No. 7. DEPARTiMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 351 



contribute in some manner to the increase of plants, but it is dis- 

 puted which of them is that very increase of food. 1, Nitre; 2, 

 Water; 3, Air; 4, Fire; 5, Earth." Further on in his argument 

 tTiis ancient writer states apparently to his own satisfaction, that it 

 is in reality earth that is the true food of plants. And he says: 

 "Too much earth, or too fine, can never possibly be given to roots; 

 for they never receive so much of it as to surfeit the plant, unless 

 it be deprived of leaves, which, as lungs should purify it," His 

 philosophy of tillage was that it made the earth sufficiently fine so 

 that the roots could take up and assimilate its very minute particles. 

 In other words, as he viewed it the roots of plants literally ate up 

 the earth when it was made sufficiently fine for them to do so. And 

 no doubt these views represented the best information and thought 

 of the times To and 100 years ago. 



But we want to turn now to some of the more living issues. 

 What I have said thus far, however, is by way of stating that in 

 talking about the management of orchards here to-day I have no 

 new story to tell and I don't suppose there is any originality in the 

 manner of presentation. But if I can aid any of you in better 

 understanding the lohy of things, or if I can help you to gain a 

 better "point of view" — a better way of looking at things, my com- 

 ing here will perhaps have been worth while. 



The more I study orchard management, however, and the more 

 I try to tell about it, the more 1 think there is in it — in the telling 

 — a strong similarity to trying to tell how to choose a wife or when 

 to spank the small boy. I should like some intelligent advice re- 

 garding the latter proceeding, myself, but somehow the things 

 that work well in other cases fail flatly in my own experiences. 

 That is just the way it is in managing orchards. No rule-of-thumb 

 methods can be applied. What is good in one case is not necessarily 

 good in another because of differences in conditions. 



Eight at the very outstart there are a number of important con- 

 siderations in which great numbers of fruit growers fail. The 

 American propensity for doing big things is at the bottom of one 

 of the commonest failures and that is in planting too large orchards. 

 The fruit growers of this country have become so fully imbued 

 with the idea of quantity that in great numbers of cases he has 

 lost sight of quality. Where this has occurred the grower, the 

 consumer and the fruit industry have suffered. An orchard is too 

 large when its extent precludes the possibility of applying intensive 

 methods of management. 



The average American fruit grower has been slow to learn the 

 fact that quality of product should dominate every other considera- 

 tion in fruit production; that just as soon as quality is sacrificed to 

 quantity or to any other thing, all the interests concerned are made 

 to suffer thereby. 



In many cases of over-sized orchards the grower realizes that 

 something is the trouble, but he fails to comprehend just where it 

 lies. Or if he does understand it, he hasn't the nerve to apply the 

 remedy. Within the past few years certain sections in some of the 

 Eocky Mountain and Pacific Coast states have become world-wide 

 famous for their apples and other fruits. • This fame has been built 

 up largely on three practices; the intensive management of small 



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