How To Plant A Tree—According To Ellen White

In search for information and guidance in putting in the orchards on her little farm and on the college estate, Ellen White was directed to a Mr. Mosely, a successful fruit grower.WV 334.4

On several occasions Mr. Mosely came over to plant trees and give instruction on orchard planting and care. The virgin land was well prepared. It took six spans of bullocks pulling an immense plow to break up the unworked soil. As she watched, Mrs. White marveled, and wrote that the bullocks were “under discipline, and will move at a word and a crack of the whip, which makes a sharp report, but does not touch them” (Letter 42, 1895). At an early point in the tree planting, she had some input, about which she reminisced a little more than a decade later:WV 334.5

While we were in Australia, we adopted the ... plan ... of digging deep trenches and filling them in with dressing that would create good soil. This we did in the cultivation of tomatoes, oranges, lemons, peaches, and grapes.WV 334.6

The man of whom we purchased our peach trees told me that he would be pleased to have me observe the way they were planted. I then asked him to let me show him how it had been represented in the night season that they should be planted.WV 334.7

I ordered my hired man to dig a deep cavity in the ground, then put in rich dirt, then stones, then rich dirt. After this he put in layers of earth and dressing until the hole was filled.... He [the nurseryman] said to me, “You need no lesson from me to teach you how to plant the trees” (Letter 350, 1907).WV 335.1

Thus from the very start Ellen White was able to accomplish one of her objectives: to teach the people in the community what could be done by employing intelligent agricultural procedures. This was not just her own determined, ambitious plan. “The light given me from the Lord,” she told Edson, “is that whatever land we occupy is to have the very best kind of care and to serve as an object lesson to the colonials of what the land will do if properly worked” (Letter 126, 1895).WV 335.2

Rather jubilantly she wrote to Dr. Kellogg in late August of the influence of her work at Cooranbong, and of the appraisal of one expert on the quality of the land, a point her ears were attuned to:WV 335.3

I came to this place and began work on my place so earnestly that it inspired all with fresh zeal, and they have been working with a will, rejoicing that they have the privilege. We have provoked one another to zeal and good works.WV 335.4

The school workers were afraid I would plant the first trees, and now both they and I have the satisfaction of having the first genuine orchards in this vicinity. Some of our trees will yield fruit next year, and the peaches will bear quite a crop in two years. Mr. Mosely, from whom we bought our trees, lives about twenty miles [32 kilometers] from here. He has an extensive and beautiful orchard. He says that we have splendid fruitland.WV 335.5

Well, the school has made an excellent beginning. The students are learning how to plant trees, strawberries, et cetera (Letter 47a, 1895).WV 335.6