CROPS AND PROFITS 



tolerate long jogging in a country wagon; it 

 will not "keep over" for a market ; and between 

 these drawbacks, and the birds— who troop in 

 flocks to the June feast,— and the boy pickers— 

 who take toll as they climb,— and the out- 

 standing twigs, which shake defiance to all 

 ladders and climbers— I think he is a fortunate 

 man who can market from forty-year-old trees, 

 one bushel in three. 



Of the position for a cherry orchard, and of 

 its likings in the way of soil and climate, noth- 

 ing better can be said, than Palladius wrote 

 fourteen centuries ago: "Cerasus amat cceli 

 statum frigidum, solum vero positionis hu- 

 mectce. In tepidis regionibus parva provenit. 

 Calidum non potest sustinere. Montana, vel 

 in collibus constituta regione Icetatur,"'^ — 

 which means that— cherries want a cool air 

 and moist land. Heat hurts them, and makes 

 them small, and they delight in a hilly country. 



THE PEARS 



The condition of the pears was far worse than 

 that of either cherries or apples. Had they 

 been seedlings of the native fruit, they would 

 have shown more stalwart size, and better 



* Lib. xi., Tit. 12. 



163 



