250 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



gin when it is first transferred to our soil and must 

 continue as long as the tree lives. 



I think sixty years in these days is considered a 

 satisfactory period for an orchard, yet I see no rea- 

 son why with proper care an orchard may not live 

 around two hundred years, bearing fruit all the time. 

 Trees are forced in the nurseries, fed with commer- 

 cial fertilizers or rank manure, not sufficiently pruned 

 at setting, devitalized with suckers, then allowed to 

 overbear when young and when altogether out of 

 good condition a professional trimmer is let loose 

 among them at two dollars a day. Poor orchard! 

 Why should it not die an early death? 



The fine arts that will be evolved in the garden, 

 orchard, meadow, and shop of the future country 

 home can only be guessed by those who are somewhat 

 acquainted with what is now being worked out by 

 our agricultural colleges the most wonderful in- 

 stitutions of this age. Of the half hundred now in 

 existence, not one but is closing in on problems the 

 solution of which will render our homes not only 

 richer in crops, but in sciences and arts. 



Quite as notable as those out of doors will be the 

 arts of indoor life. Refinement will mark the com- 

 ing home, not style and show but the spirit of order 

 and enlightenment which comes from the right sort 

 of culture. When we have made over the kitchen, 

 with electric power in the place of stupid help, the 

 housewife can take her position without lowering 

 her womanhood. The true kitchen is really a lab- 



