PLANNING FOR THE TREES

The morning of September 17th a small frost fell,—­just enough to curl the leaves of the corn and show that it was time for it to be laid by.  Thompson, Johnson, Anderson, and the two men from the woods, who were diverted from their post-splitting for the time being, went gayly to the corn fields and attacked the standing grain in the old-fashioned way.  This was not economical; but I had no corn reaper, and there was none to hire, for the frost had struck us all at the same time.  The five men were kept busy until the two patches—­about forty-three acres—­were in shock.  This brought us to the 24th.  In the meantime the men and women moved from the cottage to the more commodious farm-house.  Polly had found excuses for spending $100 more on the furnishings of this house,—­two beds and a lot of other things.  Sunday gave the people a chance to arrange their affairs; and they certainly appreciated their improved surroundings.

The cottage was moved to its place on the line, and the last of the seeding on the north forty was done.  Ten tons of fertilizer were sown on this forty-acre tract (at a cost of $250), and it was then left to itself, not to be trampled over by man or beast, except for the stretching of fences or for work around some necessary buildings, until the middle of the following May.

We did not sow any wheat that year,—­there was too much else to be done of more importance.  There is not much money in wheat-farming unless it be done on a large scale, and I had no wish to raise more than I could feed to advantage.  Wheat was to be a change food for my fowls; but just then I had no fowls to feed, and there were more than two hundred bushels in stacks ready for the threshers, which I could hold for future hens.

The ploughmen were now directed to commence deep ploughing on No. 14,—­the forty acres set apart for the commercial orchard.  This tract of land lay well for the purpose.  Its surface was nearly smooth, with a descent to the west and southwest that gave natural drainage.  I have been informed that an orchard would do better if the slope were to the northeast.  That may be true, but mine has done well enough thus far, and, what is more to the point, I had no land with a northeast slope.  The surface soil was thin and somewhat impoverished, but the subsoil was a friable clay in which almost anything would grow if it was properly worked and fed.  It was my desire to make this square block of forty acres into a first-class apple orchard for profit.  Seven years from planting is almost too soon to decide how well I have succeeded, but the results attained and the promises for the future lead me to believe that there will be no failure in my plan.