Secretary's Budget. 297 



come to visit they can take a little time without having to give an 

 account of it, or deduct the price from the few dollars due them 

 at the end of the week or month. It is worth much to a man to 

 be employed at home, to spend his days with his family rather than 

 in some mill, shop or factory. Those who have children may justly 

 consider it a great advantage to be able to employ them during the 

 summer vacation, when so many children are running wild, and 

 laying the foundation of bad habits which will cling to them for 

 life. 



" Fruit growers have more leisure than most working people. 

 In .the winter they can take time to plan for the next season, and 

 get everything ready for work. They can attend important horti- 

 cultural meetings, doing good and getting good ; and just here is a 

 point worth noticing. Fruit growers have no secrets ; the proceed- 

 ings of their meetings are published to the world. There is no 

 monopoly in this, as in many other pursuits. The man with a 

 single acre, or even a village lot, can engage in small fruit culture, 

 and is quite likely to realize better returns for the amount invested 

 than one with a hundred times as much. 



''As fruit growers have a general knowledge of horticulture, 

 they can do more to make home beautiful than any other class in 

 moderate circumstances ; and for the same reason they and their 

 families have a more liberal supply of the good things produced by 

 the soil than other people. Fruit growers are intelligent ; they do 

 more reading, writing and thinking, and cause more printers' ink 

 to flow than any other class of working people. Fruit growers are 

 independent ; they have neither asked nor received any special 

 privileges ; no protective tariff, no bounties, no remission of taxes, 

 no favors of any kind have been bestowed upon them, and no other 

 industry has been taxed to make theirs profitable. Notwithstanding 

 all this, the business has had a wonderful growth, and it never was 

 in a more healthy condition than at the present time. Everyone is 

 interested in it, directly or indirectly, and the number actually en- 

 gaged m it is amazing. 



It is easy to see that, large as the business is, it will for several 

 reasons go on increasing. The demand is increasing, and the sup- 

 ply so perishable that the market cannot be over-stocked for any 

 length of time, howeyer many engage in it. But little capital is 

 required to commence the business. It is not necessary to buy the 

 land, and if it were, a little is sufficient. No expensive implements 

 are needed, and the returns come so speedily that the capital invested 

 does not lie idle long. This is very different from being in debt 



