MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 399 



But surely the Vineyarders could arrange with the market- 

 men and supply them with better vegetables from their own 

 gardens- than those from the mainland two or three days old. 

 According to the census of 1875 (though matters have im- 

 proved since that, but the Federal census does not descend 

 to such small things), no asparagus, no lettuce, salads nor 

 greens, no celery w^as raised and sold on the island ; only fif- 

 teen bushels of tomatoes, two thousand quarts of strawberries, 

 fifteen hundred bushels of sweet corn, and $332 worth of 

 cucumbers, — a very small part of the consumption of from 

 ten to twenty thousand people in three months. Of the 

 lambs sold the census report give no return ; but the farmers 

 told me that owing to New Bedford competition they could 

 not get paying prices. There is something wrong in this, 

 for they can and do have earlier and fatter lambs than the 

 New Bedford market can afford, and with the class of people 

 who summer on the island, and with proper arrangements 

 with the dealers, they ought to make their lambs a very pay- 

 ing product. 



Of dressed poultry they sold, during the year, $3,270 

 worth, and of eggs, $6,300 worth. The poultry and eggs 

 together amount to $700 more than all the beef and pork 

 killed on the island. 



Of pork they made 43,133 lbs., the number of pigs not 

 given ; but if each one dressed 250 lbs. it would only make 

 one hundred and seventy killed, — not half a pig for each 

 farm on the Vineyard, — which we, on the continent, would 

 think pretty small allowance, and which, I should suppose, 

 would not be enough with which to fry the orthodox codfish- 

 balls, let alone what should go into the honored pot that 

 holds the inestimable baked beans. 



Of beef they slaughtered during the year 47,720 lbs., and 

 if the reported hides corresponded there would have been 

 seventy-three beasts dressing 654 lbs. each ; but while Tis- 

 bury gives fifty-eight hides to 15,000 lbs. of beef, making 

 each one dress about 260 lbs., Edgartown apparently 

 wrapped in one hide 5,900 lbs. of beef, showing that the 

 hide does not always go with the carcase. The Vineyarders 

 received 9'' cents for their beef against 9 cents average of 

 the State; for their 13,830 lbs. of mutton, 12^ cents, against 



