THE CULTUEB OF THE GEAPB. 93 



Cost of manure for the border, . , , $700 00 

 Interest* on the forcing-house, at a cost of 

 $15 the running foot, 100 feet, cost 

 $1500, at six per cent., ... 90 00 



Annual breakage of glass and other wear, 



furnaces, &c., 4, 60 00 



Cost of fuel, 70 00 



Labor on fires,- watering, manuring, trim- 

 ming, and thinning grapes, . . . 200 00 



Whole cost of the crop of grapes, . . $1120 00 



The value of the crop of grapes, 1067 pounds, would 

 not net the producer more than the cost, and the proba- 

 bility is, that there would be a loss to him. A very few 

 pounds of grapes are sold in Boston, in April, at $2 the 

 pound, and in Maj, at $1.50 to $2 ; but the main part of 

 the crop would not sell at over $1 to $1.25. The cost of 

 sending the fruit to market, and the expense of selling, 

 is from twenty-five to thirty per cent. In England, the 

 prices are so much higher that this process can be re- 

 sorted to with reason. f 



* The cost of a winter forcing-house is much greater, by necessity, in a 

 very cold climate than that of a house which only requires a slight artificial 

 heat in spring. The extra heating apparatus alone is a great additional 

 cost. 



f To show the relative prices of grapes and forced fruits in the tWQ 

 countries, I here add a memorandum, from Loudon's Magazine, of prices at 

 Covent Garden Market, vol. for 1834, April, page 191 : hothouse grapes, 

 per pound, from £1 10s. to £1 15s. Grapes are spoken of as being re- 

 markably early, 28th of March. 



Tol. for 1835, April, page 270, grapes are quoted at from £1 to £1 4s^ 



