CHAPTER LXIV 



COMFORT ME WITH APPLES 



SEPTEMBER added a new item to our list of 

 articles sold ; small, indeed, but the beginning of 

 the fourth and last product of our factory farm, 

 fruit from our newly planted orchards. The 

 three hundred plum trees in the chicken runs 

 gave a moderate supply for the colony, and the 

 dwarf-pear trees yielded a small crop ; but these 

 were hardly included in our scheme. I expected 

 to be able, by and by, to sell $200 or $300 worth 

 of plums ; but the chief income from fruit would 

 come from the fifty acres of young apple 

 orchards. 



I hope to live to see the time when these 

 young orchards will bring me at least $5 a 

 year for each tree ; and if I round out my expect- 

 ancy (as the life-insurance people figure it), I may 

 see them do much better. In the interim the 

 day of small things must not be despised. In 

 our climate the Yellow Transparent and the 

 Duchess do not ripen until early September, and 

 I was therefore at home in time to gather and 

 market the little crop from my six hundred trees. 

 The apples were carefully picked, for they do not 



