The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-11-18

:: :: :: :: :: ::::;:; : :::::::: :::::: !:
paradise. The
their opening piece nor the fish take
their FIRST swim until the following
Friday. The solar and lunar lights
did not break through the thick, cha
ouc fog of the worlds manufacture
until Thursday. Before that there
was light, but 1t was electric light or
phosphorescent light. not the light Of
sun or moon. But the botanical and
genealogical productions came on
Wednesday, first the flowers and then
the fruits. The veil of fog is lifted.
and there stand the orchards. Watch
the sudden maturity OF the fruit. In
our time pear trees must have two
years, before they bear fruit and
peach trees three years, and
apple trees five years, but here
instantly complete orchard springs
into life, all the branches bear
ing fruit. The iAsectile forces, which
have been doing their worst to destroy
the fruits for 5000 years, had not yet
begun their invasion. The curculio
had not yet stung the plum, nor the
caterpillar hurt the apple, ncr had the
phylloxera plague, which has devas-
tated the vineyards of America and
France, assailed the grapes, nor the
borer perforated the wood, nor the
aphides ruined the cherry, nor the
grub punctured the nectarine, nor the
blight struck the pear. There stood
the first orchard with a perfection Of
rind, and an exquisiteness Of color,
and a lusciousness Of taste, and an
affluence of production which it may
take thousands Of years more Of study
of the science of fruits to reproduce.
Why was the orchard created two
days before the fish and birds and
three days before the cattle? Among
other things, to impress the world
with lesson 1t Is too stupid to learn
that fruit diet is healthier than meat
diet, and that the former must precede
the latter. The reason there are In
the world so many Of the imbruted
and sensual Is that they have not i'm
proved by the mighty. unnoticed fact
that the orchards Of paradise preceded
the herds, and aviaries and hsh ponds.
Oh. those fruit bearing trees on the
banks Of the Euphrates, and the Gihon
and the Hiddekel! I wonder not that
the ancient Romans, ignorant Of our
God, adored Pomona. the goddess Of
fruits, and that all the sylvan deities
were said to worship her, and that
groves were set apart as her temples.
You have thanked God for bread a
thousand times. Have you thanked
him for the fruits which he made the
first course of food In the menu OF the
worlds table-.the acids of those fruits
to keep the worlds table from being
insipid, and their sweets to keep 1t
from being too sour?
At this autumnal season how the
orchards breathe and glow, the leaves
removed that the crimson or pink or
saffron or the yellow or brown may
the better appear, while the aromatics
fill the air with invitation and remi-
niscence. As you pass through the
orchard on these autumnal days and
look up through the arms Of the trees
laden with fruit you hear humping on
the ground that which is fully ripe,
and throwing your arms around the
trunk you give shake that sends
down a shower Of gold and fire on all
sides of you. Pile up in baskets and
barrels and bins and on shelves and
tables the divine supply. But these
orchards have been under the assault
OF at least go centuries--the storm, the
droughts, the winters, the insectivora.
What must the first orchard have
been? And yet 1t Is the explorers ev-
idenee that on the site OF that orchard
there is not an apricot, or an apple, or
an olive-nothing but desert and DESC
lation. There Is not enough to forage
the explorers horse, much less to feed
his own hunger. In other words, that
first orchard is lost orchard. How
did the proprietor and the proprietress
OF all that intercolumniation OF fruit
age let the rich splendor slip their pos
session? 1t was. as now, most OF the
orchards are lost-namely by wanting
more. Access they had to all the fig
trees. apricots, walnuts, almonds, ap-
ples-bushels on bushels-and were
forbidden the use Of only one tree in
the orchard. Not satisfied with all but
one, they reached for that and lost the
whole orchard. Go right down through
the business marts of the great cities
and find among the weighers and
clerks and subordinates men who once
commanded the commercial world.
They had whole orchard OF successes,
but they wanted just one more thing.
one more house, or one more country
seat, or one more store or one more
railroad, or one more million.