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CHAPTER LXIV 
COMFORT ME WITH APPLES 
SEPTEMBER added a new item to our list of 
articles sold; small, indeed, but the beginning of 
the fourth and last product of our factory farm, 
— fruit from our newly planted orchards. The 
three hundred plum trees in the chicken runs 
gave a moderate supply for the colony, and the 
dwarf-pear trees yielded a small crop; but these 
were hardly included in our scheme. I expected 
to be able, by and by, to sell $200 or $300 worth 
of plums; but the chief income from fruit would 
come from the fifty acres of young apple 
orchards. 
I hope to live to see the time when these 
young orchards will bring me at least $5 a 
year for each tree; and if I round out my expect- 
ancy (as the life-insurance people figure it), I may 
see them do much better. In the interim the 
day of small things must not be despised. In 
our climate the Yellow Transparent and the 
Duchess do not ripen until early September, and 
I was therefore at home in time to gather and 
market the little crop from my six hundred trees. 
The apples were carefully picked, for they do not 
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