76 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



for fruit, instructed men and boys in the ways of pruning 

 and grafting, and never left a job without teaching the 

 owner as to the care of the trees, pointing to the larger branches 

 that should not remain beyond the next year. I empha- 

 size the fact that the successful change of a top is by a 

 gradual process. Cases often occur where it is proper to do this, 

 but changing old tops is not to be encouraged when it is easy to 

 get a 3'oung tree to take the place of an old one. When my care 

 of the farm ended, in 1851, I came to my present home, having 

 then twenty acres — only five with any improvements, and these of 

 rude character. I came here in November and then put in cellar 

 300Q seedling apple trees, and grafted them in winter by the kitchen 

 fire. I set these as a start for a nursery ; and brought one hundred 

 grafted trees from the farm for an orchard. I increased my nur- 

 sery in the three following years to about 10.000 trees. In that 

 time I started seedling pears and grafted five hundred of them in 

 winter. They started growth in the cellar before they could be 

 set. Some very hot days following the setting, nearly all were 

 killed. I had not provided shade for them. 



I see no impropriety in showing here the untoward surround- 

 ings that menaced my work. While setting my nursery in 

 the spring of 1852, two prominent citizens came and looked 

 on my work with apparent curiosity. One ventured the remark, 

 "You will have to fence round these trees to save them."^ 

 I replied: A fence will cause the snow to drift and spoil them. 

 ''But the cattle will be on the field part of the year." To that I 

 replied : They will not be on my field. Then came the remark : 

 '•You will see," and they joined in a hearty laugh. I had seen the 

 custom of the place. Animals had the run of the roads at all 

 times. After the harvest, all boundary fences would somehow get 

 opened and all cattle made common pillage till the next planting 

 time. At that time my daily talk was for gardens and fruit. I 

 saw my interest and safety lay in inducing my neighbor to grow 

 his family supply on his own land. My talk for fruit was met by 

 one terse expression which must have been adopted by unanimous 

 vote of all citizens, as all gave it in the same words — "Ft is no 

 use to raise fruit, the boys will steal it all!" Why men, claiming 

 leadership in morality and public virtue, had accepted such a 

 motto remams a mystery to me. Boys grew to manhood while 

 hearing that repeated. But this represents a condition of forty 

 years ago. This is claimed as an age of progress, and we have 



