530 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



grow tliem. The man who tills the soil should live on the cream of the 

 earth, and he may ir he will. Take the possibilities and work out how 

 you can do. The man who tills the soil should be the best fed man on 

 earth. When people in the city buy things they do not know where they 

 came from. A fish caught out of the water and put in the frying pan is 

 lots better than one that has been salted down. You meet the greatest 

 privation when you go to the city. I have experienced it and my wife 

 talks about it constantly. You get things from market that ought to be 

 fresh out of the ground or cut off the trees or bushes, but they are not 

 always so. 



If there is a will there is a way. The way is open for every man, 

 woman and child to be successful in the raising of fruit. There is no 

 excuse. Some of the neighbors like sweet apples. They have Sweet Junes 

 planted. A little later Golden Sweet, which will be ripening this month 

 and on into September is good. A little later you will have the Randol, 

 a sweet apple of the highest charactei*. 



The peach is not so well adapted to this region. There are some locali- 

 ties where it does very well, but generally it is a failure in Northern Indi- 

 ana, compared with the peach-gi'owing parts of the country, such as the 

 peach regions in Michigan, Georgia, Texas, Maryland, Connecticut, and 

 other like regions where they grow by the thousands of acres. Of course 

 you can have a few at home. 



This is a good region for cherries and plums. You may have a num- 

 ber of varieties of these and there is no excuse for not having them. The 

 quince can also be grown here. 



We might leave the orchard fruits now and go on to the grapes and see 

 what a large list of fine grapes we have. We have many different varie- 

 ties. 



I am proud to tell you that my great grandfather was one of the fore- 

 most fruit growers of his time. They came from Pennsylvania in the lat- 

 ter part of the century, about 1796. He grafted seedlings apple trees, 

 and he had to take all kinds of chances as to what kind of a variety they 

 would produce. We do not have to contend with such things as that 

 now. We have lists so long that they are cumbersome. We have so 

 many in size, color, form, flavor, that we can choose to suit anybody and 

 everybody. It Is simply wonderful even in this immediate locality what 

 one can do, and that Is the question that most concerns you right 

 here. And that is "What can we do right here?" That is what we 

 want to think about and what we want to work out. I presume that 

 this will come up at other times of this discussion, and perhaps those 

 present may have something to say then. I will say for your encourage- 

 ment that fruit growing is the most estimable occupation in the world. 

 It is the poetry of agriculture. Northern Indiana is an excellent fruit 

 region and you ought to make use of these great possibilities, and I hope 

 you will not forget them. 



