48 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



ance of sweet odors (that is, ozone). They are 

 wholesome as well as delightful. 



I do not like to anticipate a coming chapter on trees 

 and orchards, but I am inclined to think that before 

 I began to build my house I should plant an orchard, 

 at least a few apple trees, for it will take six or 

 seven years to get them into bearing. I am not quite 

 so sure about a preliminary garden of strawberries 

 and raspberries, but these need not occupy the place 

 that will be ultimately assigned to them; only for 

 the present let them be convenient to where the 

 kitchen door will open. In other words, you do not 

 want to go into a country house and wait two or three 

 years for a dish of raspberries of your own growing 

 or a bunch of roses, and you do not need to wait 

 eight or ten years for a basket of Northern spys 

 from your orchard. 



Pear trees yield their fruit very quickly, and so do 

 plums. I have noticed that if none of this prelim- 

 inary planting goes on, it is likely to be put off for 

 some time after the house is built. It is a disagree- 

 able sight, that of a country house staring white on 

 a hillside, without a tree to shade it or a vine to climb 

 over it for years. 



Now listen to my advice and be sure to follow it 

 at this point if at no other. Do not add yourself 

 to those foolish ones who build a house before they 

 drive a well or build a capacious cistern. Drive the 

 well before, not after, your house is begun. Let it 

 go down deep into rock, so deep that it will insure 



