PLANTING TREES

THERE was a small fenced-in garden on our place when we came, but no fence around the house. (The Indian ponies could come right up to our door.) Soon after we came, our parents decided to plant an orchard. So they bought the trees, and fenced in the spot for the orchard. There were apples, pears and plums. Of course, we had gooseberries and red currants. We children helped to plant the orchard. We trudged up and down over the freshly plowed ground and held the trees in place, or stamped the earth around them.

At that time, if a person planted a certain number of acres of trees on a quarter section of land that had no timber on it, he could become owner of the land.

This was known as a claim. Father up such a “timber claim.” Father “tool up” such a claim and we children helped to plant those trees, too. Of course, there were several acres of trees to be planted. I remember that I took some plaything along with me, but was reminded that I’d come to plant trees, not play. So plant trees I did!

There must have been some other requirement besides just planting trees, for Father got 160 acres of land in that claim.