No. 4.] FRUIT GROWING. Ill 



by the Erie canal, at that time the only medium through 

 which were transported to market the entire crops of the 

 country. From the beginning the undertaking was profit- 

 able. One of the first heavy crops was sold in New York 

 City at $15 per barrel. A stimulus was thus given to pear 

 growing which has continued notwithstanding the preva- 

 lence of low prices in later years, and the pear continues 

 to be grown as one of the staple fruit crops over a wide 

 area, the production finding its market either in distant 

 cities or in canning factories that require thousands of barrels 

 annually to meet the demands of their growing trade. 



It may not be surprising that amid such surroundings has 

 been developed a taste that has led me to regard fruit culture 

 as one of the most important and valuable branches of farm- 

 ing, and I believe the ground well taken. Good orchards 

 of all fruits have a fixed value that has been well main- 

 tained. They are rarely found for sale, their estimated 

 value being at from $200 to $1,000 per acre, the difference 

 in price growing out of the location, condition and varieties 

 grown, the latter being regarded as a matter of great im- 

 portance, but which in many instances has been too little 

 thought of in planting for commercial purposes. A friend 

 who is known as one of the best apple growers in my 

 county has assured me that $1,000 per acre would be no 

 temptation as a purchase price for his orchard ; he claiming 

 that his plantation of Nonesuch and Baldwins has paid him 

 more than 10 per cent net on this sum through the past ten 

 years. The past season, with only a moderate crop and an 

 unusual amount of defective fruit, the receipts from about 

 25 acres have amounted to something over $4,000. 



Now, how about the value of ordinary farm lands in 

 general through the same section ? A hasty review of the 

 situation may not be amiss. A portion of the land owned 

 by my father, independent of the old orchard referred to, 

 sold some forty years since at $135 per acre, and it has 

 recently changed hands at $60 per acre. And this is no 

 exception. The depression in value of all farm lands has 

 been general, until they have come to be regarded as un- 

 satisfactory and uncertain security. The causes that have 

 led to the changes are various; but in the main the princi- 



