until cheap grain should come again, or until my land
should produce enough for my needs. The supply in hand plus that which I
could reasonably expect to raise, would certainly provide for three
years to come, and this is farther than the average farmer looks into
the future. But I claim to be more enterprising than an average farmer,
and determined to keep my eyes open and to take advantage of any
favorable opportunity to strengthen my position.

In the meantime it was necessary to force my trees, and to secure more
help for the farm work. To push fruit trees to the limit of healthy
growth is practical and wise. They can accomplish as much in growth and
development in three years, when judiciously stimulated, as in five or
six years of the "lick-and-a-promise" kind of care which they usually
receive.

A tree must be fed first for growth and afterward for fruit, just as a
pig is managed, if one wishes quick returns. To plant a tree and leave
it to the tenderness of nature, with only occasional attention, is to
make the heart sick, for it is certain to prove a case of hope deferred.
In the fulness of time the tree and "happy-go-lucky" nature will prove
themselves equal to the development of fruit; but they will be slow in
doing it. It is quite as well for the tree, and greatly to the advantage
of the horticulturist, to cut two or three years out of this
unprofitable time. All that is necessary to accomplish this is: to keep
the ground loose for a space around the tree somewhat larger than the
spread of its branches; to apply fertilizers rich in nitrogen; to keep
the whole of the cultivated space mulched with good barn-yard manure,
increasing the thickness of the mulch with coarse stuff in the fall, so
as to lengthen the season of root activity; and to draw the mulch aside
about St. Patrick's Day, that the sun's rays may warm the earth as early
as possible. Moderate pruning, nipping back of exuberant branches, and
two sprayings of the foliage with Bordeaux mixture, to keep fungus
enemies in check, comprise all the care required by the growing tree.
This treatment will condense the ordinary growth of five years into
three, and the tree will be all the better for the forcing.

As soon as fruit spurs and buds begin to show themselves, the treatment
should be modified, but not remitted. Less nitrogen and more phosphoric
acid and potash are to be used, and the mulch should _not_ be removed
in the early spring. The objects n