338 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ley, and the frost kills their corn, and they try again; but not so do they 

 reason and act in planting orchards. There are but few old men who can 

 remember a winter that has been thus destructive to fruit and even forest 

 trees, like the one already alluded to; and the same circumstances may not 

 occur again in a century. Aside from the profit there is in growing fruit, 

 there is something pleasant to every person of taste ; and who has not this 

 taste, to see a tree he has planted put forth its buds and leaves every spring, 

 and lengthen out its branches every summer, till he can sit under its 

 shadow and eat of its fruit ? 



"A farm dotted over with trees, especially fruit trees, is a pleasant sight. 

 An orchard in full bloom is beautiful, and it certainly is beautiful when 

 in full fruit. 



"Some fifteen years ago I commenced growing trees in a small way, in a 

 nursery, and planting out into an orchard all the ground I posess, and if I 

 owned a thousand acres, I should do the same with all the land that was 

 suitable for trees. 



" We find men every day who are restrained from planting an orchard 

 for fear that fruit will become worthless and unproductive to the producer. 

 They cannot comprehend how the millions of nursery trees now being 

 grown, can be planted out into orchards and bear fruit and have the fruit 

 worth anything. They do not seem to comprehend that the increase of 

 population is greater than the increase of fruit. There are millions of 

 children being born, and every child has a taste for fruit, and a tooth to 

 devour it. There need be no fear about fruit being worth less than at the 

 present time. 



" There is no way a farmer can increase the price of his land so fast as 

 by the growth of fruit trees. The growth of trees on every acre of good 

 land, well cultivated, and set two rods apart each way for the first ten years, 

 is worth $20 per year, and after that still more. The trees on an acre thus 

 planted, when ten years old, are worth $5 a piece, or $200 the lot. No 

 farmer who consults his interest would sell 40 trees, 10 years old, for $200. 

 I have trees that have been planted out 12 years, that pay the interest 

 of more than $50 each, beside the expense of picking and packing. But 

 it requires judgement and experience to set out and grow an orchard as it 

 should be. All land is not suitable, and all men are not judges in selecting 

 the best and most profitable fruit for an orchard. There are many things 

 to be taken into the account, both in selecting a location and soil for an 

 orchard, and the best fruit to be planted. A man wants to plant an or- 

 chard, and he often makes his selection of fruit from the largest, smoothest, 

 and handsomest kinds he finds on exhibition at some agricultural fair, 

 without taking into the account the real value of the fruit. He could not 

 make a worse mistake. Some varieties that are really excellent are not 

 worthy of cultivation from the defects they have. The tree is a poor bear- 

 er, like the " Northern Spy." The fruit cracks and grows bad, like the 

 Spitzenberg. The tree sheds its fruit prematurely, or it is not good to 



