74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sections far away have been filling our markets with beautiful, 

 but inferior fruits. ( onnecticut, with more than one million 

 peach trees in orchards, now produces a greater annual output 

 than Delaware, while Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New 

 Hampshire, stimulated by Connecticut's success, have now more 

 than 300,000 trees in orchards and from the middle of August 

 well into October more peaches are produced in New England 

 than her markets can consume, and if present contemplated 

 plantings are continued we will soon be hunting for markets in 

 sharp competition with the South and West. 



The taking up of many of our small and semi-idle farms by new- 

 comers from the North of Italy, who, just as quickly as they are 

 well settled on the land, plant a vineyard, is bringing about some 

 remarkable results in grape production, especially in Massachu- 

 setts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, where five to eight tons of 

 grapes per acre are annually being taken from lands considered 

 almost worthless before. This so clearly indicates the great com- 

 mercial possibilities of grape culture in New England as to lead to 

 the belief that before many years grapes now coming from other 

 states will largely be replaced by those of higher quality of our 

 own growing, for there is no question but that fruits grown on the 

 rocky hill lands of New England are richer in quality than similar 

 varieties grown elsewhere. Those who, not so many years ago, 

 sold out their New England farms at from $20 to $50 per acre, 

 and because of alluring advertisements, went to remote sections 

 of the country, paid higher prices for land to grow fruits upon, 

 are waking up to the fact that the "stay-at-homes" and the 

 incoming foreigners, who had faith in New England lands, are with 

 the aid of modern horticultural science and practice, reaping far 

 greater cash rewards from the cheap lands of New England than 

 are those on the high-priced lands so far away. 



The cost of transportation alone takes from one-third to one-half 

 of the gross sales. It costs me $415 for freight and packages to 

 place a car of my Georgia peaches on the New England market, 

 while the same amount of Connecticut peaches can be placed for $75, 

 making a sum of $340 per car in favor of New England, and the 

 unification of our railroads, through the practical consolidation of 

 the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the Boston & Maine 



