66 TILLEES OF THE GKOUND CHAP. 



left hurriedly, having managed to seize a few scions, 

 that is, little branches which could be grafted on 

 other trees. He managed to get these, or some of 

 them, safely across the ocean, and then they were 

 used to graft a small orchard in California. Ten 

 years afterwards (a citron orchard cannot be made 

 in a day !) he went out to California and had the 

 satisfaction of seeing that the citrons were doing 

 well. In a few years more the orchard began to 

 pay, and now its owner is putting his own candied 

 peel on the market, and says that it is much 

 more digestible than any other kind. If that 

 is true, he has not only made it easier for every 

 one to have plum-cake, but also he has made it less 

 dangerous ! 



Perhaps that seems rather a frivolous story, for, 

 after all, people could do without citron peel in 

 their cakes. Let us take a more serious one. In 

 another chapter we spoke of alfalfa and of its great 

 use in all the dry lands in the United States ; how 

 it not only grows on newly reclaimed land but 

 actually prepares the land for other crops which 

 come after ; how it resists drought and how it 

 tolerates alkali. Well, it is so important that 

 some of the members of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry are always busy with experiments on it, 

 and with the search for new kinds, suitable for 

 different parts of the States. So important is the 





