Z4 6 OCTOBER 



bough or that, or giving it a little shake. If a shower falls 

 he names a near date for the collection of this variety. 

 Happily the sorts ripen at very different dates, so that 

 his harvest is spread out conveniently both for himself 

 and the cider factory. The apples are continually falling 

 without harm on the fresh grass ; and with the earlier 

 trees these first fruits have been raked into heaps ; and 

 are the stooks of the orchard. What a satisfying sense 

 of abundance they give. Some red, some white, some 

 variegated, far off under the shade of the trees they 

 suggest that the sheep, turned out of the orchard just 

 before the first apples fell, are still asleep under the trees. 



A grain farmer looks over the nodding ears of his yeo 

 man wheat, stooping to see the level surface of gold, and 

 says : &quot; We shall thresh five quarters to the acre.&quot; It is 

 no great astonishment if his estimate in coombs or 

 bushels or pounds or quarters is closely accurate. The 

 ears are like one another, and the average of &quot; berries &quot; 

 to the ear roughly constant. If one is filled to the top so 

 are the others. The tally of apples demands a nicer sense. 

 I have walked year after year through a Western 

 orchard of 60 or 70 acres with a specialist visiting his 

 neighbour s farm. The crop was very large, though not 

 a best on record. The varieties were many, and the trees 

 of different size and age. Under some were cushions of 

 fruit, under some a carpet, though most were still in 

 Bacon s phrase fast of their fruit. He took no notes, 

 no measures, no reckonings ; but when the walk was 

 over he said : &quot; Your crop will be near 270 tons.&quot; It 

 proved to be 267. So truly can a seeing eye see, to the 

 wonder of those myopic in such matters. 



No such venture was made the next year; but we 

 stopped and looked and wondered at one single tree. It 

 came from France a generation ago ; but proved to be 



