SUMMER MEETING AT f'HILLICOTHE. 25 



iSr. F. Murray then read the following excellent paper on 



MISTAKES IN HORTICULTURE AND HOW TO AVOID THEM. 



We trust that no one wiil, for a moment, catch the idea from the caption of 

 this paper that we design it to be a panacea for all the mistakes in our profession, 

 but, after thirty years' experience in the open field of horticulture, in which we 

 have made many mistakes, we humbly trust that we may be pardoned for attempt- 

 ing to point out some of our mistakes, and show by the light of our costly experi- 

 ence how others may avoid them. Mistakes, although defined as unintentional 

 errors, are always unpleasant to ponder over by those who make them. Yet we 

 have much greater admiration for that class who have the push and energy to 

 always dare to do something, even if they do make some mistakes, than for those 

 who stand idly looking on, with hands folded over their doleless souls, and ever 

 ready at the discovery of the least mistake by their fellow-men to shout, ' 'There, 

 J told you so!" Mistakes are frequent in all professions of life; they are made by 

 the wisest and best of men, and some of them, although at first sight seem trivial' 

 have turned the course of nations. 



As a dawdrop oa tbe tender plant 



Has warped the giaat oak forever, 

 And a pebble in the strea oalet se int 



Has. tamed the course of many a river, 



So with our mistakes : our little unintentional errors often change the whole 

 course of life for good or evil, and more often for the latter. There is an idea too 

 common to many people that most any one who takes a notion that there is money 

 in fruit-growing can, without study or practice, plunge into the pursuit of horti- 

 culture and in a short time make a success. This is a great mistake at the all- 

 important point of starting ,and should be corrected soon as possible, for I know of 

 no profession in which it is more necessary to have a thorough knowledge to insure 

 success than horticulture. 



The horticulturist is from the very nature of his profession compelled to deal 

 largely in futures. He plants an orchard not for this or next year, but ten or twenty 

 years hence. He may carefully consult the public taste for fruit at the present 

 time and cast his eye over the markets in which he expects to sell, and may deter- 

 mine with some degree of accuracy what and how much the piarket will now take, 

 but to determine what the market will demand in ten or twenty years from now is 

 quite a difierent thing. In this we have but one lamp by which we are guided, 

 and that is tbe lamp of past experience. And just as far as we can cause this 

 lamp to cast its rays into the dark and uncertain future, we may follow with a feel- 

 ing of safety. Beyond this we go at a venture— must walk by faith, not by sight. 



Twenty-one years ago we planted 500 budded peach trees in Holt county. 

 Some good friends warned us that it was a mistake because they would never bear. 

 Others said it was a mistake because peaches would be so plenty that they would 

 not sell at a paying price. But in spite of all predictions, the fifth summer from 

 planting brought our first crop, which netted §175. So we concluded that peach- 

 growing in Northwest Missouri was a success and no mistake, and planted 2500 

 more trees. The first orchard continued to pay well for a few years. One year it 

 netted us $900. but a series of hard winters set in and damaged our new orchard so 

 that it never more than paid expenses. Some said it was a mistake to have planted 

 so many, but with our success on the first and the impossibility of knowing what 

 our future winters may prove to peach orchards, we felt excusable. One thing 

 however, we learned by the experience is that it is a mistake becatise peaches pay 



