14 PROFITS. 



half that sum. While the finest early Peaches 

 bring three or four dollars, some others, later and 

 poorer, will not sell for fifty cents. 



Good winter apples always command a market. 

 For the, last thirty years, the Swaar, Rhode Island 

 Greening, and Esopus Spitzenburgh, have scarcely 

 varied from twenty-five cents a bushel in the most 

 productive portions of the State. Late keepers are 

 sold early in summer for more than triple that sum. 

 An acre of forty trees, with good culture, will 

 average through all seasons not less than two hun- 

 dred bushels, or fifty dollars a year. Instances are 

 frequent of thrice this amount. The farmer, then 

 who sets out twenty acres of good apple orchard, 

 and takes care of it, may expect at no remote pe- 

 riod a yearly return of five to fifteen hundred dol- 

 lars a year, and even more, if a considerable portion 

 is occupied'with late keepers. This is, it is true, 

 much more than the majority obtain; but 'the ma- 

 jority wholly neglect cultivating and enriching 

 the soils of their, orchards. 



But where a market is not at hand, a plentiful 

 supply of fine fruit through most of the year, be- 

 comes a very important article in family economy. 

 The cost of providing for the table, is greatly les- 

 sened, where daily dishes of Strawberries, or Rasp- 

 berries, or Apricots, Nectarines, or Peaches, are at 

 hand. The great saving, too, as well as the com- 

 fort and health, from an abundance of good and 



