nd Rome Beauties
were concerned, by the discovery that more than half of the old orchard
was composed of these varieties.

There is little question as to the wisdom of planting trees of kinds
known to have done well in your neighborhood. They are just as likely to
do well by you as by your neighbor. If the fruit be to your liking, you
can safely plant, for it is no longer an experiment; some one else has
broken that ground for you.

In casting about for a reliable nurseryman to whom to trust the very
important business of supplying me with young trees, I could not long
keep my attention diverted from Rochester, New York. Perhaps the reason
was that as a child I had frequently ridden over the plank road from
Henrietta to Rochester, and my memory recalled distinctly but three
objects on that road,--the house of Frederick Douglass, Mount Hope
Cemetery, and a nursery of young trees. Everything else was obscure. I
fancy that in fifty years the Douglass house has disappeared, but Mount
Hope Cemetery and the tree nursery seem to mock at time. The soil and
climate near Rochester are especially favorable to the growing of young
trees, and my order went to one of the many reliable firms engaged in
this business. The order was for thirty-four hundred
trees,--twenty-seven hundred for the forty-acre orchard and seven
hundred for the ten acres farthest to the south on the home lot. Polly
had consented to this invasion of her domain, for reasons. She said:--

"It is a long way off, rather flat and uninteresting, and I do not see
exactly how to treat it. Apple trees are pretty at most times, and
picturesque when old. You can put them there, if you will seed the
ground and treat it as part of the lawn. I hate your old straight rows,
but I suppose you must have them."

"Yes, I guess I shall have to have straight rows, but I will agree to
the lawn plan after the third year. You must give me a chance to
cultivate the land for three years."

Your tree-man must be absolutely reliable. You have to trust him much
and long. Not only do you depend upon him to send you good and healthy
stock, but you must trust, for five years at least, that this stock will
prove true to name. The most discouraging thing which can befall a
horticulturist is to find his new fruit false to purchase labels. After
wait, worry, and work he finds that he has not what he expected, and
that he must begin over again. It is cold comfort for the tree-man to
make good