No. 85.] 309 



ceived ten dollars for forty bushels of apples from a single tree. But 

 to obtain such large returns, good cultivation must be adopted. 



MARKETS. 



Liverpool and London appear to afford the best foreign markets for 

 apples ; but unless the fruit is of the very finest selected quality, the 

 shipper will meet with heavy losses. The duty being sixpence ster- 

 ling per bushel, and the freight three shillings and sixpence sterling, 

 it must be obvious that high prices only will cover cost, and afford 

 any return. Two cases, in one of which 350 barrels sent to London, 

 brought only sixteen shillings and sixpence, after deducting transpor- 

 tion ; and in the other, where more than twenty dollars per barrel 

 was obtained, have been already mentioned. Had the fruit in the 

 former case, been as good as in the latter, more than seven thousand 

 dollars might have been obtained. 



The domestic market for apples often varies considerably with the 

 amount of the general crop ; but in all places not greatly remote from 

 large markets, or from main channels of trade, good winter apples 

 are very rarely lower in price than twenty-five cents per bushel. 

 There is, indeed, perhaps no farm crop which has fluctuated less in 

 price for the last thirty years than this. And while the increase of 

 population, and the demand for consumption, has been greater than 

 the increase of good orchards or of the supply they afford ; and while 

 good apples can never fail to be valuable either for sale or for home 

 use, none need fear of a good and profitable return for every tree he 

 may transplant upon his farm, especially if brought forward rapidly 

 into bearing by good culture. 



\ DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



These are few, and not formidable as yet in our State. Decidedly 

 the worst enemy which has yet been found, is the common orchard 

 caterpillar. A description of this insect is scarcely needed ; a more 

 thorough knowledge of its habits, however, would assist greatly in 

 its destruction. It hatches out early in spring, forms small webs or 

 nests on the branches, devours the young leaves, and increases in size 

 from the sixteenth of an inch to a quarter of an inch in diameter. It 

 then changes, about midsummer or sooner, into the pupa or cocoon 

 state, and in a few weeks comes out in the form of a brown miller, 

 and then lays its eggs for another crop of destroyers. These eggs 



