56 STATE HORTICJLTURAL SOCIETY. 



their discussions throw a flood of information all over the land, solving the 

 knotty problems, and when such i^apers as the Allegan Gazette and Mich- 

 igan Farmer gather the cream of the whole, print and spread it before the 

 people in such an entertaining way, no fruitgrower practices economy who 

 saves his dollar and loses all these good things for a whole year. 



If I were to formulate a method for a man to remain poor all his life, I 

 should advise him to economize at every point, work very hard, early and 

 late, 'Utilizing every moment at hard, unceasing labor with his hands, but 

 never to stop to think or read the thoughts of others. Our great men 

 have always made themselves great as thinkers. 



I once knew a man who never commenced his work till an hour or so 

 after, and always quit before, his neighbors. He found time to go to all 

 public meetings, always had time to do a neighborly kindness, and means 

 to relieve distress wherever he found it, and yet he was always in advance 

 with his work. His secret is revealed in three words: economy of time. 

 His work was well planned. He never moved till he knew precisely what 

 he wanted to do. No more was undertaken than could be done at the 

 right time and in the right way. His deliberations enabled him to act 

 with a clear mind and a correct idea of what he wanted to accomplish, and 

 no mistakes were made to be corrected at expense. The best results were 

 always obtained. 



WHAT MUST BE DONE? 



Fruitgrowing involves much painstaking and labor, and the man who 

 saves a day's work in the preparation of his soil, and thereby loses three 

 days in the after cultivation, is not practicing economy. 



We must learn to make the rows straight, to use tools that will do all 

 the hoeing with the horse, and to set plants and trees that possess the 

 greatest fruiting power. There are few fruitgrowers who have given this 

 subject proper attention. They waste their time on that which, in the 

 nature of things, can give no returns. They should lay their horticultural 

 books aside and attend the fat-stock show and give attention to the 

 methods of breeding and improving animals. 



I would no more set a plant of whose history and pedigree I knew noth- 

 ing, than I would use a scrub animal if I were breeding stock. If we 

 study the analogy of plant and animal life we shall find the lines run 

 parallel and very close together. The law that governs in reproduction in 

 the one obtains with equal force in the other. 



When a plant fails to respond to liberal and generous care, there is 

 something wrong and we must use the same remedy that we would with an 

 inferior animal — send it to the shambles or the brush pile. I firmly 

 believe our haphazard methods of propagating are responsible for the 

 want of liberal success with half our growers. With them a plant is a 

 plant, a variety is a variety. They either forgot, or never knew, that all 

 plants and trees propagated by budding, grafts, cuttings, or layers are only 

 the separate buds of the one original plant, and that when one of these 

 buds becomes seminally exhausted through the process of seed production, 

 that for a long time at least it will throw its energies into foliage and not 

 fruit. It will take time to recuperate. 



STUDY YOUR PLANTS. 



The Warfield strawberry has taken the highest rank as a market berry, 

 and yet you hear of its failure with many growers. Its great value being 



