arly 6 or 7 per cent. A whole tree-moving campaign in
a single season has been accomplished with a loss of about 3 per cent.
I am willing to admit that in the case of the larger trees the growth
has been retarded perhaps two years, but this is a small matter, for
people no longer young wish to get the effects they desire at once,
and the modern tree-mover does it. We have grouped and arranged clumps
of big spruces to fit the purposes we were aiming for, and sometimes
have completely covered a hillside with them. Oaks we have not been
successful with except when comparatively young, and we don't try to
move oaks and hickories when they have come near to maturity; but we
have made some successful experiments with bass wood, and one of these
we have moved three times without injury. Birches have generally
baffled us, but evergreens, except cedars, have been almost invariably
successfully handled.

This planning for good views must have been an early passion with me.
I remember when I was hardly more than a boy I wanted to cut away a
big tree which I thought interfered with the view from the windows of
the dining-room of our home. I was for cutting it down, but some
other members of the family objected, though my dear mother, I think,
sympathized with me, as she said one day: "You know, my son, we have
breakfast at eight o'clock, and I think if the tree were felled some
time before we sat down to table, there would probably be no great
complaint when the family saw the view which the fallen tree
revealed."

So it turned out.

CHAPTER II

THE DIFFICULT ART OF GETTING

To my father I owe a great debt in that he himself trained me to
practical ways. He was engaged in different enterprises; he used to
tell me about these things, explaining their significance; and he
taught me the principles and methods of business. From early boyhood I
kept a little book which I remember I called Ledger A--and this little
volume is still preserved--containing my receipts and expenditures as
well as an account of the small sums that I was taught to give away
regularly.

Naturally, people of modest means lead a closer family life than those
who have plenty of servants to do everything for them. I count it a
blessing that I was of the former class. When I was seven or eight
years old I engaged in my first business enterprise with the
assistance of my mother. I owned some turkeys, and she presented me
with the curds from the milk t