THE FIRST VISIT TO THE FARM 15 
the country places of well-to-do people who love 
to get away from the noise and dirt of the city. 
Some of them have ten or fifteen acres of ground, 
but this land is for breathing space and beauty 
—not for serious cultivation. Beyond these 
homes we followed a well-gravelled road leading 
directly west. This road is bordered by small 
farms, most of them given over to dairying 
interests. 
Presently I called. Polly’s attention to the fact 
that the few apple trees we saw were healthy 
and well grown, though quite independent of the 
farmer’s or the pruner’s care. This thrifty con- 
dition of unkept apple orchards delighted me. 
I intended to make apple-growing a prominent 
feature in my experiment, and I reasoned that if 
these trees did fairly well without cultivation or 
care, others would do excellently well with both. 
As we approached the second section line and 
climbed a rather steep hill, we got the first 
glimpse of our possession. At the bottom of the 
western slope of this hill we could see the cross- 
ing of the north-and-south road, which we knew 
to be the east boundary of our land; while, 
stretching straight away before us until lost in 
the distant wood, lay the well-kept road which 
for a good mile was our southern boundary. 
Descending the hill, we stopped at the crossing 
of the roads to take in the outline of the farm 
from this southeast corner. The north-and-south 
road ran level for 150 yards, gradually rose for 
