Johnny Appleseed :: essays research papers

Jonathan Chapman, orchardist, was possibly the only man living in Pittsburgh who should be counting his grains at the end of the day, although no other had such agreeable wares to offer as he. But he could not honestly sell young apple trees that would die on the long, slow journeys into the wilderness of the Northwest Territory, so he was obliged to discourage men from buying. Nevertheless he would have as busy as a day as any, just in being a brother to pathfaring man and beast.His nursery and orchard lay on the main traveled road, on the blow of Grants Hill, the very initial bit of rising ground eastward of town. From that super acid and flowery slope the ancient woods had long since retreated, so from rude doorways below, from fo abide clamps above, and from boats on the flanking, bluff boarded streams Johnnys blossoming trees were visible that morning as a drift of dawn. To the nearer view of passes-by the nurseries made and his orchard offered a moment of rest and refresh ment from the feverish activities of the day. Every traveler stopped at his gate, for in a never failing spring that bubbled up, cold and clear in cobble-lined drainage basin by the roadside, Johnny had next water in and out of Pittsburgh.Johnny had lost no time in getting to work. From soil as docile as loose as an ash-heap he pulled forest seedlings and weed-stalks by hand. Tough bushed, briars, and saplings he cut down with his hatchet, grubbed out the roots and with his hoe he destroyed the inumberable cones of annuals that, pushing through the blanket of drifted leaves, ran up every rise in flickers of pale-green fire. The ground cleared over a fraction of an acre on the well-drained slope that face westward toward the river, he raked it free of clods, opened orderly rows of trenches, and put in and covered up his seeds.Until his trees were in bearing he must pay his way by other services in that land of bitter toil and privation, so, in return for food and shelter, he lent a hand at whatever work was afoot. Besides, he must learn how to do everything that new-comers and Indians needed to know in order to conquer their hard circumstances. He helped raise the cabins of green buckeye logs he took his turn at plow or scythe or ax and beat out grain with flails on barn floors or buffalo hide.