The United States is fortunate in the native fruit supply, including as it does so many degrees of latitude and longitude with the differences in altitude, climate, and soil needed by different varieties. Now that we count Porto Rico among our possessions, a list of our fruits would include most of the varieties known in the temperate and semi-tropical zones. The United States Department of Agriculture experiments with new varieties from foreign lands that may make themselves at home in our soil, and work like that of Luther Burbank produces new species. Scientific methods of fruit growing are becoming more common, and the quality of fruit will doubtless improve in spite of fungous diseases and injurious insects. Our wild fruits are not yet entirely rooted out. The Maine blueberry, for example, is found on hundreds of acres and needs no cultivation beyond burning over every third year. Fruit is necessary in our diet, and is not an extravagance unless we buy fancy varieties brought from a distance, or native fruits out of season. =Composition and nutritive value.=——The chief foodstuffs in fruits are carbohydrates and mineral matter. Fresh fruit contains from 75 to 95 per cent of water, and its presence is apparent in such juicy fruits as the melon and the orange. Figure 25 shows that seemingly dry fruits like the banana and the apple also contain much water. Even fruits which have been artificially dried, like prunes and raisins, contain some water. (Fig. 26.) Although the carbohydrates of fruits are largely in the form of sugars easily digested and valuable as fuel, this kind of food is especially valuable for its rich supply of ash, including the compounds of calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. The iron is of great importance, being in a form much more useful to the normal processes of the body than that prescribed medicinally. The bulk given by cellulose, and the laxative property of fruit acids also are safeguards against constipation, especially in a meat diet. Fruit is the best possible dessert after a hearty meat dinner. [Illustration: FIG. 25.——Composition of fruit.] [Illustration: FIG. 26.——Composition of fruit.] [Illustration: FIG. 27.——100-Calorie portions of fresh and dried fruit. _A. Fowler, Photographer._] KIND WEIGHT OF PORTION OUNCES Apple 7.5 Banana 5.5 Grapes 4.9 Orange 9.5 Peaches 10.5 Pears 6.3 Apricots 1.3 Dates 1.1 Prunes 1.4 Raisins 1.1