WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 207 



Thus thirteen crops return the capital invested, seventeen years' 

 interest on same, and $2.56 net profit per acre each year. Eent of land 

 paid by other crops grown in orchard from a financial standpoint is not 

 very encouraging. But when it is considered that three years of rea- 

 sonably full crops are all the seasons have given, and that these three 

 gave $2,209, or $249 over half the net proceeds of the thirteen years, 

 it will be seen what might have been except for drouth, cyclones, 

 hail-storms, grasshoppers and poor management. To this may be added 

 eleven barrels vinegar on hand, which can be estimated to suit your- 

 selves ; and the further and more pleasing fact that fruits for three 

 families on the farm were furnished " without money and without 

 price," while a number of others enjoyed the privilege of "wind-falls" 

 to the full extent of their desires. The facts and figures proper to the 

 subject end here. But — 



THE MORAL PROFIT. 



I turn now from the financial to the moral aspect of the subject to 

 ascertain if there can be profit without increase of worldly goods*. 

 From the second year's vintage five barrels of wine were made — some 

 reasonably fair — one of which was consumed in the family, milk being 

 scarce that year. [The printer will please omit this in parenthesis.] The 

 second, " placed on tap," by some "mysterious Providence" (what a 

 mighty load of mishaps "mysterious Providence" has to bear), found 

 its way through the faucet to the cellar floor, indicating that some of 

 Noah's descendants were following closely in his footsteps. 



(Aside. The old fellow must have stepped heavily, else the sands 

 of time would have obliterated footprints made over 4,000 years ago.) 

 The remainder was converted into vinegar. 



The lesson taught is at variance with the theory of wine-makers, 

 that " with wine plentiful and cheap enough for everybody to use as 

 milk," there would be no drunkenness. It might lessen the use of 

 strong drinks which are said to be raging, but any beverage containing 

 eight to seventeen per cent of alcohol, as do all our native wines, can 

 never advance the cause of temperance by its constant and common 

 daily use. 



Let wine-makers howl if they will, the common use of such mild 

 drinks is but educating the appetite and the phybical system to desire r 

 demand and have stronger stimulants. 



This lesson well learned is worth much more than $10 an acre pro- 

 fit on an orchard, and should be placed to the credit side of the moral 

 balance sheet. 



