Ten Thousand a Year 267 



fertilizer purchased without due registration. So, 

 too, every pound of product sold was accounted 

 for, with prices, and particular circumstances, if 

 thought worthy of notice. He carefully kept 

 record of the commission men with whom he dealt, 

 for his practice was never to retail fruit. All the 

 houses he had dealt with for some thirty years 

 were recorded, their financial standing clearly set 

 forth. If he lost a consignment, the cause was 

 diily set down and the name of the delinquent was 

 struck from his books. A like detail ran into his 

 personal accounts — ^but these I pass over as irrele- 

 vant. I saw now how it was that Neville knew his 

 land so well. Every new tree set out was of record 

 not merely as to cost, time of setting, and perhaps 

 comment as to wind and weather, but from time to 

 time the tree was brought to book, and if unfruitful 

 was torn out and its place given to another. The 

 rule of the farm was *' Nothing but the best." 

 Every inch of land was in tillage, and every tree 

 and vine was the best of its kind and doing its best. 

 He worked on the theory that only the best is 

 really profitable. Therefore he did not hesitate to 

 tear out acres of vineyard or orchard, at earliest 

 moment, if convinced of their inferiority. Thus he 

 kept his estate at the top notch of fertility and 

 production — an expensive but highly profitable 

 management. Whatever season one visited his 

 farm, it was seen to be in perfect order; quite as 

 beautiful, to the trained eye, in winter as in 

 summer. 



