158 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



of every variety, and the influx of wealth to which it has con 

 tributed ; with wealth, the increase of luxury, and the demand for 

 fruits and vegetables, articles in their nature perishable, and 

 demanding a rapid and certain conveyance, with various other 

 circumstances, have conspired to keep up the value of farms, 

 and, indeed, to increase their value in the neighborhood of New 

 York, and in every point from which, by these improved facili 

 ties of conveyance, this great mart has been rendered the more 

 accessible. 



The poorest markets those which are most poorly supplied 

 are in general those where the prices are lowest. Competition 

 and abundance create, and, to a certain degree, quicken demand ; 

 for the reason that they bring more customers, and create more 

 wants. Peaches are now sent by steam conveyances from New 

 Jersey to Boston, a distance of nearly three hundred miles ; and 

 strawberries from Providence, nearly two hundred miles, to New 

 York. What has been the effect ? To lessen price in a very small 

 degree in any case, but in many cases not at all j to increase the 

 consumption greatly ; and to induce the farmers, directly in the 

 neighborhood of Boston, to go themselves into the cultivation 

 of peaches, to take immense pains to guard against the evils of 

 an uncongenial climate, and to cultivate, as far as possible, fruits 

 of the best quality. Some trades may be overdone ; they may 

 be concerned only with articles not of necessity, but of mere 

 fancy, and subject to the caprices of whim and fashion ; but in 

 all those for which the demand is necessarily permanent, and in 

 a state of general prosperity in a country, the increased demand, 

 growing out of an increased consumption, will be always likely 

 to afford a remunerating price. But in any event, whatever 

 tends to the improvement of the general condition of the com 

 munity is to be encouraged. It may often be attended with 

 partial loss or temporary inconvenience ; yet, in all cases, unless 

 conscience or morals are involved, individual benefit or advan 

 tage should yield to the public good. The farmer near a large 

 town thinks himself injured by a railroad or canal which brings 

 the farm of another man, a hundred miles distant, in competition 

 with his own. Every one sees that the great public is to be 

 benefited by the increased supply which is thus produced. Now, 

 is there any good reason why the distant farmer should not come 

 to the market by any facility which he may create or obtain, as 



