A LITTLE LAND 218 



AND A LIVING 



years more would bring it to its highest value. It 

 is difficult to state what the value of the orchard 

 really is, because it depends more upon the man 

 than upon any other factor. Two or three years 

 of neglect will ruin the best orchard. Certainly 

 the real value of the orchard would be greatly in 

 excess of the cost of production. 



At the Massachusetts and Colorado State Ex- 

 periment Stations a new method of protecting 

 peach trees has been successfully tried. This 

 consists of laying the trees down in the Fall as 

 soon as they have shed their leaves and the wood 

 is well ripened. The earth is removed from 

 around each tree in a circle about four feet in 

 diameter, and the hollows are saturated with 

 water and the trees are worked back and forth 

 until loosened. They are then bent in the di- 

 rection that offers least resistance until they lie 

 on the ground. 



The ground should be allowed to dry enough 

 to handle easily before any further work is done ; 

 then the hole is rilled in, the limbs of the trees are 

 tied together and covered with burlap held in 

 place with earth. A light layer of earth is then 



