MAKING THE ORCHARD. 43 



There are swarms of so called "agents" infesting 

 every crook and corner of the land, who are not 

 agents and whose only object in making a canvass 

 is to make money, and whose only care is to buy 

 stock that will deliver good, get their money and 

 then seek new fields. 



The highwayman who robs you, or the sneak who 

 burns your building or steals your horse, is a gentle- 

 man to the slick tongued fraud, who, by plausible 

 lying wins your confidence sufficiently to induce 

 you to invest in something that, aside from robbing 

 you of your money, steals your precious time for 

 years and for all your time and care, for all the 

 golden visions of a fruitful orchard, under the 

 spreading trees of which you have so often in 

 pleasureable anticipation seen your wife and chil- 

 dren gathering the mellow fruit, he gives you only 

 a sure legacy of disappointment and despair. 



This may not be always the case, indeed it is not, 

 but those who read these pages will testify that it 

 is the rule and not the exception. 



In considering all these problems, and hundreds 

 of others not yet even named, underlying all 

 of which is lack of knowledge on the part of the 

 planter, and in a less degree on the part of many 

 nurserymen, it has been suggested that the proper 

 way to get an orchard and take the fewest chances 

 of failure is to let the contract to an expert whose 

 pay shall depend upon his success or his fulfilling 

 his contract. This has been put in practice by but 

 few, and, financially at least, has in most cases been 



