necessity. Strange that this should be so, but it is.

"Start with a peach stone or seed. It came from a fine tree; the fruit
was luscious. And yet the little seedling which comes from that very
stone as a rule must be grafted to bear fruit of equally fine flavour as
that of the original peach. Fruit trees have a tendency to revert to old
wild poor forms. And so we must save them and help them.

"If any of you should start a little orchard he would wish to know how
far apart the trees should be. Apple trees should be set thirty to forty
feet apart each way; pear trees twenty to thirty feet each way; plums
and peaches sixteen to twenty feet each way. Trees need room in which to
spread out and develop; hence the distance given them. I am glad that
Myron has made a start on small fruits. His strawberries were a success.
I'd like to think that next season each of you was to have in his
garden, vegetables, flowers, one small fruit and one of the larger ones,
such as a seedling apple or peach."




VI

GARDEN OPERATIONS


"I suppose the talk to-day will seem to you all merely a repetition of
things you already know. Beginnings, however, are most important.
Results often take care of themselves, but beginnings never do. Gardens
started wrong always go wrong; that is, unless one tears up one's work