226 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



as living things with an inheritance that cannot 

 be ignored. That seeds in all appearance exactly 

 alike should send forth shoots so unlike, is a 

 wonder of Nature ; and that young shoots in the 

 same soil and with the same care should show 

 such dissimilarity in development, is a riddle 

 whose answer is to be found only in the binding 

 laws of heredity. That a tiny bud inserted under 

 the bark of a well-grown tree can change a sour 

 root to a sweet bough, ought to make one care- 

 ful of the buds which one grafts on the living 

 trunk of one's tree of life. The young orchard 

 can teach many lessons to him who is willing to 

 be taught ; in the hands of him who is not, the 

 schoolmaster has a very sorry time of it, no mat- 

 ter how he sets his lessons. 



The side pockets of my jacket are usually 

 weighted down with pruning-shears, a sharp knife, 

 and a handled copper wire, always, indeed, 

 in June, when I walk in my orchard. June is 

 the month of all months for the prudent orchard- 

 ist to go thus armed, for the apple-tree borer is 

 abroad in the land. When the quick eye of the 

 master sees a little pile of sawdust at the base 

 of a tree, he knows that it is time for him to sit 

 right down by that tree and kill its enemy. The 

 sharp knife enlarges the hole, which is the trail 

 of the serpent, and the sharp-pointed, flexible 

 wire follows the route until it has reached and 

 transfixed the borer. 



This is the only way. It is the nature of the 



