“ ‘It was introduced some few years ago by my friend Nasredin and is now a favourite stock on the Plateau of Reshed where the climate is very similar to yours. It bears a large, luscious fruit, highly marketable, and maturing early; and it can be purchased at a moderate expense. I will, if you like, go for you to the nearest provider of such things and see what I can do.’
“My host thanked me profusely. He remarked how small the world was and at the same time how manifest were the workings of Providence. He blessed the day when he had met me. For though (he said), the matter of expense did not weigh upon him, he had made a particular point of success in the matter of pear trees, and but for my advice he really did not know what he should have done.
“He was so keen upon the affair that he pressed me to start for the nearest nurseryman the very next morning. There was an excellent nursery plantation, he said, not more than half a day’s ride away to the West. It stood, with the owner’s house in the midst, just outside the gates of the town to which he would direct me, either going himself or sending his bailiff with me. He would also send a wagon for the conveyance of the young shoots. Indeed, as the meal progressed (for we were now dining), he grew more and more enthusiastic on the matter and could hardly bear the delay of the night. I saw which way the land lay and saw fit to increase his keenness. I therefore told him it was quite impossible to act with such speed. ‘The young shoots,’ said I, ‘must not be left to lie untended and unplanted. We must first of all prepare the ground. The old trees must be dug up, the pits enlarged. It is the narrowness of the earthing that has been half your trouble, for the smaller root tendrils which we call “trips” are easily estopped in hard groundings.’ ‘I see!’ said he, sapiently. ‘The ground must be well soaked,’ I continued, ‘and manured with a full dressing of lime, and only when all this has been completed could I think of advising you to plant.’
“I paused to concoct something new, and the amiable youth filled the gap for me by murmuring: ‘Precisely! Exactly! Now I understand.’
“I resumed: ‘Further we must underpin the runners and work up the earth herring-wise. And then there is the daubing. … It will be a matter of full three days’ work. On the fourth day I can set out before sunrise. You may take it that I will be back by evening, and we will, if you please, plant the very next morning—that is on the fifth day—lest the stock should suffer; for I have always found it,’ I added profoundly, ‘of invariable service to plant immediately. I have indeed lost in the past one or two most valuable sets of trees—pear trees—by delaying at this season of the year so much as twenty-four hours before putting them in the ground.’
“As I thus spoke he nodded frequently, admiring my talent and knowledge of these affairs, and I took occasion, as evening wore on, to ground him yet more deeply in this fascinating subject, which I had already begun to feel was mine.
“The next day with the first of the light we both of us set out to the orchard. He summoned his workmen and our labours engrossed us for many hours during which I fed his enthusiasm with renewed tales of marvels in the way of fruit-growing—and especially of pear trees. That particular pear called ‘The Glory of Heaven’ increased wonderfully as I proceeded until at last it had grown to such a size that each individual fruit was as large as a child’s head, and half a dozen of them would fetch a piece of gold ‘if’ (I was careful to add) ‘if they are properly packed! For I regret to say that, simple as the detail is, the neglect of good packing has been the ruin of most speculators in this line.’
“During the second day of our labours I dilated upon other details of the trade which occurred to me as I went along. I especially insisted upon what I called the ‘maximum point,’ and for this he was all ears.
“ ‘There is a limit,’ I said, ‘to your plantation, after which the expenses of management begin to eat into the profits earned. A first small speculation of 300 trees, such as you have here, is, of course, a mere bagatelle. It would provide you with amusement, but no appreciable income. The most profitable size of orchard is far larger. … In such a situation as yours,’ said I, looking round with an air of a connoisseur, ‘and with such soil as this,’ and with that I took up a clod and carefully crumbled it in my fingers, ‘possessing acidulated properties of this type, but corrected by some slow exhaust of porphyritic matter, it would need but a top dressing of bardulm and an occasional picketing of charcoal to make some 3,000 trees produce a regular annual profit of not less than 200 pieces of gold—and that upon an original expenditure less than double the amount. I would estimate your return with care and good fortune at quite fifty percent, but at any rate you could calculate upon thirty percent. But more than 3,000 trees,’ said I, musing, ‘would, I fear, be an error; the earnings after that get eaten into by expenses.’
“He interrupted me with the eager words: ‘I should be happy—’ I lifted my hand to check him and said, ‘No! I assure you, that even such a number as 3,500 would be just
