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STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 45 



WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FRUIT GROWING. 

 BY D. H. GRAY, ELMWOOD. 



Mr. President, Members of the State Horticultural Society: 



I have no doubt that your committee occasionally tind the mak- 

 ing of a good programme no easy task. Sometimes a medley in the 

 midst of stately music is restf ull, and agreeable to the audience, so, 

 perhaps, a paper of the " hit or miss pattern " was deemed by your 

 committee the proper thing for this hour. A man standing in front 

 of an intelligent body of practical horticulturists, seeing in every 

 head a pair of serious eyes asking of him " What do You Know 

 About Fruit Growing?" may be a position quite restfuU and agreea- 

 ble to the audience, but what of the man? He is like a newly 

 landed fish, with too much air for comfort. 



To know, to be in the possession of facts, is valuable to the one 

 who has wisdom and energy sufficient to apply them. ' Tis true 

 that knowledge precedes wisdom, and that wisdom precedes success. 

 But a man's success is not always the full measure of his wisdom, 

 and less often, is a man's success a true measure of his knowledge. 

 There is a great waste of knowledge through the lack of energy, 

 and wisdom, to make application. Mr. R., in the rich district of A, 

 is by far the best informed on subjects bearing on general agricul- 

 ture of any of his neighbors, but his house is crumbling, his barn 

 is a rattle-box, his bars are without posts, while he sits by the spring 

 in the shade of a wild crab tree, watching the graceful curves of 

 smoke as they chase each other from the bowl of his " cob pipe." 



We admire the man who is really in pursuit of knowledge, — as 

 we note his energy in pursuit, we prophesy his attainments, but to 

 see a man dodging around in the blowing current of thought, hop- 

 ing to catch some ideas in the frowsy hairs of an uncombed head, is 

 to see one outside of prophecy. Have you ever tried to catch thistle- 

 down in a brisk wind? A very interesting game to spectators. If 

 you capture one the down is injured in all its delicate tracery. 

 Neither by retirement is knowledge gained, but by a certain condi- 

 tion of the student. A sincere love for the knowledge sought. A 

 man so possessed is always gaining knowledge; energetic effort is the 

 test of his love. To him knowledge seems to attach itself, Avhile he 

 arranges and classifies according to his purposes in life, until it be- 

 comes one with him, and that which he failed to classify, arrange or 

 assimilate, passes off or hang as shreds to his garments. 



''What Do You Know xlbout Fruit Growing?" Yes, I hear 

 your question, and it brings the subject of this paper to my mind in 

 a serious way. I heard Mr. Gough say, when introducing one of his 

 peculiar lectures, that a subject was ''only a peg to hang thoughts 

 on." This peg has room to hold a great many attempts at thought. 

 During my school-days an incident occurred which I will relate. A 



