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BETTER FRUIT 



October 



The Orchard Ladder of Quality must bear 



the name "Northwest." Thousands are sold 

 on their merits. Ask your dealer to let you 



Off* r\\ it" I QrlriPr " vol,r l l l ' ;l l er <l°es not carry our ladder in stock, 



9tt UU1 -L/dUUCl. write us direct for prices. 



No crushed fruit if you use the Barnett Fruit Picking Pail. 



PRICE $2.00 

 Information on our Orchard Supplies will be gladly given on request. 



N. W. Fence & Supply Co. 



Station A When ready to prune your trees, remember the Bastian Pruner. Pnpflonrl Draann 



Jlauu " ** Superior to all others for ease and speed. fOrXiana, UregOM 



High Living Eighty Years Ago 



DISCUSSIONS of the high cost of 

 living frequently turn to the 

 "good old days," the inference 

 being that the good old days was a 

 Golden Age, when food and -shelter 

 and clothing did not vex the mind and 

 the family income could be devoted to 

 Latin lexicons and Transcendental es- 

 says. When great-grandfather and 

 great-grandmother took their respec- 

 tive gold-headed cane and market bas- 

 ket and walked down to Fanueil Hall 

 and Quincy Market, if — as all respect- 

 able ancestors should — they lived in 

 Boston, a few large coppers, we are 

 prone to believe, sufficed to buy a 

 week's supply of food. 



By F. C. Bradford, Amherst, New Hampshire 



If misery loves company the present 

 generation can take comfort in view- 

 ing the prices of fruits in those days 

 of plain living and high thinking. We 

 have before us, as we write, market 

 quotations, taken once a month, for 

 Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market, 

 gleaned from the files of the Magazine 

 of Horticulture from 1834 to 1846, and 

 to judge from these figures, Bostonians 

 of that time could not have been pe- 

 nurious — or they got along without 

 fruit. 



Consider the peach. Not Crawfords 

 or Elbertas, but Malacatunes, Old- 

 mixons and Red Rareripes. Large 

 peach orchards existed at this time in 



ORANGES 



APPLES PEARS 



For European Distribution. 

 Boxed Apples and Pears a Specialty. 



GERALD DA COSTA 



100 & 101, Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, W. C. 2, England 



Cables: "Geracost. London." Codes: A. B. C. 5th Edition and Private. 



Shipping Agents: Lunham & Moore, Produce Exchange, New.York. 



Harness costs money these days. Take 

 care of it. Make it last years 

 longer "by using Eureka Harness Oil - 

 the preservative oils protect the 

 leather fibre from dirt, sweat and 

 moisture. Keeps harness jet black. 



Eureka Harness Oil 



Standard Oil Company 

 (California) 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



New Jersey and Delaware, but much 

 of the product was made into brandy. 

 The Boston market was chiefly sup- 

 plied first, with peaches forced under 

 glass, second, with peaches brought in 

 from New York and finally, with "na- 

 tives." Consequently on July 23, 1836, 

 to be exact, the cheapest peach on the 

 market cost twelve coppers and a half- 

 cent; the best cost twenty-five cents 

 each. There were no quotations on 

 larger quantities. On August 22 of that 

 year they were cheaper: twenty-five to 

 fifty cents a dozen; $1.50 to $2.00 per 

 peck and $6 to $8 per bushel. In Sep- 

 tember they were down to from $3 to 

 $4 per bushel, with twenty-five cents 

 the cheapest price per dozen. Forced 

 peaches — grown under glass — sold in 

 July, 1837, for six dollars a dozen. 



Concord grapes were unknown, for 

 Ephraim Bull had not yet raised the 

 original Concord. For most of the 

 year the market was supplied with 

 forced grapes, Black Hamburgs and 

 White Sweetwaters, at from fifty cents 

 to $1.50 a pound; many greenhouse 

 establishments of the time were de- 

 voted to this crop. Isabella and cat- 

 awba grapes, grown out-of-doors, sold 

 occasionally as low as eight cents per 

 pound; at this rate we should pay 

 sixty-four cents for our eight-pound 

 basket. This was the lowest quotation 

 of the period; the standard price was 

 twelve and a half cents per pound, at 

 the rate of a dollar a basket. Novem- 

 ber, 1835, found Malaga grapes on the 

 market, at thirty-seven to fifty cents a 

 pound; two years later they were 

 down to twenty-five cents. 



No Boston back-yard — and there 

 were many in those days — was com- 

 plete without its assortment of pear 

 trees. Indeed, Eastern Massachusetts 

 was then the leading pear-growing 

 section of the country and most of our 

 Bonchreliena, St. Michaels, Capiau- 

 monts, Urbanistes and so on, entered 

 this country through Salem or Boston. 

 Yet with all the abundant supply at 

 hand, in September, 1839, Seckels were 

 selling at seventy-five cents per half 

 peck, Urbanistes and Heathcots at 



