Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 321 



tain to get good ones. The truth is, they are our best men, and 

 are laying the foundation for all our future glories. 



PROFITS OF APPLE ORCHARDS. 



Mr. E. Densmore, Montclair, N. J. — There is an acre and a half 

 of land fourteen miles south of Erie, Pa., that was planted to 

 apple trees, seventeen years ago, on rising ground, with clay enough 

 to be rich, and gravel enough to be. dry, which for six or eight 

 3^ears after planting was cropped, and heavily manured. After 

 that it was seeded to grass, and it has not been touched since, nor 

 have the trees been pruned for twenty years. Fifteen years ago 

 they bore more than four hundred bushels; three years ago they 

 netted four hundred dollars, and for the last five years have netted 

 two hundred dollars a year. This acre and a half is more valuable 

 than imy average ten acres in pasture and meadow land, though 

 that is in a region as favorable for grass as any in the world. I 

 know, also, of an orchard of two and a half acres in Crawford 

 county, planted thirty-five years ago, which was cropped twelve or 

 thirteen times; it never had a shovelfuU of manure; it has not 

 been plowed for twenty years; during the last six years it has 

 netted two hundred dollars a year, and for twenty years previ- 

 ously it netted one thousand per cent per acre more than adjoining 

 grass lands. I have a friend who is acting on these hints, and who 

 is planting from fifty to one hundred acres of apple orchards in 

 these counties, that is, making the business a speciality; but if he ia 

 making a fool of himself, I'll coax him to quit. 



Mr. N. C Meeker. — Mr. Densmore makes these statements to 

 controvert what we said not long ago about " farming with one 

 idea." We entirely agree that an apple orchard, with suitable 

 varieties, will be more profitable than any other kind of fruit, and 

 that a good orchard always is the most profitable part of a farm. 

 Still, for some cause, only a very few get rich with orchards. A 

 fruit-grower is the most visionary man alive; we think we know 

 this to be so, and that a fortune always is just a little ahead. In 

 these days, a man with forty-two faculties ought to do something 

 else beside raise apples, and the children and mother should be 

 able to talk of more than one thing. We object to special pursuits, 

 because they give narrow ideas. Nor is it safe to depend on one 

 crop alone. As a general thing, apples bear onl}^ every other year, 

 except that it be on the verge of a large body of yater, as on the 

 Lake Eric islands. Perhaps an orchard of twenty acres will be as 

 I Inst.] 21 



