News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-07-01
MAY SAVE HIS PEARS
NEWARK MANS SCHEME REALLY
A BRILLIANT ONE.
At Least He Is Very Sure Tony VIII
Leave Fruit Alone, After He Ex-
planned Composition of Bone
Fertilizer.

A well-known gentleman of Forest
Hill has a back-lot orchard of which
he is no fonder than some of the new
corners to these shores. A ten-foot
hedge and barb-wire fence fail to
defend his premises against the in
vaders. Even letters in the paper
cannot save his peaches, pears, and
apples from the hands of the spoiler.
In the season when the fruit Is rip
ening, he has discovered that his trees
will be watched day and night by self
| appointed guards, who warn other
fruit fanciers away. One day he over.
heard hot quarrel just outside his
grounds, and, understanding little Of
the strange tongue in which the argu-
ment was carried on, he made out that
Pedro was scolding Tomasso in words
to this effect:
go on away from heres Tom, this
is my pear tree. saw it first, and
I've been watching it four weeks"
Pedro's sons will come now and then
to relieve him in his vigil. The pear
tree is a family treasure, which they
conserve with true Pinchotian zeal I'M
til the fruit is almost ripe. Then, in the
quiet hours of night when Forest
Hill sleeps the sleep of happy inno-
cence or sits up working on its liter
airy papers, Pedro and his tribe will
bore through the hedge and garner
the prize.
Despairing of hedge and fence and
publicity. the Forest Hill gentleman
has gone into psychology. One day
last month he hired a man to spade
up his garden, and with malice pre-
pense he selected a neighbor Of Pc
dros from across the canal to do the
work.
Under the fruit trees while the spad-
ing was going on he scattered bone
fertilizer with great care.
"This is very precious stuff, Tony"
he said, as he sprinkled the odorous
powder over the broken soil. ut is
worth almost it's weight in gold. No
other fertilizer in the world will make
fruit grow the way this will. Can you
guess what it is made of Tony?"
Tony had no idea.
ut is made" said the veracious gen.
tleman, from human bones. Have
you ever heard of the catacombs,
Tony?"
Tony had
well, the American company that
manufactures this stuff has discovered
some catacombs in Italy that nobody
else knows about. The catacombs are
filled with human skeletons, millions
of them, and the American company
sends its steamers over there and
brings back shiploads Of skulls and
tibias and femurs and ribs, and the
factory turns the bones into this stuff
that am putting into the ground
Some of your ancestors, Tony, may
be mixed up in this bag"
Tony shuddered
ut seems too bad to use human
bones in this way, but wait till you see
the fruit these trees will bear next
fall-apples as big as your head, Tony,
an>. pears as juicy as watermelons."
Tony's mouth refused to water at
the thought.
'The curious thing about it is that
the trees that absorb. this stuff into
their sap are always haunted. If you
come around here any dark night next |
summer, Tony, you will see all sorts |
of queer things flying and dancing and |
swinging up yonder in the branches
COLLINS. Tony, and maybe the ghost |
of your great-great-grandfat skip |
ping around up there in the starlight |
and making faces at you. 1t gives you |
a kind of shivery feeling, doesn't it,
Tony?'
In such manner spoke the Forest |
Hitler, and from the look on his labor
er's face he felt that his talk had not |
been in vain-had borne fruit, as it
we're.
After many years Of pomicultural
effort, he believes that he will be able |
at last to harvest a fine, full crop
Newark News.