CAN WE MAKE IT PAY? 255 



like to do my sewing out under an apple tree. I 

 want some fresh air ; and then I want some fresh 

 things out of my own garden for dinner." Her 

 husband wrote on the back of the sheet, " What I 

 want is to own a piece of land and nobody to lord it 

 over me or tell me what to do with it. I am will- 

 ing to stand by my own mistakes and do a lot of 

 learning." Here is sentiment enough for anybody, 

 but there is a practicality about it and I did not 

 hesitate to answer, " You will do well almost any- 

 where among the trees and brooks. Evidently what 

 you want is what Nature offers first, that is beauty, 

 but you comprehend the fact that the beautiful and 

 the useful are identical." 



Only those who have answered three hundred let- 

 ters of inquiry in a single year, most of them on ac- 

 count of these chapters as they appeared in magazine 

 form, as I have, can understand the difficulty of mak- 

 ing adequate replies to the thousand and one dif- 

 ferent temperaments, with different tastes, involving 

 capital and health. I do not believe I can do a better 

 thing, before discussing the matter in dollars and 

 cents, than to give you half a dozen of these let- 

 ters. 



One of them writes, " I wish to grow apples. 

 I have money enough to plant an orchard and run 

 it for several years without profit. I know that these 

 larger fruits will bring in very little inside eight or 

 ten years. But I do not know what varieties to 

 plant, nor am I quite sure what part of the coun- 



