THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



one bed of seed, to insure some other people's 

 " childrens " having tree-drip for their cakes. 

 At least that was Reika's quaint comment on 

 the work. We had trouble the first season 

 with the maple seed; then we discovered it was 

 very short-lived, and that it was better to seed 

 when it falls in the springtime, like willows, 

 birch, and elms, the seed of all which should be 

 used as they ripen in spring. The pines and 

 firs we collected as seedlings in the woods, 

 thereby saving three or four years. The nurs- 

 ery beds really cost nothing except a very little 

 time; and a small notice which some one 

 gave us in a local paper the fourth year after 

 we had started, brought us customers for four 

 hundred trees, which we sold at the nominal 

 price of five cents each ; but that fully paid for 

 the man's time in planting our wind-break and 

 river bank. 



320 



