202 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



small that the few roots not trimmed off, had to be doubled 

 and coiled around the clump root, and trod and jammed 

 into their narrow quarters, and there the tree was expected 

 to grow. 



&quot; How can it ? said the old sailor. * These people 

 never reason I ll have no such work on my farm. 



&quot; It was difficult to get men to work differently, but he 

 could work himself, with his own strong hands. So he had 

 holes dug eight feet broad and two feet deep, and threw 

 back a foot of the top soil in the bottom of the hole, well 

 mixed with compost manure, all as finely pulverized as a 

 garden bed. Then he went to the nursery and bought 

 large trees too large to do well, the nurseryman said, 

 * he had better take smaller ones. No, he wanted trees, 

 not whip-stalks. And these trees he wanted with roots, and 

 by determined perseverance he got them with roots. Great 

 sprawling things, the man said who dug them, that never 

 could be set out, because nobody was a going to dig holes 

 big enough for that. He was mistaken, for somebody did 

 dig holes big enough, and somebody got down upon some 

 body s hands and knees, and * with fingers weary and worn 

 straightened out every little fibrous root, and bedded it 

 nicely in the soft earth, and not a tree failed to grow at 

 once ; and now, who ever saw such handsome, large, bear 

 ing trees at eight years old ? Every tree in the orchard 

 stands up as straight as the spars of the owner s ship. 



&quot; At Baiseley s Pond we saw^men and teams at work 

 digging out the deep bed of muck that for #ges has been 

 accumulating, and we said to the man who was digging his 

 potatoes small potatoes and few in a hill within a few 

 rods of great piles of this muck, which the contractor had 

 had to buy the privilege of placing on dry land, Your 

 crop would be better if you had a good lot of that inuck, 

 well rotted and mixed with your soil. 



