Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-02-23
Orchards without Money.

ADO aNAAO Wv 4CkkOA 9LAoANOL - ~
for the family. Often IN the oaseeof new
farms there is no well and no c~istern,
the water for the barns being brought
from q spring at a distance. There is no
roller to smooth down. the surface of the
fields that are to become permanent
meadows; there is no moving machine
to cut the broad acres of grass; perhaps
a neighbours grind-stone has to be called
into requisition whenever a seythe or axe
has to be sharpened. Then there is a
family to be fed and clothed; taxes to be
paid; school books to be bought and a
host of other pressing wants that require
immediate and every day attention.
None know but the industrious DOC
and none know so we'll as the poor far
mer, how pressing some of these wants
are. Many little feet go unshod till the
grass is whitened by the frost for want
of money to buy shoes. Many an ambi-
tious farmers boy has to delay his en-
tering the winter school till something
can be sold from the farm in order to
buy his books, The wife of many d
frontier farmer cannot provide her scanty
winter wardrobe suitable for attending
meeting, till the pork is fattened and
sold. Indeed there are. hosts o ffarmers
just commencing to prepare homes,
where the supply of groceries is gagged by
the supply of eggs and butter. 1t is only
in good seasons or in times of good luck
hat such families " can make both end
meetr-whenever there appearsa frown-
ing providence some of the real, present
necessities of the family are unsupplied.
1t is all nonsense to talk to a man in
such circumstances about spending three
or four hundred dollars in buying fruit
trees. Downing on andscapeG Gardening
and Home Adornment is an excellent
- -. - "
belt would look well on the windworn
side of his place, and would protect his
orchard site; but evergreens cost money.
1t is vain to tantalizethis man by telling
him that he could get o money from
five acres put in fruit trees than he real
ICES from his whole farm now he knows
that already. He knows, too, a his
little boys and girls are fond of apples,
pears, plums and cherries that they are
wholesome food and cheap, when home
grown. He wants and needs an orchard,
and knows that the sooner the young
trees are set the quicker will they bear
fruit. He has no money to purchase
trees from a nurseryman, and does not
wish to run in debt in order to obtain
them. How is this man to have an Or
chard without money, and without
other price than the labor of himself
and his family?
This is the way: Set apart a small
plot of and in the garden or field for a
nursery, If you car. do no better for
| obtaining seeds, save them from the APP
Piles that are used in the family, and OBJ
tain more from the wild crab apples
growing in the woods They may be
planted the present, season, where the
ground is still open, or kept till spring
and then put out. They sould be planted
=. l,.IT1a L. ,AsUl T1aas 90 nth
should be finely pulverized, and the
seeds covered to the depth of about half
an inch. Nothing is required the first
season but to keep the weeds down, and
to have the ground soft and mellow
about the young roots. No more skill
is required to raise Seeding apple trees
than to raise a crop of corn or beets.
i An hours work, once a week through
the summer and fall, will be sufficient to
tend a plantation of several thousand
Seeding apple trees. man having
advanced thus far towards raising an or
chard will be a shiftless fellow indeed,
and very lacking in mechanical ingenui-
ty, if he does not continue the cultiva-
ton of his young stalks, and learn to
engraft them when they are of sufficient
age. r.a 30
We lately visited the largest apple Or
chard in the West, if not in the whole
country, an orchard producing this year
some fifteen thousand bushels of fruit.
This famous apple orchard was started
in this wise: Afeurteen year old boy
came to Illinois shout the timesof Black
Hawks war. Where his father settled
there were few apple trees, except wild
crabs. Wise men said apple trees did
not do we'll here, but he did not believe
it. osFs ~ 49,
Young apple trees were brought from 8
distance and commanded high prices, but
cash was scarce with him. So he started
out to make an orchard with such mean:
as he had. He saved all the seeds thai
ne could, planted them, and tended the
young trees till they were large enough
to engraft. His first cions he obtained
with money earned by himself. He rode
on horseback seventy miles over thu
J prairies to get the cions and put then
in himself. Every year he continued
ito give his spare time to planting, prun
ing and grating apple trees. The orch
ard was started to supply a single family
now it supplies thousands of families.
t Undoubtedly the best way to obtain
, fine orchard is to purchase first elias
, trees from a reliable nurseryman. So
too, it is the best way to obtain q fint
stock of cattle to purchase thoroughbreC
animals. But because a man is SO cir
cumstanced that he can do neither, it
no reason that he should go withou
fruit or COWS.
, Many a poor farmer delays putting
out an orchard for the want of none,
to purchase trees, till he gets at a. ag,
i that he thinks the trees will never yielt
their fruit to him. The surest way for
: poor farmer to make sure of an orcharC
! is to commence to get n by the labo
f of his own hands. In this way he cal
. have an orchard of bearing trees, eide
to drink, apples to eat and to sell lonj
before he became forehanded enough t
spare the money all at once to buy tn
trees to plant an orchard. The peopl
who went from the old towns in the vi
: cinity of Boston to ~colonize the NOR,
northern states of New England " wer
wiser in their generation" as far as tn,
, planting of apple trees is concerned
than were the settlers of most parts o
the West. They took a bag of appl
, seeds with them wherever they went t.
} settle. Every man became his owl
nurseryman, partly from force of circum
f stances and partly from force of poverty
Apple trees took the place of forest tree
before the stumps of the former hat
+ rotted away.-Prarie Farmer.
Keeping Apples.
Having just read an account of
, ,v.karis laonin1 oDD1ou l0nO fi1ao 4,