PLANNING FOR THE TREES 85 
for the autumn of 1895. I wanted to do much 
other work in that line, but it had to be left for 
a more convenient season. Hundreds of fruit 
trees, shade trees, and shrubs have since been 
planted at Four Oaks, but this first setting of 
thirty-four hundred apple trees was the most 
important as well as the most urgent. 
The orchard was to be a prominent feature in 
the factory I was building, and as it would be 
slower in coming to perfection than any other 
part, it was wise to start it betimes. I have 
kicked myself black and blue for neglecting to 
plant an orchard ten years earlier. If I had 
done this, and had spent two hours a month in 
the management of it, it would now be a thing 
of beauty and an income-producing joy forever, 
—or, at least, as long as my great-grandchildren 
will need it. 
There is no danger of overdoing orcharding. 
The demand for fruit increases faster than the 
supply, and it is only poor quality or bad hand- 
ling that causes a slack market. If the general 
farmer will become an expert orchardist, he will 
find that year by year his ten acres of fruit will 
give him a larger profit than any forty acres of 
grain land; but to get this result he must be 
faithful to his trees. Much of the time they are 
caring for themselves, and for the owner, too; 
but there are times when they require sharp at- 
tention, and if they do not get it promptly and 
in the right way, they and the owner will suffer. 
