86 AMERICAN FARMS. 



sufficient to supply a population greater than the whole 

 of the Maritime Provinces would contain, seventy-five 

 years hence, at the present rate of increase. 



It seems evident that, to carry on this industry as the 

 orchardists of America have set out, foreign markets, and 

 especially the markets of Great Britain, must be secured 

 in the face of competition growing sharper year by year. 



Australia all at once threatens to become a formidable 

 competitor for the spring markets of London. It is a 

 mistake to suppose that this new rival is at a disadvantage 

 as regards freights ; for the odds are the other way. The 

 commerce carried on between Australia and Great Britain 

 is seven times as much per capita to Australia as that 

 between America and Great Britain is to America. 



Apple producers and shippers cannot dictate the 

 prices, neither at home nor abroad ; while the foreign 

 market decides the prices which may be obtained in the 

 home market. In former times, a local short crop meant 

 high prices in the home market. It was purely a local 

 question. Now, in many cases in the northeastern part 

 of America, the production in most j'^ears being greater 

 than consumption, the prices must be fixed in the open 

 markets of the world. 



This (1889) is called an unusually " short apple-crop 

 year " everywhere, and yet prices are not sufiiciently high 

 in our domestic markets to make the returns of the aver- 

 age tree any thing like what it would have been twenty 

 years ago under similar circumstances as to its yield. 



COMPETITION BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER 



PROVINCES. 



Ontario and the Western provinces, with their immense 

 tracts of fertile prairie lands, and their railway system 

 opening these lands up to cultivators even faster than 



