FRUITS. 137 



everywhere. There is no lack at home, and there is no demand 

 abroad. Trade is unaffected by a reduction in price, and sales 

 drag heavily. There are literally apples for the million, and 

 growers search our markets in vain for purchasers at one and 

 two dollars the barrel. The cider-mills of the country, though 

 in constant operation night and day, fail to meet the require- 

 ments of their customers ; the supply of casks and packages is 

 exhausted, and thousands of bushels are being daily fed to the 

 cattle and swine of our farms as an economical substitute for 

 hay and grain ! What a' lesson this for those who only a few 

 years since pronounced orcharding a failure, declared the days 

 of the apple-tree numbered, and advised young cultivators and 

 farmers generally to abandon the growing of the fruit, and to 

 cut down their trees as cumberers of the ground, fit only for 

 fuel, and of poor quality even for that ! 



It has been remarked that for every ten years there are three 

 years of plenty, and three years when the crop is nearly or quite 

 a total failure, the remaining four years producing some fruit, 

 amounting on the average to nearly half a crop ; and this 

 statement is drawn not from the results of a single decade, but 

 from the statistics of the past one hundred and fifty years. 

 Such a summing up of the matter may not be encouraging, yet 

 could we be assured of like results we should plant an orchard. 

 Frost, disease, the canker-worm and other insects will undoubt- 

 edly in the future, as they have done throughout the past, im- 

 pair and perhaps destroy the fruits of our labors ; still we believe 

 the setting of an orchard, or even a single tree, will prove a 

 source of satisfaction, if not of pecuniary profit. 



The fluctuations in price during the past ten years may be 

 worthy of notice. The lowest point was reached in the autumn 

 of 18G2, at which time the ruling rate was but one dollar per 

 barrel. From this sum the grower was obliged to deduct 

 twenty-five cents for the package, and thirty cents for the cost 

 of picking, barrelling and transporting to market, leaving a net 

 amount of forty-five cents per barrel, or four cents per peck for 

 selected fruit of the rarest, as well as of the best standard 

 varieties. 



In 1855 the crop of apples was generally small, and through- 

 out the East was almost an entire failure. In March and April 

 of the spring following, this fruit — nearly all of which was re- 

 18* 



