288 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cut less in the future, and we must be prepared to meet them. You will 

 find men in some of these sections who are planting large orchards, 

 investing large capital, either individually or in corporations, and having 

 sharp, shrewd horticulturists to manage them, and they are studying 

 business methods all the way through, and it is to meet such com- 

 petition as that that the peach-grower of the future or the peach- 

 grower of the present day, who proposes to carry on his work in 

 the future, must contend. But there is one thing certain — we must 

 wake up. The old-time methods (or lack of methods) in- peach-grow- 

 ing must be done away with; there is no question about that. The 

 peach is one of the most beautiful and delicious of fruits, and it is known 

 by the company it keeps, pretty thoroughly; and the peach-grower, too, 

 and he shows it in his peaches as quickly as he will show it anywhere 

 •else. We must wake up to the way we are heading, to what the possi- 

 bilities are. But how to wake up I can not tell you in every way, but 

 there are a great many ways. 



The first thing, it seems to me, is to take an interest in our business 

 from a business standpoint, study it in every detail as business men. 

 Now, you have successful manufacturers here in this place, and you have 

 successful manufacturers all over the state, and they are meeting sharp 

 competition everywhere, and the men who are standing up to the front 

 are the ones that are doing their business thoroughly and well in every 

 detail and are on the alert to reduce cost and increase the quality of their 

 product, and in every way to hold to the front. We as fruitgrowers, as 

 a majority, have lacked that. I saw a good many Michigan peaches in 

 the markets last year, in all of our eastern markets, and I was astonished 

 that you dared to pay freight on such trash, that you dared to — a shrewd 

 business man would never have dared put it in a car and ship it a thou- 

 sand miles unless he had good backing somewhere. 



The first thing in my mind necessary to the development of fine, per- 

 fect fruit (and that of course is the first thing toward successful manage- 

 ment of the business) is to love the fruits and soil for their own sakes. 

 Life is pretty short, and it is pretty precious, and it seems to me 

 that every man and woman's time should be devoted to something that 

 is pleasurable; that we ought to enjoy something in our labor. If a 

 man, it seems to me, is on a farm and does not love the farm, he does 

 not love the ground, the soil, or some of the animals that may be fed 

 thereon, or the trees and plants that grow out of it — if he does not get a 

 real love in close, daily contact with those things, he is out of place on 

 a farm and he would better sell if for what he can get, and start in 

 somewhere else and make room for a better man, partly for the sake of 

 the other man and partly for the sake of the soil, but more particularly 

 for his own sake. I believe every man and woman in good health (and 

 you must have good health if you are in the fruitgrowing business because 

 you love it) should arise to his or her daily avocation as going to some 

 pleasurable work, something that is enjoyable — not grudgingly. In pro- 

 ducing peaches you are making a business of it, and in making a busi- 

 ness of it you first need to have a love of the tree itself and a love of the 

 fruit itself if you are ever going to bring either to its highest perfec- 

 tion, and the perfection that it must have in the future to bring ns the 



