FRUITS. 151 



We find, however, this apparent anomaly, that as the supply- 

 increases, the price advances, showing that the consumption in- 

 creases at a greater rate than the production. This may not be 

 at once evident if we compare any one year with that immedi- 

 ately preceding or succeeding, but by comparing seasons of 

 greater interval, it will be found to hold true, notwithstanding 

 the fluctuations in currency values. This being the fact, there 

 need be no fear of an over-production. A very slight reduction 

 in the price of a luxury, calls in an additional class of purchasers, 

 and increases the consumption of those already existing, and 

 the fact that the larger part of community have yet to taste, to 

 say nothing of eating freely, of these fruits, places the time at 

 which fruit-growing will cease to be a remunerative occupation, 

 fairly out of sight. 



Though this is true of the business when judiciously carried 

 on, it is not true of all those that engage in it. While the 

 growers in very many cases fail to get a new dollar for an old 

 one, and their crops in some instances will not pay the cost of 

 marketing, good fruit is yet not brought within the means of a 

 large portion of the people. 



This arises from various causes. The production of fruit is 

 often embarked in merely as a means of making money, under 

 the stimulus of occasional and unusual successes, without the 

 requisite knowledge of the principles and practices essential to 

 good results. It is as if one should, on the strength of a muni- 

 ficent price paid for some finished picture by a master, set him- 

 self up as an artist, and find that though his daubs were plenty 

 enough, yet the price paid for pictures was tantalizingly high. 



Fruit growing is an art, and a science as well. The art must 

 be learned, and the science comprehended and understood if wo 

 are to successfully compete in the race. One of the greatest 

 drawbacks to success has been found in the multiplicity of varie- 

 ties under cultivation. While but a very few have been found 

 to be uniformly successful in a commercial way, the time and 

 efforts have been spent upon scores that were only a bill of ex- 

 pense to the owner from first to last. This is eminently true of 

 the pear, and to a large extent also of the grape. The acquire- 

 ment of this information has been a work of time, but the difii- 

 culty about it is, that almost no one is willing to accept such 

 knowledge at second hand. Each one persists in gaining it 



