FRUIT GROWING A FAILURE. 705 



" Well, yes ; trying to get a few, but they do not amount 

 to much." 



" I believe it was ten years ago last Spring that you set 

 your trees. You had four hundred apple, and a lot of peach, 

 pear, cherry, etc. Where are your peach trees?" 



"All gone, long ago. One-fourth of them never grew at 

 all, were dead when I got them ; the remainder dwindled along, 

 and finally died out. I never got any thing out of them." 



" Did you cultivate and tend your trees after you planted 

 them?" 



" I had oats there the first year, then seeded down, and 

 mowed or pastured ever since. I think that the best method I 

 could pursue with them." 



" Did you ever examine them and get the borers out of 

 them?" 



" No ; guess they never had any ; trees never grew right. 

 Don't think they were good. I believe the nurseryman knew 

 they were not. I got a lot more since, and they all went the 

 same way. Won't do any good in these parts." 



" Well, how about your apple trees ? How are you mak- 

 ing it with them? " 



" The apple trees have done a little better. About one- 

 half of the trees that I first planted are alive yet, and bearing 

 a few small apples, such as you see. They are not very good ; 

 there are a few trees of certain varieties that do much better 

 than the others." 



" How many bushels of apples have you sold from your 

 orchard since it commenced bearing? " 



*' Have not sold any. I have probably had, altogether, 

 about one hundred bushels — some good, but most of them 

 inferior. It is not a paying investment. I have had to keep 

 filling in with trees every year since I first planted. Some did 

 not grow , the cattle run among them and broke some of them 

 down. The mice girdled some, while others just seemed to 

 dwindle away and die." 



" Did you give them the same care that you gave the 

 peach trees?" 



45 



