86 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



Fruit growing as a sole occupation requires fav- 

 orable soil, climate, and market, and also a con- 

 siderable degree of aptitude on the part of the 

 manager, to make it highly profitable. A fruit- 

 grower in our climate must have other interests 

 if he would make the most of his time. While 

 waiting for his fruit he can raise food for hens 

 and hogs ; and if he feeds hens and hogs, 

 he should keep as many cows as he can. He 

 will then use in his own factory all the raw 

 material he can raise. This will again be re- 

 turned to the land as a by-product, which w r ill 

 not only maintain the fertility of the farm, but 

 even increase it. If his cows are of the best, 

 they will yield butter enough to pay for their 

 food and to give a profit ; the skim milk, fed to 

 the hogs and hens, will give eggs and pork out 

 of all proportion to its cost ; and everything that 

 grows upon his land can thus be turned off as a 

 finished product for a liberal price, and yet the 

 land will not be depleted. The orchard is better 

 for the hens and hogs and cows, and they are 

 better for the orchard. These industries fit into 

 each other like the folding of hands ; they seem 

 mutually dependent, and yet they are often di- 

 vorced, or, at best, only loosely related. This 

 view may seem to be the result of post hoc rea- 

 soning, but I think it is not. I believe I imbibed 

 these notions with my mother's milk, for I can 

 remember no time when they were not mine. 

 The psalmist said, " Comfort me with apples " ; 



