74 STATE nOKTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



come it will be \\rell iiiid still better if they do not. I :im inclined to the 

 opinion that ii leading specialty for which one is best fitted and the location 

 and surroundings are best adapted will generally prove the most successful for 

 the reason that the cost of production is comparatively less, and when one's 

 name becomes known in connection it allords a better market for his produc- 

 tions. I do not advocate one specialty and tliat alone, because one's yearly 

 income might be cut short by some unusual disaster, but a leading specialty 

 with sufficient other crops to help well along in tlio support of a family. 

 After one has his grounds occupied with certain crops, and has procured the 

 necessary implements it is a great mistake to make a change just because some 

 one has made more money f(jr a single season v.'ith something else. And yet 

 after one has followed a specialty for several years and finds that by a change 

 of established conditions he is not succeeding as well as formerly, and is con- 

 vinced by actual observation in his locality that a change is desirable, let him 

 make it. When one embarks in any enterprise with a great outlay for per- 

 manent apparatus or conveniences if he docs not lose any money the first 

 year he may be pretty sure of good profits afterwards with less outlay and 

 greater experience. Some men can plan faster than they can execute, others 

 can execute better than they can plan, and when these two very desirable 

 qualities are combined in the same person they should always be driven tan- 

 dem with the i)lanning well ahead but not allowed to break the traces and 

 skip out of reach. 



Mr. D. L. Garvcr next read an essay on 



PEOPLE AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS. 



"Wisdom is justified of her children, and a man may be known by his sur- 

 roundings," in fact a man's surroundings that he makes himself are his exact 

 measure. The farmer is an exceedingly practical man, and not very orna- 

 mental. The nature of his calling is such that he is obliged to study economy, 

 but there is no occupation in which one can combine the useful and ornamental 

 so advantageously as on the farm. And it will be my purpose in this paper to 

 give some hints at a few of tlie many ways by which the home surroundings 

 can be made both useful and ornamental. 



In this northern climate a good wind-break, if grown at a proper distance 

 and in the right direction from the dwelling, is a very cheap luxury. And 

 this may be made with our native forest evergreens, of which the hemlock and 

 arbor vitre are the best. Arbor vitre is very easily grown, but hemlock must 

 be well sheltered from the sun and wind for several years until the body of 

 the tree is properly protected by the foliage; then it may be trained in any 

 shape you wisli, and if properly managed it goes as far toward making the 

 home surroundings look cosy and comfortable as any other one thing about a 

 place. But if there is anything in farm life that a farmer may be justly proud 

 of it is a well kept orchard. It combines the ornamental with the useful in 

 perhaps a higher degree than any other thii^.g that goes to make up the home. 

 To make the best selection of apples, })eaches, plums, pears, and grapcf', and 

 properly cultivate and train them requires as much judgment and fine distinc- 

 tion as it would to fpialify a man for a lawyer or a judge. 



A few well trained grape vines about a tlwelling, and no matter whether in 

 the country or in tiie vilhige or city, there is always room enough, some place 

 about the dwelling for grape vines, and the kitchen slops, if properly applied, 

 will produce grapes enough for tiie use of the family. 



