[Illustration: FIG. 2--TRAINED CORDON APPLE TREES
In this respect also we are approaching European conditions. In the markets of the continental capitals in particular fancy fruits are frequently sold at prices which seem almost incredible to an American. Single apples sometimes bring 50 cents to a dollar, and peaches an equal price. Just recently a story has been going the rounds of the newspapers that the caterer for the Czar's table sometimes pays as high as $15 apiece for peaches for the royal table. Hereupon a solemn American editor remarked that if the whole royal family should live upon nothing but peaches it would still be cheaper than carrying on the Japanese war.
Now if there is anywhere within reach a market for apples or peaches at $3 a dozen specimens--and there unquestionably is--then it will pay to grow fancy fruits with special care to meet this demand. This kind of fruit can be grown better upon dwarf trees than upon standards in many cases, if not in most. At least such is the conviction of the present writer. Moreover this has been the experience in the old country.
With such facts in view there seems to be a possible future for dwarf fruit trees, even for commercial purposes. Their present utility in amateur gardens and on wealthy private estates can not be questioned. These various amateur and commercial adaptations of dwarf trees will have to be more carefully analyzed and discussed in a future chapter, and the subject may therefore be dropped for the present.
[Illustration: FIG. 3--BISMARCK APPLE, FIRST YEAR PLANTED
It is a good prejudice which expects every man who writes anything to be enthusiastic over his subject. Such enthusiasm doubtless leads a writer many times to over-state his case, and to claim more than the calm judgment of the multitude will ratify. And on the other hand, readers usually tacitly discount the statements of any man who writes about any matter in which he is plainly interested. The present writer knows that he is also under the ban, and that the reader firmly expects him to claim more for dwarf fruit trees than their merits will fairly warrant. This expectation the writer hopes to disappoint. It will be enough to set down here the obvious advantages and disadvantages which the horticulturist will meet in handling dwarf fruit trees. These statements are mostly of matters of common experience and they need no coloring to make them serve their present purpose.
