350 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



lie had to be protected from himself. That man had a brother who lived 

 in the same state; he was far from a millionaire; he had a family, a beau- 

 tiful home, and he was a man to whom every man in the commuuity 

 came when in trouble, a man whom all in the community felt 

 they could rely upon, could trust, and could get help from; he was loved 

 by all who knew him; he was not rich; but he was comfortable, lived com- 

 fortably and happily. A certain person, in speaking with the millionaire 

 brother, asked how his brother was doing. " Oh, he has made a perfect 

 failure of life; he had just as good a chance as I had, and I don't believe 

 he is worth |20,000." Now, which of these two men — one life happy 

 in a family, the delight and help and comfort of all his neighbors; the 

 other, unloved and dying in an asylum — which of those men is the suc- 

 cessful one? I think the paper is perfectly right. We should go to suc- 

 cessful men, but we should be a little careful whom we call successful 

 men. (Applause.) 



CULTURAL REQUISITES FOR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 

 BY PROF. W. W. TRACY OF DETROIT. 



If I were to bring in here a collection of vegetables of any kind, or if 

 I were to gather a collection of men who were successful, one with celery, 

 one with turnips, one with cabbages, four out of five of the people who 

 came to see their exhibits would try to get off to one side and ask those 

 successful men, " What is it that you do to raise such celery, what is it 

 you do to raise such cabbages?" They all have the belief that that man 

 has some secret by which he is able to accomplish the results which they 

 see. He does have something, but that something is a deep sort of regard, 

 the same sort of study for the plant which our friend from Connecticut 

 has given to the peach, the same sort of regard and study and love for the 

 plant that our president has put into his work, and without which one 

 can not succeed. That is the great requisite for success with most of our 

 garden vegetables. 



Now, the suggestion has been thrown out here, and the question has 

 been asked, whether plants have nerves; and some one went further and 

 suggested that possibly they have souls. Now, that thing I don't know; 

 I can not answer as to that, but this I do know, that no man can succeed 

 in raising good roses who does not love them, no man can succeed in 

 growing good fuchsias who does not love them, no man can succeed in 

 growing good vegetables who does not love them and is not willing to 

 study, and it is just that point I want to raise. In order that you may 

 understand just what kind of study I would bring out, I want to refer to 

 a few of our garden vegetables. 



Now, here are our beans, and I want to interject right here that no two 

 plants need the same treatment, no two plants can be treated the same 

 way and succeed equally well. Tallow and lard are not so very different. 

 They are both fats deposited by different animals. The two animals are 

 not very different in some characteristics. But I was down in Kansas, 

 the other day, and I saw in every town I passed through, in the great 



