Through careful tilth and the systematic return of all waste to the land, the acres at Four Oaks have grown more fertile each year.  The soil was good seven years ago, and we have added fifty per cent to its crop capacity.  The amount of waste to return to the land on a farm like this is enormous, and if it be handled with care, there will be no occasion to spend much money for commercial fertilizers.  I now buy fertilizers only for the mid-summer dressing on my timothy and alfalfa fields.  The apple trees are very heavily mulched, even beyond the spread of their branches, with waste fresh from the vats, and once a year a light dressing of muriate of potash is applied.  The trees have grown as fast as could be desired, and all of them are now in bearing.  The apples from these young trees sold for enough last year to net ninety cents for each tree, which is more than the trees have ever cost me.

In 1898 these orchards yielded $38; in 1899, $165; in 1900, $530; in 1901, $1117.  Seven years from the date of planting these trees, which were then three years old, I had received in money $4720, or $1200 more than I paid for the fifty acres of land on which they grew.  If one would ask for better returns, all he has to do is to wait; for there is a sort of geometrical progression inherent in the income from all well-cared-for orchards, which continues in force for about fifteen years.  There is, however, no rule of progress unless the orchards are well cared for, and I would not lead any one to the mistake of planting an orchard and then doing nothing but wait.  Cultivate, feed, prune, spray, dig bores, fight mice, rabbits, aphides, and the thousand other enemies to trees and fruit, and do these things all the time and then keep on doing them, and you will win out.  Omit all or any of them, and the chances are that you will fail of big returns.

But orcharding is not unique in this.  Every form of business demands prompt, timely, and intelligent attention to make it yield its best.  The orchards have been my chief care for seven years; the spraying, mulching, and cultivation have been done by the men, but I think I have spent one whole year, during the past seven, among my trees.  Do I charge my orchards for this time?  No; for I have gotten as much good from the trees as they have from me, and honors are easy.  A meditative man in his sixth lustrum can be very happy with pruning-hook and shears among his young trees.  If he cannot, I am sincerely sorry for him.

I have not increased my plant during the past four years.  My stock consume a little more than I can raise; but there are certain things which a farm will not produce, and there are other things which one had best buy, thus letting others work their own specialties.