228 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
managed, have greater possibilities of rapid de- 
velopment than roots or stems of more tender 
age. J think I made no mistake in planting 
three-year-old trees. 
As I worked in my orchard I could not help 
looking forward to the time when the trees would 
return a hundred-fold for the care bestowed upon 
them. They would begin to bring returns, in a 
small way, from the fourth year, and after that 
the returns would increase rapidly. It is safe to 
predict that from the tenth to the fortieth year a 
well-managed orchard will give an average yearly 
income of $100 an acre above all expenses, includ- 
ing interest on the original cost. A fifty-acre or- 
chard of well-selected apple trees, near a first-class 
market and in intelligent hands, means a net 
income of $5000, taking one year with another, 
for thirty or forty years. What kind of invest- 
ment will pay better? What sort of business 
will give larger returns in health and pleasure ? 
I do not mean to convey the idea that forty 
years is the life of an orchard; hundreds of 
years would be more correct. As trees die from 
accident or decrepitude, others should take their 
places, Thus the lease of life becomes perpetual 
in hands that are willing to keep adding to the 
soil more than the trees and the fruit take from 
it. Comparatively few owners of orchards do 
this, and those who belong to the majority will 
find fault with my figures; but the thinking few, 
who do not expect to enjoy the fat of the land 
