Signor Dardoni had some forty acres and there wasn’t a square foot which wasn’t under cultivation. Ten of them were in an apple orchard--the only orchard in town that produced commercially. He had taken native trees when they weren’t more than half alive with their clutter of dead limbs, and trimmed them up, grafted them, and made them pay. That one accomplishment alone ought to have distinguished him in the village. It ought to have set an example if nothing else. And yet I found orchard after orchard going to waste and producing nothing but cider apples. Even these weren’t picked, and Dardoni made another neat income every fall buying them on the trees for a song and turning them into new cider and vinegar. He had done this for five years and everyone knew that it paid and yet no one thought of following his example and making the same use of their own waste apples. That’s a fair illustration of the difference in spirit between the two races. Another ten or fifteen acres he kept for hay, raising enough for his own use and sometimes enough to sell. On another strip he raised his own corn and wheat for fodder, being the only man in town who didn’t spend his good money at the hay and grain store where corn went at times way over the dollar mark. Here again the natives had a working example before their very eyes and yet took no advantage of it. Another ten acres Dardoni devoted to garden truck for the near-by market, reaping every spring a handsome profit. There wasn’t a native in the whole village who tried even to raise more than enough for himself and many didn’t do that even when they had back door yards big enough to supply them for the year. The rest of his land he used for his chicken and egg business, although he had some fifty pigs which ran loose most everywhere. Of course he also kept cows--a half dozen of them, selling the cream to the local creamery (which, incidentally, was not owned by local capital) and using the buttermilk for his pigs and chickens. The pigs kept his orchard in good condition and the cows and horses furnished him with dressing for his other land.