WINTER MEETING AT CARTHAGE. «L 



THE fruit-growers' MISTAKES. 



It is human to err, and has been since Adam and Eve, the first fruit-growers, 

 made the fatal mistake of plucking and (ating the forbidden fruit, for the sin of 

 which they were driven from the beautiful garden of Eden, and the tree of life 

 was guarded by a llaming sword lest man should return, eat of its fruit and live 

 forever. And it has been a subject of much speculation whether or not if Adam 

 and Eve had not eaten the forbidden fruit, their descendants would have continued 

 in perfect obedience to God's laws, and led a sinless life, free from all mistakes. 

 For my part, I have no idea that such a condition would have followed the perfect 

 obedience of our first parents ; doubtless there would have been many Adams and 

 Eves later on that would have done a? bad or much worse than the original pair. 

 Then let us willingly accept this old world as we find it with all its imperfections, 

 and fight manfully to correct our own mistakes rather than waste our time in spec- 

 ulating over the eftect of original sin, or continued original innocence, or grum- 

 bling over certain conditions that surround us, which we are wholly unable to 

 change. The history of our race in all ages of the world records the sins and 

 mistakes of the very best and wisest men in all professions of life 



Why should we then at this late day stop to talk or write about the fruit- 

 growers' mistakes? Simply that others may be warned to avoid the blunders we 

 have made. It is quite natural for man to tell in glowing terms of his wonderful 

 successes, but in justice to those who shall live after we are gone, let us make a 

 true and faithful record of our mistakes, and leave a signal light burning at every 

 dark and dangerous point we pass in making life's journey. If to make a mistake 

 is to err in judgment, how very important that our judgment should be based on 

 a most thorough knowledge of our profession, and not merely a knowledge gleaned 

 from text-books by able authors of fifty years ago. Then fruit was grown for the 

 local market, and the knowledge that insured success then is almost worthless 

 now. We are living in a wonderful age, an age of the most wonderful growth and 

 development that the world has ever beheld, an age of steam and electricity. From 

 a local and commercial standpoint, the nations of Europe are closer to us now than 

 our btates were to each other fifty years ago. Our fruit market is no longer the 

 home village a^d the home country, but the great cities and nations of the world ; 

 and the fruit-grower who now fails to observe the mighty evolutions going on in 

 the world's great drama, and refuses to join the procession, and keep step to the 

 music of the world's progress, will make a mistake and find himself left to become 

 a moss-covered fossil to mark the spot where the world left him. 



Forty years ago the writer began to read and study such books as were to be 

 had on fruit growing. Downing, Cole, Barry, Elliott, Warder, Thomas and others, 

 and improved the lessons learned by practical hard work in the nursery and 

 orchard, and thus learned how to grow fruit, and what was best to plant in the 

 Ohio river valley. But don't understand me that I made no mistakes, for I did, 

 and many of them, too ; but after seventeen years of constant labor in the fruit busi- 

 ness, and most of that under a good, practical instructor, I was working my way to 

 success, when a total failure in the fruit crop occurred, caused by late frost, quite 

 common to that country, and I came to Missouri for the first time, to visit relatives; 

 found plenty of fine apples, bought two car loads at $2 and $3 a barrel, shipped 

 them to Wheeling, W. Va., and sold them for $6 and $8 a barrel. 1 then con- 

 cluded to change, come west and grow up with the country. Sold my small farm 

 for $62 per acre, came to Holt county. Mo., and bought much better land for $15 



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