ORCHARDS. 137 



them. The farm that has not growing thereon a large and 

 well-selected orchard is not a place fit for man to live at; and 

 we sav most emphatically to every farmer who has not a good 

 orchard, go to work at once and supply the greatest deficiency 

 on your farm. Plant and cultivate fruits for market and for 

 home consumption. The wife can have prepared for the table 

 many a tart and savory dish in which fruit will constitute the 

 main ingredient. The children will fairly dance over a basket 

 of ripe, ruddy fruit. The horses, the cows, the pigs, and the 

 fowls, are all fond of the product of the orchard, and it is good 

 and wholesome for all. Do not say that you are too old now 

 to plant an orchard. It would be a splendid legacy to be- 

 queath to those who are dear to you. Do not say that you 

 expect to sell out your farm, and therefore would not get the 

 benefit thereof; but if you do really wish to sell out, then go 

 to work at once and plant out a large orchard, and make 

 yours a place fit to live at, and if you still desire to sell out 

 (which we doubt if you do), you will not only find a purchaser, 

 but realize a handsome profit on the investment. Do not say 

 -that you have not the money to spare to buy the plants to 

 start the orchards, but sell a horse, or cow or two, or even a 

 corner of your large domains, to make the investment. Do 

 not say that it will be too long to wait before these young 

 plants will fruit in the orchard. Your seedling trees, that 

 have accidentally sprung up about your farm, will give you no 

 idea how soon you may obtain fruits from fine cultivated va- 

 rieties; and look around you and see if some neighbor did 

 not plant a few trees just before the war, and if he has given 

 them proper attention, hear him now talk about the golden 

 fruit, and ask what he would take to have those fruit trees 

 removed from his farm. In fine, make no excuses whatever, 

 but determine that the orchard shall be set in the approach- 

 ing season, and if you have made no choice collection of vari- 

 eties of fruits yourselves, and are not skilled in the propaga- 

 tion of these plants, then send your orders at once to some re- 

 liable nurseryman. The apple is the great fruit of all fruits 

 in the temperate zone. By a judicious selection of kinds to 

 ripen in succession, it may be had in perfection the whole year 



