The side pockets of my jacket are usually weighted down with pruning-shears, a sharp knife, and a handled copper wire,—­always, indeed, in June, when I walk in my orchard.  June is the month of all months for the prudent orchardist to go thus armed, for the apple-tree borer is abroad in the land.  When the quick eye of the master sees a little pile of sawdust at the base of a tree, he knows that it is time for him to sit right down by that tree and kill its enemy.  The sharp knife enlarges the hole, which is the trail of the serpent, and the sharp-pointed, flexible wire follows the route until it has reached and transfixed the borer.

This is the only way.  It is the nature of the borer to maim or kill the tree; it is for the interest of the owner that the tree should live.  The conflict is irrepressible, and the weakest must go to the wall.  The borer evil can be reduced to a minimum by keeping the young trees banked three or four inches high with firm dirt or ashes; but borers must be followed with the wire, once they enter the bark.

The sharp knife and the pruning-shears have other uses in the June orchard.  Limbs and sprouts will come in irregular and improper places, and they should be nipped out early and thus save labor and mutilation later on.  Sprouts that start from the eyes on the trunk can be removed by a downward stroke of the gloved hand.  All intersecting or crossing boughs are removed by knife or scissors, and branches which are too luxuriant in growth are cut or pinched back.  Careful guidance of the tree in June will avoid the necessity of severe correction later on.

A man ought to plant an orchard, if for no other reason, that he may have the pleasure of caring for it, and for the companionship of the trees.  This was the second year of growth for my orchard, and I was gratified by the evidences of thrift and vigor.  Fine, spreading heads adorned the tops of the stubs of trees that had received such (apparently) cruel treatment eighteen months before.  The growth of these two seasons convinced me that the four-year-old root and the three-year-old stem, if properly managed, have greater possibilities of rapid development than roots or stems of more tender age.  I think I made no mistake in planting three-year-old trees.

As I worked in my orchard I could not help looking forward to the time when the trees would return a hundred-fold for the care bestowed upon them.  They would begin to bring returns, in a small way, from the fourth year, and after that the returns would increase rapidly.  It is safe to predict that from the tenth to the fortieth year a well-managed orchard will give an average yearly income of $100 an acre above all expenses, including interest on the original cost.  A fifty-acre orchard of well-selected apple trees, near a first-class market and in intelligent hands, means a net income of $5000, taking one year with another, for thirty or forty years.  What kind of investment will pay better?  What sort of business will give larger returns in health and pleasure?