Fruit-Growing Industries. 115 



In Europe, the various fruit-growing centers are apt to be 

 unique. The business is the outgrowth of years and centuries 

 of local effort and tradition. There are difficulties or barriers of 

 races, languages, political systems, and physiographies. 

 Uniformity of methods and results on a large base is practically^ 

 impossible. In North America, we speak one language and 

 live in practicall}" oiie political and social environment. We 

 can therefore have community of ideals. We grow thousands 

 of acres of one variety, if need be, and growers work towards 

 a common end. 



4. The climate of North America is congenial to fruits. 



5. The x\merican farmer has more help from teachers and 

 experimenters than other farmers have. 



A fundamental idea of our agricultural colleges and experi- 

 ment stations is to reach the very man who tills the soil. The 

 teacher and the farmer are in most intimate contact. As 

 a consequence, the fruit-grower quickly assimilates new 

 methods. He is not fettered by tradition. He is bold and con- 

 fident. He feels that he controls his own efforts and destinies. 

 He receives help at every doubtful point. The result of all this 

 is that the general tone of agricultural business is rising, and the 

 farmer is feeling more and more independent because he knows 

 that he can receive aid and advice in his perplexities. Even 

 those persons who depreciate the colleges and stations, are 

 nevertheless greatl}^ dependent upon them, for they share the 

 general mental uplift and partake of the new ideas which diffuse 

 from the teacher and the experimenter into every farmer's 

 meeting, into the schools, and the rural press. Public senti- 

 ment is compelling better farming. 



As a consequence, knowledge of all theories and practices 

 which make for better fruit-growing are being rapidly popular- 

 ized. . It is enough to cite only a single example, — the fact that 

 spraying for the control of insects and diseases is better under- 

 stood and more extensively practiced by the fruit-growers of 

 America than by those of any other countr3\ 



