'^ RAISE YOUR OWN FRUIT 227 



expensive. I have paid three dollars for a six- 

 pound basket. They disappear early, but if 

 you want to buy a basket of Malagas, which 

 resemble them, and call them Muscatels, some 

 dealers will gladly accept a triple price for them. 

 Of the California grapes on sale everywhere, the 

 Comichons have the richest flavor. But give 

 me Muscatels for flavor every time — or Muscats, 

 as many call them. 



All these solid California grapes are of foreign 

 origin. Their skins adhere to the pulp. American 

 grapes have loose skins. All of them are in the 

 matter of flavor capable of great improvement 

 by future disciples of Burbank. 



Vesey Street is the best street in New York 

 for retail fruit sampling. It leads on one side 

 to Washington Market and on the other to 

 Washington Street, which for a dozen or more 

 blocks northward is one continuous market for 

 fruits and some vegetables, many of the side 

 streets also being monopolized by the whole- 

 salers. Here you pass piles of baskets of Con- 

 cord grapes, dozens on tops of one another; 

 ditto of oranges and grapefruit from California, 

 Florida, Porto Rico; of Honeydew and Casaba 

 melons, which would have ten times their 

 present sale if they were not marketed before 

 they are ripe; of salad plants; bags of onions 

 diffusing an atmosphere which makes one dream 

 of Venice or Naples; of apples and pears; and 

 every fruit in season that you can think of. 



