RECOLLECTIONS, 1842-57. 29 



plants, and as I had a fair collection I did well ; for 

 three or four years, in the spring I was for a few weeks 

 busy in putting up collections of 6 or 12 or more ; also 

 a few shrubs. When that fever subsided the fever for 

 conifers, arbor vitses and Norway spruces, balsam firs, 

 etc., took its place, but with better remuneration ten 

 fold, and the fever lasted longer, and in after years I 

 had specimens of Siberian arbor vitses for my own 

 gratification that I sold for $20 each ; of smaller ones 

 I sold more than I could grow, for $2 and $2.50, in- 

 cluding planting and warranting to live ; if they did 

 not live I replaced, or no pay ! It was at that time I 

 began to hear that often silly expression : " It won't 

 pay to warrant trees to live." I have done it for 25 

 years or more and it has always paid me handsomely. 

 And yet I had to compete with parties who sold as 

 good looking trees as mine for 75 cents and $1 when I 

 asked $2 and over. I transplanted our trees every 

 other year when not every year. I followed the same 

 practice for dwarf pear trees, then so popular. I think 

 I have said somewhere that I had no faculty for learn- 

 ing arithmetic, yet I have always understood that the 

 straight line was the shortest in geometry as in com- 

 mercial transactions. 





 The above digressions have made me forget our 



propagations, which were going " crescendo " in both 



