PEARS AND GRAPES. 53 



dole out a few specimens for our encouragement, wc now devote our 

 labors in such a way as to secure in much larger quantity, a product, 

 which, without any niatQrial sacrifice in quality, can yet be afforded at 

 a price which promises eventually to bring it within the means of the 

 great body of the people. 



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

 creases, the price advances, showing that the consumption increases at 

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

 if we compare any one year with that immediately preceding or suc- 

 ceeding, 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 knowl- 

 edge of the principles and practices essential to good results. It 

 is as if one should, on the strength of a munificent price paid for 

 some finished picture by a master, set himself up as an artist, and find 

 that though his daubs were plenty enough, yet the price paid for pic- 

 tures 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 we are to 

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

 success has been found in the multiplicity of varieties under cultiva- 

 tion. While but a very few have been found to be uniformly success- 

 ful in a commercial way, the time and efforts have been spent upon 

 scores that were only a bill of expense to the owner from first to last. 



