OUR CROPS 63 



claims to be of the great progressive West ! 

 It is no marvel that some intending settlers 

 prefer the effete East, and return whence 

 they came. The President might have 

 added that as an institution planned for 

 the benefit of the people is run to a large 

 extent some persons maintain entirely in 

 the interest and for the benefit of the 

 politicians, any such independent move on 

 his part in the direction indicated would be 

 considered distinctly officious. However, 

 when ' the old order changeth, yielding place 

 to new,' and the dam is built and the farmer 

 comes to the front, then we may yet live to 

 see the politician drowned out. 



A peach orchard costs considerably less 

 to plant than an orange grove, and comes 

 into bearing much earlier. I set out some 

 one-year-old peach-trees last spring, and this 

 spring one of the trees bore fruit. No doubt 

 I should have plucked it immediately, but I 

 allowed three peaches to hang on the tree, 

 and they are now, seventeen months from 

 the date of planting, very large, beautifully 

 coloured, and of fine shape. The thinning 

 of fruit in the spring is important in a climate 



