Chap. X.] Expenses of House-keeping. 189 



is only in hot weather, that the shambles are left thus 

 garnished. Very true ; but, are the shambles of any 

 other country thus garnished in hot weather? Oh! 

 no ! If it were not for the superabundance, all the food 

 would be sold at some price or other. 



334. After bread, flesh, fish, fowl, butter, cheese and 

 groceries, comes frtt it. Apples, pears, cherries, peaches 

 at a teyith part of the English price. The other day I 

 met a man going to market with a wagon load of icinter 

 pears. He had high boards on the sides of the wagon, 

 and his wagon held about 40 or 50 bushels. I have 

 bought very good apples this year for four pence half- 

 penny (English) a bushel, to boil for little pigs. Be- 

 sides these, strawberries grow wild in abundance ; but 

 no one w ill take the trouble to get them. Huckle-berriea 

 in the woods in great abundance, chesnuts all over the 

 country. Four pence halt-penny (English) a quart for 

 these latter. Cranberries, the finest fruit for tarts that 

 ever grew, are bought for about a dollar a bushel, and 

 they will keep, flung down in the corner of a room, for 

 five months in the year. As a sauce to venison or mut- 

 ton, they are as good as currant jelly. Pine apples in 

 abundance, for several months in the year, at an average 

 of an English shilling each. Melons at an average of 

 an English eight pence. In short, what is there not in 

 the way of fruit { All excellent of their kinds and all 

 for a mere trifle, compared to what they cost in Eng- 

 land. 



335. I am afraid to speak of drink, lest I should be 

 supposed to countenance the common use of it. But, pro- 

 testing most decidedly against this conclusion, I proceed 

 to inform those, who are not content with the cow for 

 vintner and brewer, that all the materials for making 

 people drunk, or muddle headed, are much cheaper 

 here than in England. Beer, good ale, I mean, a great 

 deal better than the common public-house beer in Eng- 

 land ; in short, good, strong clear ale, is, at New York, 

 eight dollars a barrel ; that is, about fourteen English 

 pence a gallon. Brew yourself, in the countrj', and it is 

 about seven English pence a gallon ; that is to say, less 

 than two pence a quart. No Borough-mongers' tax on 

 malt, hops, or beer ! Portugal wine is about half the 



