THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
96.—
The Fifteen Orchards.
In the county of Devon, where the cider comes from, fifteen of
the inhabitants of a village are imbued with an excellent spirit of
friendly rivalry, and a few years ago they decided to settle by actual
experiment a little difference of opinion as to the cultivation of apple
trees. Some said they want plenty of light and air, while others
stoutly maintained that they ought to be planted pretty closely, in order
that they might get shade and protection from cold winds. So they
agreed to plant a lot of young trees, a different number in each
orchard, in order
Each of the fifteen
individuals discovered that every tree in his own orchard bore exactly
the same number of apples. But, what was stranger still, on com-
paring notes they found that the total gathered in every allotment
was almost the same. In fact, if the man with eleven trees had
given one apple to the man who had seven trees, and the man
with fourteen trees had given three each to the men with nine and
thirteen trees, they would all have had exactly the same.
Now, the puzzle is to discover how many apples each would have
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