PLANTING THE TREES 49 



stumps and roots, so far as first cost is con- 

 cerned. In the end, however, the cost of grow- 

 ing an orchard in stump land is so much greater 

 than the cost of the same work in cleared land 

 that the expense of dynamite and elbow grease 

 is always justifiable. A part of the Hickory 

 Hill orchards was planted among the stumps 

 as soon as the forest and underbrush could be 

 removed. While this block has made a very 

 satisfactory orchard it has been at very great 

 expense. It would have been cheaper to have 

 removed the stumps in the first place so that 

 the surface could be cultivated more easily and 

 spray machines would have been saved the an- 

 noyance of dodging stumps. And believe me, 

 annoyance is a mild term when a loaded spray 

 wagon strikes a stump on the up-hill side. We 

 never actually upset, but all that saved such an 

 accident was the united effort of the spray gang 

 until the obstruction was passed. 



We have cleared a good many acres of for- 

 est ranging from that which might be termed 

 "virgin" to that which had lost all title to that 

 term, being, in fact, only a second growth 

 thicket. The hardest job we tackled was clear- 

 ing a strip of land covered with mixed oak 

 timber. The trees stood very close together 

 and were large enough to have substantial 

 stumps requiring blasting but were not large 

 enough to make good saw logs. Consequently 



