530 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



,in reading, and one reads aloud while the rest 

 •work." 



"Complete nonsense! no_ wonder your shop 

 don't turn out any more boots in a day, than it 

 does!" 



"Perhaps we don't do as great days' works, 

 some days, as some of our neighbors, but I guess 

 that in the course of the year, we turn out as 

 many according to the hands at work, as most 

 do." 



"I suppose it is out of these publications you 

 get your foolish notions about so many kinds of 

 fruit trees. One of my boys came home a while 

 ago, and said JMr. Briggs had got lots and lots of 

 fruit trees and such things, that cost, 1 don't 

 know how much, and wanted me to buy some 

 grape vines, pear trees, and so on. I told him it 

 was all foolishness and not to let me hear him say 

 anything about spending money so foolishly. You 

 have, I dare say, laid out ten or fifteen dollars, 

 this spring." 



"Yes nearly as much again ; I have laid out 

 twenty-five dollars for trees and garden fruits." 



"Twenty-five dollars ! T wonder you are not on 

 the town, or in jail at least, before now." 



"I'm not afraid of either; I'll bet you the 

 twenty-five dollars, I'll sell you that amount of 

 fruit from those things for which I paid the 

 twenty-five dollars, in five years !" 



"Done ! I'll stand you ; so your trees will 

 cost you fifty dollars sure, in money, besides the 

 time thrown away in setting them out and taking 

 care of them." • 



"As for the time spent in setting them out, or 

 taking care of them, it is as good exercise as play- 

 ing ball, wicket, or anything else. While we 

 were setting them out, one of your boys came to 

 get my boys to go over to Mr. Moody's, where he 

 said was to be a great time playing ball ; and I 

 have no doubt, your boys spend just as much time 

 playing, as mine do with our trees and so forth ; 

 and then something is done, but in playing, the 

 strength is all laid out for nothing." 



"Well, it don't cost anything to play ball, but 

 trees cost money." 



The foregoing conversation occurred in the 

 shop between two neighbors, both boot-makers, 

 in a town not more than thirty miles from Bos- 

 ton. " 



Mr. Briggs, in whose shop the conversation 

 took place, was a man of more than ordinary in- 

 telligence for one of his advantages and circum- 

 stances in life. He had been a poor boy, and by 

 industry, observation and economy, had worked 

 his way on in life and reared and well educated a 

 family of children, \vho,lik6 himself, were industri- 

 ous and i^teady. For the few years past, he had 

 become interested in horticulture, and both for ex- 

 ercise and amusement, had turned his attention to 

 cultivating his "one acre farm." His attention 

 was first called to this, by means of a "back num- 

 ber" of the Nciv England Farmer which was put 

 round some things bought at the store. Mr. 

 Briggs found this so interesting, that he purchased 

 another number at the periodical depot, and then 

 he became a "regular subscriber." His sons soon 

 became interested in the same direction, and the 

 interest of the father and sons increased to the 

 pitch indicated in the foregoing conversation. 



In time, every inch of that aero of ground was 

 "brought under the spade," and almost every 



"best" variety of fruits had a place there, and the 

 father and sons found pleasure and profit in the 

 garden after being cooped up in the shop till the 

 "stent" was done, and the exercise was far more 

 profitable than the spasmodic, violent exercise tak- 

 en rn games. 



Mr. Chapman, the other neighbor, was a man 

 of the "common stamp." He looked upon every- 

 thing new or uncommon as "folly'' and "non- 

 sense" and was ready to sneer at every one who 

 stepped aside from the common track. It looked 

 simply silly to him, to see a man stay at home 

 from "muster" or "training" or "shows" and 

 spend his time in cultivating a garden ; or, in- 

 stead of loitering away the evening at the store, 

 smoking, and hearing or telling a deal of nothing 

 or worse, to spend the evenings at home, reading 

 such "nonsense" as the Farmer and Horticultur- 

 ist affords. 



Years pass and Mr. Briggs' "one acre farm" 

 shows that he and his boys have not read "the 

 papers" in vain. They had learned how to "set 

 out" a tree, and how to "take care" of it after 

 it was set out. Everything showed it received 

 the right kind of food and care, and straightway 

 began to bring forth fruits meet for good cultiva- 

 tion. In a short time the wants of the family were 

 more than supplied, and the surplus found a ready 

 market with the neighbors at good prices. 



Those early apples so rich and tempting, when 

 all other apples were so green and hard ! and then 

 such pears; they went as fast as the sun and 

 house could ripen them, at three, four, or five 

 cents apiece. Then such clusters of rich, ripe 

 grapes — too tempting for the coldest to pass with- 

 out a watering mouth. Mr. Chapman's family 

 were among the best customers for the tempting 

 fruit — first having learned their excellence by the 

 liberality of Mr. Briggs, who never failed to send 

 a specimen of his best to his neighbor. 



The fifth season came. It was a fruitful year. 

 Apple, pear, peach, plum, and all other trees, 

 were loaded with fruit. Keeping in mind his 

 conversation with Mr. Chapman, Mr. Briggs had 

 directed his family to set down every cent's worth 

 of fruit sold to Mr. Chapman or his family. This 

 year, as it happened, was a year of "extreme 

 hard times." The boot business was at its lowest 

 ebb ; little work and very low wages — and yet 

 the prices of every kind of provisions up to the 

 "highest notch," and money extremely "tight." 



But there was one family that did not seem to 

 be in the least afiected by the hard times, low 

 prices of labor, high prices of provisions, or the 

 scarcity of money ; Mr. Briggs and his two oldest 

 sons, all of them had a little "spare change" to 

 let on short time "with interest" to their needy 

 neighbors. 



One day Mr. Chapman, who was short, applied 

 to Mr. Briggs for a "half" for a "quarter," 

 meaning fifty dollars for three months. 



"Yes," said Mr. Briggs, "I have a 'half or a 

 'whole,' just as you like." 



"What, a hundred dollars by you these times ! 

 I don't see how it comes. You and your boys 

 don't work any harder than I and my boys do, 

 and we can hardly get along ; we are as saving 

 and pinching as can be, too ; 'times are so dread- 

 ful hard,' and everything a family has to buy is 

 so dreadful high, and wages so low ; potatoes, a 

 dollar a bushel, beef, fifteen cents a pound, pork, 



