem to overbear every year can be prolonged in their profitable life and made to produce a moderate amount of fruit of large size and higher value by sharp thinning to prevent overbearing at any time. This is found clearly practicable in the cases of the apricot, peach, pear, apple, table grape, shipping plum, etc., because the added value of larger fruits is greater than the cost of removing the surplus. ”

“ There are such substantial benefits accruing from the presence of little chicks about the small fruit plantations, or the mature birds about the apple, plum, and peach trees—such as the destruction of hosts of worms and insects and keeping the surface of the ground stirred, that every consideration urges the combination of fruit and poultry growing. At the Vernon Fruit and Poultry Farm, Vernon, Conn., we saw last summer Baldwin apple trees that were six inches through at the butt, yielded an average of a barrel of choice apples each in the fall, and had been set only six years. ”

“ Of course, the latter must be removed, and, as a rule, the crops on new land—which has been undisturbed by the plow for a number of years and, perhaps, never robbed of its original fertility—will amply repay for the extra labor of clearing. Especially will this be the case if the brush and rubbish are burned evenly over the surface. The finest of wild strawberries are found where trees have been felled and the brush burned; and the successful fruit grower is the one who makes the best use of such hints from nature. ”

“ And when you do it, see that you plant good fruit, don’t plant Crab Apple Trees, nor Wild Plums, nor Indian Peaches, the best are the cheapest. Seriously, we have often wondered why our farmers did not devote more attention to the cultivation of fruit ”

“ All deteriorated raw material should be rigidly excluded from the factory. Various fruits are utilized in different manners in the preparation of the above-named products. Large fruits with tough skins, such as apples, peaches, and pears, are pared, the cores removed, and all decayed or infected portions cut away, and the clean, fresh, fleshy portion of the fruit used for manufacturing purposes. Small fruits, such as berries, after the exclusion of all dirt, immature or imperfect samples, and the removal of the stem, are used in the whole state for the purposes named. ”

“ Where an abundance of cool fertilizers has been used, or the ground has been generously prepared with green crops, plowed under, the yield is often large and profitable. But as often it is quite the reverse, especially if the season proves dry and hot. Usually, plants sodded together cannot mature fine fruit, especially after they have exhausted half their vitality in running. ”

“ It seems that workmen on the way to their places of employment were in the habit of foraging on the vineyards of the farmers along the way. To prevent that some of the fruit growers conceived the idea it would be a good thing in order to scare them to get blue vitriol and mix it with water and spray it on the fruit along the roadside. ”

“ To this portion of plantation management I have given an attentive inquiry, and shall shortly proceed to state my views on the system best adapted to the curing and preparing for market of good quality produce.
The fruit should be gathered in when in a blood-ripe state, to all appearance like cherries. The labourers are principally accustomed to reap the crop in baskets, of which they carry two to the field; and when the coffee is bearing heavily, and is at its full stage of ripeness, the good pickers will gather in four bushels per diem, and carry the same on their heads to the works. ”