BOTANICAL INDEX 
•j 
United States Bureau of Statistics, for tlie American Agriculturist, which will convey 
a better idea of the agricultural wealth of the country than anything we can present. 
It reads, when computed in money values, as follows: 
Grain and Grain products .$282,546,157 
Cotton 161, 196,178 
Tobacco 25,157,365 
Pasture products, (including Meats and the Dairy) 38,524,861 
This is largely the crops of 1878, as the crops of 187!) are, to a large extent, still in 
the country and c:m not be forwarded for several months yet, at least, to any great 
extent. These figures represent the staples, but in looking over the list we miss 
many prominent articles, such as fresh and canned fruit, jellies, alcohol, oil, resin, 
turpentine, vegetable fibre for cordage, seeds, including oil cake, and cabinet lumber, 
all of which are the direct products of the vegetable kingdom, and produced mainly 
by the American farmer. 
These good crops following years of small ones, together with years of a general 
depression in all branches of industry, at least in America; with a system of uncer- 
tain money values, and an uncertain foreign demand for any of the surplus crop 
produced, have conspired to make the industrious American agriculturists the most 
independent class of people in the country, if not in the world. It would be a pleas- 
ure to be able to say as much for the farmers everywhere, but unfortunately in some 
of the more densely peopled portions of the Old World, floods, drouths, early and 
late frosts, with many other causes have, in many localities, reduced the agricultural 
class to the most abject poverty, so that the problem of life is to them, and indeed to 
the government under which they live, a matter of serious study. 
The Horticulturist has not, in all instances, shared the same blessing of a large 
crop, at least in as full a measure, but their average yield, with their usually high 
prices, have netted the producer for his small crop about as much money as he often 
receives for a larger one. It is a notorious fact, in America at least, that when any 
one kind of business is found to be remunerative so many engage in it that the sup- 
ply produced is so much in excess of the demand that it soon bankrupts all engaged 
in it. We cannot, however, see any danger from the fruit growers producing more 
of a supply than the country (and city) demands, at least for a long time to come. 
We admit a large supply of fruit will lower its market price to a certain extent, but 
the present very complete system of canning and preserving all kinds of fruit in 
large quantities, together with the great demand for canned goods, both at home and 
abroad, will obviate any glut of the market. Of course we understand that there 
are an innumerable host of fruit growers springing up in all parts of the country, 
and that a large portion of the families living in large towns and small cities are 
utilizing a portion of their grounds or yards as a fruit garden, still, as a rule, they 
do not raise enough for their own use, and the increased desire for fresh fruit con- 
stantly creates an increased demand, it is quite probable, however, that the large 
producers, who have always been very careful to send nothing but the best to market, 
will to a large extent control the retail market, especially in the large cities, and 
smaller producers w ill be compelled to look to the large canning and preserving es- 
tablishments for their markets, but these will always spring up whenever and 
wherever opportunity offers. 
Unlike the greenhouse business, the fruit-grower is at no expense for fuel to keep 
his stock from freezing during five or six months of the year, and if he exercise 
only ordinary skill in cultivation, he can with a judicious selection of the best old 
varieties, produce as desirable fruit as many growers will often get from a majority 
of the new and expensive kinds. We do not wish to discourage any one from 
growing new fruit, but as a rule the experiment, with the mass of cultivators, will 
prove a failure with only ordinary culture. It is almost impossible for any one to 
keep themselves informed of all the new varieties of fruit produced each year, and 
a list of new plants would till a large volume. Nearly all are produced by hybrid- 
izing, but a few are careful selections improved by cultivation. Upon our table now 
is a list and description of 14 new varieties of grapes, 9 new varieties of strawber- 
ries, 13 new varieties of raspberries, while new peaches, pears, apples, plums, &c., 
appear in nearly all Horticultural journals for 1879. Some of these will, with good 
cultivation, still retain their superior qualities, but the majority will soon deteriorate 
into their normal condition. As a rule it is always safe for the practical fruitgrower 
to plant for cultivation only those that have been thoroughly tested. But it is often 
a great satisfaction to have something new and scarce growing on a place, and to 
those we would say, “try those that originated near you or in a climate and soil as 
near your own as possible, in preference to those from a long distance away.” The 
reason is obvious. If a strawberry, for example, originated in the cool, moist climate 
from near the ocean or great lakes, it would be sure to suffer from the long continued 
