36 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



enough from experience what is necessary for a garden. We visit 

 our city cousin, and are surprised and sometimes mortified, that 

 his little garden spot produces more fruit than our own orchard 

 at home. With the most of us the cultivation of an orchard 

 means work — persevering, hard work. The man who spends half 

 a day in digging and preparing a hole for one tree, is quite as 

 likely to receive as much profit in ten years, as the man who digs 

 twenty holes and sets out twenty trees in the same time. When 

 your wife brings along her empty flower pot, she knows what she 

 is about when she tells you to get such and such soil for such a 

 plant, and she closes her demand by emphatically declaring that 

 you miiat get the richest earth you can find. (Jheat her in this tiling 

 if you can. 



The more nearly we approach our high ideal in the cultivation 

 of an orchard, the shorter the time before trees will be in a bear- 

 ing condition. A difference of several years can, in this way, be 

 easily accounted for ; and as we have but one short life to live, it 

 is of much personal consequence that we see the fruit of our labors 

 as soon as possible. I think I may lay it down as a general rule, 

 that the higher the degree of cultivation, the shorter the time necessary 

 for the production of fruit. Not only is time an important con- 

 sideration, but I think I may safely give another general rule, that 

 the higher the degree of cultivation, the larger and better the quality 

 of the fruit. As the quantity of fruit is an important consideration, 

 still another general rule may be given, that the higher the degree 

 of cultivation the more abundant ivill be the crop. 



Cultivation of the Habit of Observation. 



One of the first things necessary in the education of a child is 

 the cultivation of the habit of observation. With this habit once 

 formed he never becomes stupid, because he is busy seeing things 

 and reflecting over what he has observed. The same is true of 

 men. I have noticed this as the most prominent trait in every 

 gardener, pomologist or naturalist that I ever saw. This faculty 

 is especially necessary while preparing the soil for an orchard, as 

 well as in watching the growth of the tree. The conditions of 

 things are so various, and the processes often so hidden, that we 

 shall constantly find something new to add to our knowledge and 

 increase our skill. 



