36 The Profitableness of Fruit -Culture. 



entering upon grape-growing, the market would soon be surfeited with this 

 truit, and loss would ensue to the grower. We remember that twenty-five 

 years ago, when few grapes were produced, good Isabellas sold for six 

 to ten cents a pound ; and now, when a thousand times as many are 

 raised, they bring the prices we have given above. The fact is, our country 

 is large, there are a great many to consume, and the consumption of fruits 

 and vegetables is enormous compared with former times. Almost every 

 person in the community who can afford it has fruit on his table daily, 

 where, years ago, it was never seen, nor scarcely thought of Tons of grapes 

 are sold in our streets by peddlers, where formerly never a bunch was seen ; 

 and the demand for fruit will continue, and even increase, so that we need 

 not look for any great reduction of price for several years. We repeat, 

 then, that grape-growing is one of the most profitable branches of fruit- 

 culture, and would be with the fruit at half the price it now commands. 

 When it falls to a low price, the wine-makers stand ready to purchase and 

 use the whole crop. Our advice to a young man who wanted to engage 

 in fruit-growing would be to look over the country, select the best grape- 

 land, and plant a vineyard ; and he will in a few years be able to sit under 

 his own vine and fig-tree in a double sense. 



Of apple-culture we cannot speak so confidently, certainly not for certain 

 parts of the United States, as it is well known, that, through all the Eastern 

 section, it has been nearly a failure for several years. In New York and 

 :he West, the crop has been generally good, and prices well up ; the East- 

 ern market absorbing all the surplus fruit. Much money has been made 

 in times past from apple-oichards ; and when we remember that it is one 

 of the most valuable of fruits, all things considered, we must readily see 

 that the demand must always be very great, and that, if they cannot be 

 produced and sold as cheaply as formerly, then the consumer must pay 

 a larger price for the apples he insists upon having. The same advice will 

 apply in regard to the cultivation of this that has been given in relation to 

 other fruits, — select a proper soil and location somewhere near a line of 

 communication, plant an orchard, and always take good care of it ; and a 

 fair reward is almost certain to follow, except, possibly, in portions of New 

 England. Where land is worth five or six hundred dollars an acre neai 



