In casting about for a reliable nurseryman to whom to trust the very important business of supplying me with young trees, I could not long keep my attention diverted from Rochester, New York.  Perhaps the reason was that as a child I had frequently ridden over the plank road from Henrietta to Rochester, and my memory recalled distinctly but three objects on that road,—­the house of Frederick Douglass, Mount Hope Cemetery, and a nursery of young trees.  Everything else was obscure.  I fancy that in fifty years the Douglass house has disappeared, but Mount Hope Cemetery and the tree nursery seem to mock at time.  The soil and climate near Rochester are especially favorable to the growing of young trees, and my order went to one of the many reliable firms engaged in this business.  The order was for thirty-four hundred trees,—­twenty-seven hundred for the forty-acre orchard and seven hundred for the ten acres farthest to the south on the home lot.  Polly had consented to this invasion of her domain, for reasons.  She said:—­

“It is a long way off, rather flat and uninteresting, and I do not see exactly how to treat it.  Apple trees are pretty at most times, and picturesque when old.  You can put them there, if you will seed the ground and treat it as part of the lawn.  I hate your old straight rows, but I suppose you must have them.”

“Yes, I guess I shall have to have straight rows, but I will agree to the lawn plan after the third year.  You must give me a chance to cultivate the land for three years.”

Your tree-man must be absolutely reliable.  You have to trust him much and long.  Not only do you depend upon him to send you good and healthy stock, but you must trust, for five years at least, that this stock will prove true to name.  The most discouraging thing which can befall a horticulturist is to find his new fruit false to purchase labels.  After wait, worry, and work he finds that he has not what he expected, and that he must begin over again.  It is cold comfort for the tree-man to make good his guarantee to replace all stock found untrue, for five years of irreplaceable time has passed.  When you have spent time, hope, and expectation as well as money, looking for results which do not come, your disappointment is out of all proportion to your financial loss, be that never so great.  In the best-managed nurseries there will be mistakes, but the better the management the fewer the mistakes.  Pay good prices for young trees, and demand the best.  There is no economy in cheap stock, and the sooner the farmer or fruit-grower comprehends this fact, the better it will be for him.  I ordered trees of three years’ growth from the bud,—­this would mean four-year-old roots.  Perhaps it would have been as well to buy smaller ones (many wise people have told me so), but I was in such a hurry!  I wanted to pick apples from these trees at the first possible moment.  I argued that a sturdy three-year-old would have an