WANT OF GRAPES. 89 



very cheap. Many have come in bad condition, and these have 

 probably been sold at a loss to the producer, and perhaps at a 

 loss to the middle-men who have undertaken to market them. 

 But last year was the first time the New York market has ever 

 been adequately supplied with grapes ; and even in these two 

 years, when there has been such an abundance of grapes on the 

 Lake shore, at Canandaigua, about Crooked Lake, and perhaps 

 in several parts of Ohio, if you go into the small towns and vil- 

 lages, even in New York State, and all through New England, 

 you will find a very great dearth of grapes ; and, with all this 

 abundance, I presume you may go through Connecticut and 

 Massachusetts and you will find scores of farmers in every town 

 who have not a single grape-vine upon their farms. If some 

 way could be devised by which this superabundance in particu- 

 lar localities could be distributed evenly over the whole country, 

 it would be a very great blessing. I think it will be now a 

 score of years, at least, before we shall have grapes enough to 

 feed the millions of farmers in our land ; for these spots where 

 grapes are cultivated in superabundance are but as specks upon 

 the surface of our country. I do not, therefore, share the ap- 

 prehensions that have been expressed in regard to a glut of the 

 market. 



Now, if some man can devise a plan by which the grapes that 

 are produced shall be evenly distributed over the country, I 

 think he will find that it will be a good while before the market 

 shall be adequately supplied ; for even farmers would be glad 

 to buy grapes if they could get them for six, or even ten cents 

 a pound, and I believe they can be produced at a profit and sold 

 for six cents a pound. We want some means by which this 

 fruit can be sent as easily as flour. Flour and apples are trans- 

 ported very cheaply, because they come in barrels. I believe it 

 costs only about a quarter of a dollar to send a barrel of flour 

 from Ohio to the New York market. If we can have grapes 

 transported as cheaply as flour or apples tliey will go to all 

 parts of the country, and it will be years before we shall have 

 grapes enough to supply the wants of the millions of our people. 



In regard to apples, I think the only reason why we do not 

 have them in such abundance as formerly is because people 

 have grown lax and negligent in regard to their cultivation. 

 Not one man in a hundred pays much attention to his orchard. 



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