THE AXNUxVL MEETING. 161 



welcomed the State Society to the villiige of Ailegan, and tendered to the 

 visiting members the hospitality of the town. 



President Lyon replied brielly, hoping that while the society in its meeting 

 was expecting to aid the fruit growers of tlie immediate vicinity, the members 

 would not forget that the society was at the same time gathering strength for 

 further labors. 



The first subject on the i^rogramme was then called up, to wit: 



HABITS OF OBSERVATION A PKACTICAL ASSISTANCE TO THE FIIUIT- 



GKOWEPv. 



Mr. Pobert T. Mcxsaughton, of Jackson, first responded with an essay, as 

 follows : 



It seems almost presumption for one who has had so limited a time for ob- 

 servation in the field of fruit raising, to attempt to advance any ideas which shall 

 be of interest to men whose experience and study in the w^ork are reckoned by long 

 years; but our worthy secretary, it seems, has thought it worth while to allow 

 me the expression of a few thoughts on this subject, which at the outset, let 

 me say, seems to afford opportunity rather for comparison of similar thoughts 

 than for a discussion of different views of the topic; for no extended remarks 

 will be necessary to show those present that it is an assistance to a man in any 

 business to keep his eyes open to what is going on around him. There are 

 always, in any occupation, plenty of little matters that need timely attention 

 to keep the machinery of business running smoothly. A man must be observ- 

 ing of all these trifling things, and prompt to give attention to them, or his 

 business will continually seem to drive and hurry him, whereas, to be satisfied 

 with his work he must be behind it, driving it along promptly, and getting 

 ready to do everything before it requires doing. To do this he needs to be ob- 

 servant and watchful of all sides of his work, and to make this practice of ob- 

 servation liabitual. Perhaps this is especially true of a fruit raiser. Some 

 one lias said that to till the soil and do it well needs more brains and general 

 knowledge than any other business. Perhaps this is so. At all events, the 

 fruit grower, to do the right thing at the right time, needs the knowledge 

 Avhich is the result of experience in observing; and experience is only valuable 

 as it ogives one the result of his observations. 



Now, how must we observe, and what? To answer this question: Let me 

 suppose a man just starting an apple orchard. He wants to do his work just 

 as nearly right as possible, and, if he has had opportunity for observation in 

 this line of work, and has observed well, he w'ill be familiar with all the little 

 details of the various operations of enriching the ground and laying it out, and 

 setting the trees, and will know just the right and the wrong way to do it all. 

 Now, to the man who has had no experience — and this means no observation, 

 since any experience through which one might pass is of little benefit unless the 

 good to be got from it is observed and remembered — to such a man the opera- 

 tions would be full of difficulties, and he would find himself constantly making 

 mistakes. Careful observation as to the cause of these mistakes would be of 

 practical assistance to him if he ever had the same work to do again, which he 

 very likely would have before long, if he could not bring the result of the habit 

 of observation to bear upon it in the first place. This preliminary work, how- 

 ever, a man is supposed to do but once with the same orchard ; but not so with 

 the cultivating, pruning, destroying insects, keeping his trees healthy, thinning 



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