66 American Horticultural Society. 



I'ould be grown uitoii it, and commenced improving it iit a rajiid rate. After 

 he had been ujwn it a number of years he told me one day about an immense 

 crop of potatoes that he had just stored away. After giving me the entire 

 history of how he had prepared the land, planted, cultivated and* harvested 

 them, which, by the way, was one of the largestyields that I had at that time 

 ever heard of, he concluded his narration with the folh^wing words: " But 

 they cost me two dollars per bushel for every bushel of them." Tiioy were 

 at that time worth from thirty-live to forty cents per bushel in the market. 



You will doubtless say that if this is ' intensive cultivation " the less we 

 have of it the better for us. Yet, that man was a useful one in the com- 

 munity. He demonstrated to those around him that those poor, worn-out 

 farms could be taken and made to yield bountifully. But he was not a prac- 

 tical farmer. He wanted large crops regardless of cost, and he succeeded 

 in getting them. It remained for those of us who were, or claimed to be, 

 not only good, but practical, cultivators to solve the problem of how to grow 

 such crops at a profit, instead of a loss. 



Now comes the question, Can such cultivation be made practical? or, 

 in other words, is first-class cultivation profitable when conducted by ener- 

 getic, intelligent and practical men? 



I have no hesitation in answering this question in the affirmative — 

 whether it be applied upon the farm, in the garden, or upon the immense 

 fruit orchards of California. The same general principles will apply in each 

 case, although the practice must vary in accordance with the wants of the 

 soil, the diflerence of our climate, the difference in our products. N'ot only 

 this, but the same products need very diflerent treatment in dillerent por- 

 tions of our country. For instance, you raise strawberries, and so do we of 

 the far northwest. You are treating us with your berries in midwinter; 

 ours at the same time are quietly sleeping in the frozen earth, buried be- 

 neath their covering of snow or ice, or perhaps both. But come to us next 

 June, and, if we have our usual good yield, we will show you acres of them 

 that, in yield, beauty and quality, have never been excelled in the United 

 States. We will feast you upon them as generously, and try to treat you as 

 handsomely, as you have treated us, although the latter will be a very hard 

 thing to do. 



In those cases where the yields have been the largest and of the best 

 quality, it has been to a greater or less degree the result of '■ intensive culti- 

 vation ; " not of the siime character, but of that kind and character demanded 

 by the fruit in diflerent soils, climates and gen(>ral conditions. 



Here again comes the question of degrees. How far may we safely go 

 in incurring expense, and have reason to expect its return with a fair ad- 

 dition to remunerate us for our care, labor, etc. ? For instance: If I am 

 preparing land for strawberries, I select a piece thai I know to be very rich 

 and what would generally be called in splendid condition. Yet it is rare, 

 indeed, that I spend lees than from $40 to $50 per acre in its preparation be- 

 fore aplant isset upon it. I do this with perfect confidence, believing that not 



