INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 31 



dollars a pound ; nor complaint of the cost of living 

 " low " with wine at four dollars, rum at two to 

 three dollars, and straight whiskey at two twenty- 

 five per gallon. In my boyhood we had always 

 some imported loaf sugar in the house, but it was 

 never used except for company. Ordinarily we 

 used a dark, strong-tasting New Orleans molasses, 

 and occasionally home-made maple sugar for 

 sweetening tea and coffee. 



At this time, 1818, there were few orchards in 

 bearing, but I have been told that between 1830 

 and 1840 my father sold many wagon boxes full 

 of peaches at 6^4 cents per bushel, the purchaser 

 shaking the fruit from the tree and hauling it away 

 to be used in making peach brandy. The sale of 

 fish at the store comes as a surprise, since the lake 

 and the streams were filled with fresh fish merely 

 waiting for some one to drop them a line; but 

 then, as in later years, salted mackerel and white 

 fish were a welcome change from ham and pork in 

 warm weather. 



There is one charge of salt in this old account 

 book, but unfortunately the price is not given ; but 

 I remember that in those days salt was an expensive 

 luxury, almost as necessary as whiskey and brandy. 

 When a lad I heard the following story which 



