84 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
no economy in cheap stock, and the sooner the 
farmer or fruit-grower comprehends this fact, the 
better it will be for him. I ordered trees of 
three years’ growth from the bud, — this would 
mean four-year-old roots. Perhaps it would have 
been as well to buy smaller ones (many wise 
people have told me so), but I was in such a 
hurry! I wanted to pick apples from these trees 
at the first possible moment. I argued that a 
sturdy three-year-old would have an advantage 
over its neighbor that was only two. However 
small this advantage, I wanted it in my business 
—my business being to make a profitable farm 
in quick time. The ten acres of the home lot 
were to be planted with three hundred Yellow 
Transparent, three hundred Duchess of Olden- 
burg, and one hundred mixed varieties for home 
use. I selected the Transparent and the Duchess 
on account of their disposition to bear early, and 
because they are good sellers in a near market, 
and because a fruit-wise friend was making 
money from an eight-year-old orchard of three 
thousand of these trees, and advised me not to 
neglect them. 
My order called for thirty-four hundred three- 
year-old apple trees of the highest grade, to be de- 
livered in good condition on the platform at Exeter 
for the lump sum of $550. The agreement had 
been made in August, and the trees were to be 
delivered as near the 20th of October as practica- 
ble. Apple trees comprised my entire planting 
— 
——— 
ie 
EEE 
