226 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



kick of a mild tempered cow, sprawling the milker on the ground 

 and spilling all the milk, and put him in much the same exas- 

 perated frame of mind. If he had been compelled to write a 

 treatise at that time, it would have contained warnings against 

 raising onions, with the suggestive title "Three Acres Enough." 

 But this was not the only mishap. Cabbages were plenty and 

 the price low. A part of that crop was made into sauerkraut, on 

 the supposition that somewhere in this broad land the Germans 

 would become purchasers; but the universal reply to correspond- 

 ence on this subject was, " no demand." Finally it was offered to 

 his cows, but they refused to eat cabbage in this form. His mar- 

 gins were all swept away, and a balance of several hundred 

 dollars appeared on the wrong side of the ledger. Probably he 

 did better the next season, unlike some who buy experience at 

 great cost, and are then no wiser for the outlay. 



It is a very common idea with people engaged in other business, 

 living in the vicinity of cities and large villages, that if they were 

 employed in our pursuits as tillers of the soil, they would weave 

 into their practice such business principles that they would be- 

 come at once shining examples for others to imitate, but we have 

 seen some such men after having really undertaken the job, al- 

 most as much embarrassed and disappointed in their operations 

 before they got through their first season's work as a young man 

 who thought he had a call to preach ; without preparation he en- 

 tered the pulpit, in accordance with an old-time notion of some of 

 his brethren relying on inspiration as a motive power to carry him 

 through his first sermon. Opening the bible bap hazard, he se- 

 lected a text with considerable confidence, but then becoming 

 greatly embarrassed, he paused until drops of sweat stood thickly 

 on his forehead. Finally, unable to proceed, he closed the book, 

 with the sage remark : "My brethren, if any of you have got a 

 call to preach, I wish you would come up into this pulpit and 

 try it." 



Northwestern experience in fruit culture was more dearly pur- 

 chased in early times than later. Nearly forty years ago a farmer 

 from New York, living near Fort Atkinson, Wis., raised quite a crop 

 of peaches and invited his widely scattered neighbors to a feast of 



