EXTENSION OF FRUIT GROWING. 



Fii!. 11191. — A 1!lock III- Plum Trees at Heldekleigh. 



a crop ten years hence, it would be ac- 

 counted a famine year, and famine prices 

 be obtained. I can well remember when 

 a wagon load of grapes on Hamilton 

 market was considered quite enough, 

 and wise-acres shook their heads and 

 declared that with the reckless planting 

 of whole acres of vines the market would 

 soon be overstocked, and you could not 

 give them away, and yet since that time 

 I have sold grapes at double the prices 

 obtained then. The first load of grapes 

 I ever sold was 320 lbs. on Hamilton 

 market, away back in 1877, and I had 

 the greatest difficulty in peddling them 

 off at 3 cents for the most beautiful 

 Delawares, and 2 cents for etjually beau- 

 tiful Concords. I obtained that price 

 for Delawares last year with this its awful 

 crop of all kinds of fruit, and repeatedly 

 since then I have got double that price 

 for both Concords and Delawares. We 

 need hardly look for double these prices 

 again ; but I feel perfectly satisfied that 

 we will, as in 1895 with its heavy cro[) 



of grapes, fully as heavy here as the crop 

 of 1896, realize a very large revenue in- 

 deed. We need hardly expect the large 

 profits of such years as 1895 to be often 

 repeated, indeed we may fairly look for 

 very moderate prices at least four years 

 out of five, but we must not forget that 

 a cent and a half a pound pays us better 

 now with ten, twenty or fifty acres in 

 vineyard, — yes, even one cent per lb. 

 pays us better than three cents fifteen 

 years ago with one and two acre patches ! 

 The man who grows ten acres now can 

 grow them nearly a cent a pound cheaper 

 than he could then on one acre. Im- 

 proved methods of culture, cheaper wire, 

 cheaper trimming, no unnecessary waste 

 by planting useless varieties, a better 

 knowledge of soils and locations, better 

 facilities for marketing, cheaper baskets, 

 and last, but not least, the fact that a 

 dollar will buy nearly twice as much of 

 many things we retiuire, all combined, 

 enables us to market the product of ten 

 acres with but little effort, while in those 



[30 



