Tas a 
THE PROFITS OF GRAPE GROWING. 851 
“All grapes?” I asked. 
“Every one.” 
I began to be interested. “And how many grapes are on the load?” 
“RBifteen hundred pounds.” 
I wished I had kept still, for although it did not reflect very great 
credit upon my teaching, I knew that the boy did not always copy 
the example of the “father of his country,’ and now I had unwittingly 
tempted him. So I tacked off. 
“Tt must be nice,” I said to him, “to market all your crop at once.” 
“But these are not all,’ he sniffed contemptuously. “We havea 
ton coming to-morrow on the train, and that with these will market - 
about half the crop.” 
“A ton?’ I exclaimed. “Oh, Charlie, do you really know how many 
pounds there are in a ton?” 
“Yesum, just twenty hundred,” and he fairly howled with laughter 
at my dismayed look. 
So I tacked again. “And how much money do you expect per 
basket?” 
“Well, for these little ones, which are Delewares and weigh five 
pounds,” he said, lifting a cover, “we are to have fifty cents a basket 
and the large Concords, seventy-five or eighty cents,” and his black 
eyes shone with suppressed merriment. “Oh Mrs. Irwin,” he 
exclaimed at length, ‘am I such a bad boy that you caunot believe 
me about justa few of the grapesthat are raised about Minnetonka?” 
I was perplexed and astounded, and I must confess, half skeptical, 
and after the boy’s departure, took pencil and paper and sat down 
to estimate the worth of Charlie’s crop,if what he said could be 
true. But,as I said about raspberries, these were halcyon days, 
such as come to a courtry or people about once a century—a thing 
of the past,an old peg upon which the skeptical can hang fresh 
made jokes, while we in the rear of grapes for financial profit must 
use every economy of hired labor, of shipping and selling, if we 
make them give a financial profit atall. If we are willing to do all 
the work ourselves, from the beginning in May until the crop closes 
in October, cultivate, prune, gather, pack and sell, thereis yet finan- 
cial profit on large crops, but if,as formerly, we hire all these things 
done at the rate of ten and fifteen cents per hour we had all betier 
do as did one of my neighbors—dig them up and makea clover park 
for the cow. 
SHELTER BELTS FOR ORCHARDS: 
D. K. MICHENOR, ETNA. 
On the subject, “Shelter Belts for Orchards,” it seems to me there 
is not much left to be said, after ten papers have been read. 
All admit the necessity of protection for an orchard. The most 
important thing is the enterprise and push necessary to plant out 
and care forthetrees. The kind of trees to plant depends on location 
and the expense one cares to incur. 
There is nothing better for this section than soft maple. Fora 
small orchard I would want it sheltered only on the south and west; 
for a large one it would not make so much difference, for the circu- 
lation would be all right anyhow. 
I think the main benefit of shelter in this locality is to protect the 
bearing trees from the severe south and west winds that prevail 
during summer and fall. Only for that, I think if I were planting 
out a young orchard I would select a high breezy place and let the 
wind blow. 
