STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 109 



tering apples and that farmer will conclude that the profits in 

 orcharding are all a humbug, and the boys will leave the farm to 

 clerk in a store, work on a railroad, or peddle fish. 



I have nothing to say of the profits of a neglected orchard. 

 Profits usually turn to loss in any kind of business when neglect 

 takes the place of care. IMany of our farmers never fertilize the 

 orchard at all and almost none enrich it enough. Tiie time of 

 half feeding any crop is fast passing away, and its exit should be 

 hailed with delight by us all. No crop will pay better for a generous 

 supph' of food than the apple. 



FIGCniNG FOR RESULTS. 



Of the profits of orcharding in Maine the half has never been told. 

 There is no way in the world in which a young man can lay the 

 foundation for future wealth with so little risk as b}' fruit raising in 

 this State. Suppose he secures a piece of land and sets every spring 

 for ten or fifteen years one hundred of the best apple trees he can 

 procure, tills and dresses them in the best manner, what will be the 

 cost and what the result? The cost of the hundred trees, setting 

 and care for the same, could be spared by almost any young man 

 who is saving and industrious, and at the end of ten years the trees 

 would begin to bear, and before he has arrived at the meridian of 

 life his orchard would yield a splendid iacoma and be worth a hand- 

 some fortune. 



Such an undertaking has every element of success. The risk is 

 reduced to a minimum ; it can be accomplished at or near the home 

 of his childhood, and the business is liealihful to both body and soul. 

 If he wished to make fruit culture his whole business from the begin- 

 ning, he could unite with his orchard small fruits, and if this is 

 properly done after the first or second year, he could make more 

 from them than he could in the shop or factory, and it would be 

 almost infinitely more satisfactory. 



Parents should remember that the boy will soon be a man. and a 

 little influence brought to bear upon him in the right way may make 

 the differeace between a successful and a ruined life. We should 

 early give him something to rear or cultivate of his own. 



How admirably this can be accomplished by giving him a piece 

 of land, assisting and teaching him to cultivate small fruits, plum*^, 

 pears and apples. He will have more interest in the farm, leam the 



