84 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



no economy in cheap stock, and the sooner the 

 farmer or fruit-grower comprehends this fact, the 

 better it will be for him. I ordered trees of 

 three years' growth from the bud, this would 

 mean four-year-old roots. Perhaps it would have 

 been as well to buy smaller ones (many wise 

 people have told me so), but I was in such a 

 hurry ! I wanted to pick apples from these trees 

 at the first possible moment. I argued that a 

 sturdy three-year-old would have an advantage 

 over its neighbor that was only two. However 

 small this advantage, I wanted it in my business 

 my business being to make a profitable farm 

 in quick time. The ten acres of the home lot 

 were to be planted with three hundred Yellow 

 Transparent, three hundred Duchess of Olden- 

 burg, and one hundred mixed varieties for home 

 use. I selected the Transparent and the Duchess 

 on account of their disposition to bear early, and 

 because they are good sellers in a near market, 

 and because a fruit-wise friend was making 

 money from an eight-year-old orchard of three 

 thousand of these trees, and advised me not to 

 neglect them. 



My order called for thirty-four hundred three- 

 year-old apple trees of the highest grade, to be de- 

 livered in good condition on the platform at Exeter 

 for the lump sum of $550. The agreement had 

 been made in August, and the trees were to be 

 delivered as near the 20th of October as practica- 

 ble. Apple trees comprised my entire planting 



