SECRETARY'S REPORT. 3il 



with tliG prices of the same here. My purchases were chiefly 

 confined to fruits, and in these they were both frequent and — 

 for a single consumer — extensive. These were cheap enough. 

 The most delicious grapes, for instance, could be had for little 

 more than the asking. What is the effect of this system upon 

 the development of agriculture 'i No rod of ground is left 

 imtilled. A poor woman, who cannot own or carry on a farm, 

 can cultivate ajittle patch, or vacant lot near the city, and be 

 sure of getting for it as much, in proportion, as the large farmer 

 with his hundreds of acres. Hence, around all the cities, there 

 is scarcely such a thing as a vacant lot which is uncultivated, 

 however small it may be. Suppose this were the case around 

 Boston. Every-body knows there are hundreds of acres lying 

 in wait for the purchasers of building lots. They yield no 

 income as they stand. They are too small for the farmer to 

 undertake, perhaps. They would not be injured by proper cul- 

 tivation, and the aggregate production would amount to a large 

 sum. If they are filled with roots, vegetables of any descrip- 

 tion, on lease, the receipts, under our present system, would 

 not amount to much to the cultivator, because he must sell 

 them to the market man or the city dealer, to be sold and resold, 

 perhaps, till the consumer has to pay dear enough, to my 

 certain knowledge. But if the small producer could sell direct 

 to the- consumer, he might realize more than he now could, 

 even if the consumer paid less than he now does. An intelli- 

 gent American, resident of Vienna, made the remark, when 

 speaking of this subject, that if Eanueil Hall market were burnt 

 to the ground and the open market system introduced in its 

 place, it would be far better for the people. I do not know but 

 there is much truth in his remark. 



As I was thrown very much among musicians during my stay 

 in Vienna, I attended the opera, of course, though, I must con 

 fess, quite as much for the sake of hearing German, as for the 

 music. From either point of view I was amply repaid, for the 

 music was superb, so far as 1 could judge, that is, it pleased 

 me, and I regarded no time lost when I could be listening to 

 my favorite gutteral German. 



Having heard and read so much of the Danube, and of Hun- 

 gary, I determined to take the boat down the river, to Pesth, 

 and return by rail to Prague. We started early in the morn- 



