FARMS. 103 



this fall been rooted out. They were sixteen years old, set 

 thirty feet apart, many of the branches meeting, and the trunks 

 fourteen inches in diameter, and less. In growth they have 

 been extremely satisfactory, but in productiveness, much less so. 

 The fact that the canker-worm has secured a lodgment makes 

 the sacrifice less felt. The land thus cleared is to be planted 

 with grapes. Of about six hundred standard pear-trees set, 

 something like fifteen per cent, have died and been replaced by 

 others. Two-thirds of the whole number have grown satisfac- 

 torily and look well for the future. Of about eight hundred 

 pears on quince-roots, nine-tenths have seen their day, and, 

 taken as a whole, they have not paid their cost. Nearly all 

 have either blighted, died, thrown out pear-roots, or have been 

 removed, leaving the standards to occupy the ground. Tliree 

 hundred peach-trees survived from ten to twelve years and pro- 

 duced four very fine crops in that time. Eighty cherry-trees 

 stood ten years, grew very finely, but never produced a bushel 

 of fruit for sale, and were then removed. Fifty plum-trees 

 stood the same length of time with the same results. 



Strawberries were grown in quantity a number of years and 

 always at a handsome profit. 



The Concord grape I began to set in 1856 and have increased 

 the amount until I have an acre and two-thirds, and propose to 

 add upwards of two acres where the hundred and thirty-two apple- 

 trees have just been removed. This fruit has been an eminently 

 satisfactory product with me, yielding in good years a very large 

 profit, and in the worst seasons giving a better return than any- 

 thing else grown. 



In winter I find sufficient employment in the management of 

 a forcing house used for growing cucumbers for the New York 

 market ; two horses are kept and about fifty hens are wintered. 



My gross sales for 1868, were, .... $2,359 95 



" " 1869, " .... 3,848 24 



" 1870, about .... 3,400 00 



Amount paid for labor in 1868, was . . . 632 10 



" " " 1869, "... 685 66 



" " " 1870, about ... 550 00 



Jabez Fisher. 



FiTCHBURG, October 25, 1870. 



