A Lament for the Season. 325 



HOC appropriated by these industrious harvesters. It is true, the time will 

 come when this great belt of pine and swamp will be cleared and properly 

 cultivated. Its boundaries are annually becoming smaller by the influx of 

 immigrants, to whom great operators are holding out inducements, at merely 

 nominal prices, for land. The influence of two such markets as New York 

 and Philadelphia will inevitably transform it into cultivated farms, elevat- 

 ing the poor whites into regular tillers of the soil, or driving them off to 

 other locations. 



Of the cranberry-lands, however, a juster estimate is being formed by 

 owners. Many thousand acres in this county and its neighborhood are 

 being put into perfect culture, and are yielding rich returns. Companies 

 have been formed with large capitals, who are operating on extensive tracts, 

 planting, ditching, and erecting dams and sluices by which the vines may 

 be flooded at pleasure. These enterprises have sent up the price of cran- 

 berry-swamps to a high figure ; and they nust ultimately displace the 

 great army of landless squatters, who, from time immemorial, have gathered 

 large crops without being at all respectful of the owners' rights. 



Bat, if the season has been disastrous to our horticulturists, how has it 

 been with other classes of business-men } Generally, we have held our 

 own, — if not making much, certainly not losing much. AVe missed get- 

 ting what we expected, without losing what we had. We are sure that 

 seed-time and harvest cannot fail, because there stands the divine promise. 

 But go into Wall Street, and ask the operator in Erie what promise there 

 is that he shall see it up to par. How of those who have invested in 

 Colorado gold-mines ? how of oil and copper stocks ? Not only have 

 the expected profits from these ventures failed of realization, but the capi- 

 tal itself has disappeared. Ours yet remains intact ; for it is safe in our 

 land, no matter whether it be a great plantation or a humble ten-acre gar- 

 den. The failure of a single crop may disappoint us ; but it cannot produce 

 ruin. Horticulture is no speculation. Doubtless it has its ups and downs, 

 its disappointments as well as its abundant rewards ; and he who embarks 

 in it must not expect immunity from disasters such as have befillen us the 

 present season : yet he may be assured that he invests in no such evapora- 

 tive sinking-fund as gold or oil stocks. Edmund Morris. 



BuRUiNGTo.v, N J., September, 1S67. 



