362 Appendices 



Cheap land is nearly always poor land. And it will 

 pay the horticulturist to give more than its value for the 

 good rather than less for the bad. The men who have 

 failed as fruit-growers bought, as a rule, cheap land, 

 planted cheap trees, and employed cheap labour. 



The highest priced land lies within a few miles of the 

 large towns, but on that very account it offers irresistible 

 advantages to the man of small means. "While your 

 trees are coming into bearing, you must support yourself 

 by labour, or by the sale of berries and vegetables and 

 eggs and poultry. In the big fruit-growing districts of 

 California, men, women, and children can earn good 

 wages picking, packing, and canning the fruit, while the 

 merchants gladly buy the small products of the farm. 

 In fine, a man of muscle and intelligence can make a 

 handsome living upon a few acres near a large town, 

 whereas he would probably starve upon a government 

 claim of 160 acres five-and-twenty miles away. 



Let it not be forgotten also that proximity to a town 

 enables the horticulturist to sell his crop, either on the 

 tree, or picked, or dried, without any tedious and perhaps 

 expensive delays. More : if, for reasons unforeseen, he 

 wishes to go elsewhere, his land near a town will sell 

 quickly; in the hills, far from railroad and civilisation, 

 a ranch, however good, may hang for years upon the 

 owner's hands. 



I submit some figures, but I anticipate criticism of 

 them, for I am aware of the amazing discrepancy between 

 the experience of two men, let us say, living side by side, 

 growing the same fruit, both successful, both entitled to 

 speak with authority. My figures, collected at first hand, 

 represent the mean between extravagance and a too rigor- 

 ous economy. 



Roughly speaking, the cost of setting out a vineyard, 

 or an orchard of prunes, or peaches, apricots, apples, 



