110 STATE HORTICULTUR.\L SOCIETY. 



It is said that a man, graduated from our best engineering schools, is 

 actually a hindrance to the work in a draughting room for the first few months 

 he is there. The doctor who has just taken his degree from a medical college 

 is not given the responsible cases that are tendered the one who, besides 

 his preliminary training, has seen years of careful practice. When we were 

 studying arithmetic in the grammar grades we found many problems that 

 gave us trouble but which were greatly cleared up when we began dealing 

 with numbers in an abstract manner as was practiced in algebra. Now 

 the draughtsman's experience in the shop does not argue that his schooling 

 was a failure, nor the doctor's inability to secure the confidence of the com- 

 munity at once does not prove that the college he attended was teaching its 

 students false doctrine as regards the practice of medicine ; but both simply 

 show that besides the general education that has been acquired a specific 

 or practical education or training is demanded. And, on the other hand, 

 the specific problems of arithmetic are greatly simplified by the general 

 terms of algebra, representing the help given by a general preparation in 

 the solution of specific work. A fruit man may grow good fruit and know 

 simply his own orchard, but the chances are that he can grow superior fruit 

 if besides understanding his own trees he has an appreciation of the principles 

 of fruit growing. Then again, a person who has learned the principles of 

 fruit growing is not insured success until he may have acquired practical 

 knowledge. 



Next, we ask for the sources of our general horticultural education. These 

 need but be suggested — the vast amount of knowledge gathered by our 

 experiment stations, by such conventions as we are now holding, by our 

 agricultural colleges, by the press, publishers and men in attendance at public 

 gatherings. By putting together the knowledge gathered through these dif- 

 ferent avenues some of our broadminded horticulturalists have deducted gen- 

 eral laws which serve as a general guide for all horticulturists and which we 

 are accustomed to call the principles of fruit growing. We can learn these 

 principles in different ways — from journals, bulletins or books in college or 

 l3y travelling about to observe trees growing under widely different conditions. 

 The latter method is more expensive than the most of us can bear, but it 

 is very desirable so far as possible to carry out ; the former methods are good 

 and should be carried on in connection with both of the others ; but a course 

 in school is preferable, since besides the information secured there is the 

 added inspiration from the personality of the teacher that is sure to ever 

 after move the recipient to a sterner battle for success. If any here are 

 considering the fruit growing business, either as a main occupation or simply 

 as a side issue to some other calhng, they should not hesitate to secure from 

 our own agricultural college a description of the courses offered. If time 

 does not permit the taking of a regular course of four j^ears, read with hope- 

 ful mind the splendid provision that has been made in the short course of 

 two weeks this winter. Then do not forget the experiment station bulletins. 

 Too many of us are too sparing in reading these publications ; and there are 

 men who avoid reading them. There is a man living in Michigan, who, 

 because he understood that our station once sent out advice that afterwards 

 did not prove good, rejects all the information the station publishes. He 

 was not ready to admit that he would quit walking if he slipped down on 

 an icy walk, but agreed that the logic was quite similar. But to refuse 

 the knowledge contained in the bulletins sent out by the different stations, 

 especially those where conditions are like unto those in Michigan, and by 

 the United States department of agriculture, is to refuse one of the best 



