304 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



28,260,000; peaches, 112,270,000 ; grapes, 141,260,000 ; total, 

 393,790,000. The estimated value of fruit products is, 

 apples, iB50,400,000 ; pears, $14,130,000 ; peaches, $56,135,000 ; 

 grapes, $2,118,900 ; strawberries, $5,000,000 ; other fruits, 

 $10,432,800 ; making a grand total of $138,216,700, or nearly 

 equal to one-half of the value of our average wheat-crop. 

 California, to say nothing of figs, oranges, olives, and almonds, 

 has sixty thousand acres of vineyards, and forty-three mil- 

 lions of vines yielding annually, besides grapes and raisins for 

 the market, ten millions of gallons of wines, to which may be 

 added the wines of Missouri, Ohio, and other states; the 

 whole annual wine product being fifteen millions of gallons. 



The following are a few illustrations of the immense quan- 

 tities of fruits which are sent to market in addition to what 

 is consumed at home. 



Of strawberries, there were received in one day in the 

 New-York market, at the height of the season, from all 

 sources, seven thousand crates, — more than ten thousand 

 bushels. The crop of peaches raised in this country is so 

 enormous that we hardly dare state the quantity. The 

 largest crop was in 1875 ; and, on the peninsula of Delaware 

 and Maryland alone, it was estimated at between seven mil- 

 lion and eight million baskets. 



From California, there were sent east, in 1876, three hun- 

 dred and thirty-four car-loads of fruit, of four hundred bush- 

 els each. 



The increase of strawberry culture in the vicinity of 

 Norfolk, Va., is astonishing, completely heading the page of 

 horticultural progress. The shipments this year have been 

 over three millions of quarts. There were nearly ten thou- 

 sand pickers in the field in one day. One grower had a 

 hundred and eighty-five acres. To Boston alone there have 

 been shipped this year 11,547 crates, of forty-five quarts 

 each, or more than sixteen thousand bushels. 



The increase in the crops of apples in New York, Michi- 

 gan, and the more Western States, is wonderful. 



From New York, it is estimated, that, in abundant years, 

 a million and a half of barrels are exported in addition to 

 those consumed at home. One county, it is said, received 

 one million of dollars a year for apples sold ; a single firm 

 at Boston receives from that State from thirty thousand to 

 forty thousand barrels of apples per year. 



