CROPS AND PROFITS 



Red Astrachan), has shown a more kindly 

 recognition of care than the later fruits. The 

 moth, if it attacks, does not destroy it. I count 

 upon its brilliant coloring, and its piquant 

 acidity in the first days of August, as surely 

 as I count upon the rains which follow the in- 

 gathering of the day. There remained a few 

 trees of various old-fashioned sorts, such as 

 the Fall-Pippin, the Pearmain, the Chesebor- 

 ough Russet, and the black Gilliflower, which 

 have shown little thrift, and borne no fruit 

 of which a modest man would be inclined to 

 boast. 



In short, there appeared so little promise of 

 eminent results, that after two or three years 

 I gave over all special culture of the majority 

 of the trees, and devoting the land to grass, 

 left them to struggle against the new sod as 

 they best could. Fruit growers and nursery 

 men will object that the trial was not com- 

 plete; and they will, with good reason, aver 

 that no fruit trees can make successful strug- 

 gle against firmly rooted grass. From all 

 tilled crops, within whose lines there are spaces 

 of the brown soil subject to the dews and 

 atmospheric influences, trees will steal the 

 nourishment ; but grass, with its serried spear- 

 blades covering the ground, steals from the 



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