The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-10-12

dollars. Don't you fb1nK IL W0uld De money
well laid out TO spend one hundred or more
dollars of the nearly eleven hundred you
cleared on your apples last season for the
purpose of extending your orchard and
thus increasing your income ?'' He said in
reply, 'sI have no doubt you are right; but
I am getting very old, and may not live to
see young orchard come into bearing"
And here is another hitch, Messrs. Edi-
tors. If trees, or vines, or plants, would
grow up in o single night, as did Jonah's
gourd, and bear fruit the next day, thou
sands would engage in their growth who
now turn deaf ear to all accounts Of profits
from this source. But trees, and vines, and
plants, like confidence, are things of "slow
growth Apple trees will yield but little
fruit before the seventh year !; peach trees,
three or four years; dwarf pears, two or.
three years; grapeyines, two or three years;
strawberry plants, one full year, and are
all the better at two years and so on.
!" Who can wait on these slow things
Wheat and corn, sweet and Irish potatoes,
tobacco, cabbages, and all the larger and
smaller grains, roots, and vegetables, make
returns in few months, and therefore We
are compelled to grow them"
1st. (" We may not ive to see our trees,
or vines, or plants, come into, bearing"
But our children may. Is all the bother
and trouble of life for ourselves only {?
Are we to do nothing because, forsooth,
we may not live to reap the benefit Of it {?
We kve in our children and our children's
children. Life, like stream Of water,
flows on, and on, and on, and though men
may die and pass away, man " still lives"
End. And this is more practical idea
than we are at first disposed to give it
credit for. Here is rentor. He cannot
plant tree or vine for either ornament or
use. He does not o1oa the property. He is
here. to-day and gone tomorrow. "Why
should trouble myself about either orna-
mental or fruit-trees, flowers, shrubs, or
vines 2' And when he has said this ne
thinks he has exhausted the whole argu-
ment. But has he? Suppose every rentor
as well as owner of property were to do
their duty, and plant fruit-trees, vines,
and plants, wherever there was room for
them, how long would it be before there
would be an abundance Of fruit for every
family, both in town and country? Even
the children of the .Uillage of Rocketts
would soon have enough and to spare. ~
Our old friend has many imitators, who
see the rightbut the wrong pursue. Nearly
ten years ago he had planted an orchard,
because then he had not felt the weight
of old age bearing upon him. No1o he could
not plant because he would, most probably,
not live to see his young trees come into
bearing. Rentors cannot plant because
they are here to-day and gone tomorrow.
Owners cannot plant, because they take a
fool notion and sell before they reap any of
the benefits of their labor. And thus neither
orchards, nor vineyards, nor plant-beds
are planted, because somebody else may be
the bencfciaries. Preposterous argument
Absurd reasoning "Most lame and i'm
potent conclusion" !"
We here in Virginia must get rid of all
these false notions of life, and in temporal
matters live and act as if we expected to
live forever. There is profit in fruit cul-
ture. My old friend had learned this fact,
but he had only partially learned it. Four
acres in orchard had cleared him ouer
thousand dollars. Four acres in vineyard
would probably have cleared him four thou
sand dollars, and nearly as much if planted
in strawberry plants. But let the people
do something. Plant orchards, if not vine
yards. Plant hops, if not strawberries.
Plant broomcorn, if not gooseberries or
blackberries. AHo any of these crops can
be made immensely profitable vastly more
profitable than raising corn or wheat. But
my advice is, plant those things that pay
best. Plant vineyards. Plant orchards.
Plant strawberries. Work Labor God
will give the increase. We cannot afford to
be idle. &C."