Mower County transcript., 1903-07-15
AT |! new ENGL and ] . HOME !
The Editor r Reyislts the Home of His
Boyhood Change on Every 81
Side Invasion 81 the
Rural Trolley 5s 8
g &.y Lines.

PROVIDENCE, r. /. June, 1908. ,s5 u
No one who has been away from his is
childhood home for years can: revisit the tl1y
old surroundings without q feeling Of
sadness mingled with pleasure. Il is q
pleasure to wander over the old haunts
and call to memory the happy expert.
ences Of boyhood days when all was g so ]
free from the care and burd len Of life
1t makes one sad to discover the great
changes that thirty years have pro,
duced, the familiar faces gone, the old
home circle broken up and new and
strange people in possession ..2IE One
comes back here and spends a few days
or weeks with great interest and then
longs to return to the snrro oulndings
with which he is in touch and tosthes
more stirring life Of the thustling west.
I spent the larger part Of a day in
wandering over the old homestead. q
little farm Of ten acres, three miles out
from the centre of the city, with stone
wall all around it and with stone walls
dividing it into smaller fields, the main
road curving through the middle of it,
with bank walls of stone on either side,
there was not a square foot of it with
which as boy was not familiar. The
house in which 1 was born was long ago
torn down to make room for modern.
Improvements. The old orchards have
greatly changed of late. Scarcely one
of the cherry trees which l used to climb
is now standing and most of the apple
tress are also missing. found some
that I recognized. One leaning tree
which bore sweet baking apples still
stands and the wide spreading tree
which bore such sour fruit still grows
over the arbor seat. s B. 8Aa-E ss n "a. s&5
Two or three Of the red cheek pear
trees stand near where the M Mummer 1
house used to be. Over the wall is the
old cider mill which vas onbi daeH
ground of yore but which was often
visited as opportunity afforded. The
hedge of box nearly hundred years
old, which stood around my mothers
flower garden has lately been removed
bat the half dead trunk Of her favorite
cherry tree is still there. I went up into
the old barn with its high and deep
haymows and the pigeon house up in
the gable. How high it seemed to
climb up there forty years ago. The
ounce bushes and currant brush long
ago disappeared. The old walk with
sodded bank and apple trees on one
side and a straight row Of. box on the
other stretches as of yore down to the
lower grape arbor. The springs near
the foot of the hill where we always
found cooling draughts and in which
we were wont:to wade..are almost dried
up. How we used to begrudge the
frogs a share in the enjoyment OF those
springs. Over this whole ten acres ]
picked stones and plowed, and moved
withIscythe, and planted and hoed, and
picked fruit, cherries, apples, pears and
strawberries mostly, and the days were
from sunriselto sunset with short holi-
days only .when severe stents had been
fully performed. ss.s25 .s /. ~ III
One noticeable change is the growing
Of successful peach orchards. a gen
GRAFTON ago, it was thought in Rhode
Island to be well nigh an impossibility
to raise peaches with any assurance Of
success. Occasionally a tree was pro-
tected until a crop or two was borne
and then it died. Today there are many
large peach orchards and they are very.
profitable. I notice however that the
trees begin to give out after reaching a
certain size and one of the horticultu-
lists informed that the life of q
peach tree here n was quite h brief
after it, commenced, bearing and the
latest plan is to set q young orchard
every year and as fast as the bearing
tree dies cut it out and gather from the
younger trees. Why should not "a
Mower county fruit man be satisfied
/. to set some fruit trees every spring;
even if he knows that they may not bear
4 but a dozen crops before they begin to
die? This is the rule for raising peaches
here. II