344 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the other fellow worry about the prices; be a producer of what the 

 people want; produce bomething above the ordinary, either out of 

 season or of superior quality. 



Have you ever given a thought to ihe regularity with which things 

 are governed? Year after year, age after age, how spring, summer, 

 autumn and winter follow each other with slight variations; and 

 how man's action and impulses are in the same order through all 

 the seasons. Even the boys and girls follow the season, as though 

 by printed program. At present they are engaged with their sleds 

 and their skates, but soon, when the last snow disappears, before 

 the ground is scarce dr}', the girls will be merrily engaged with their 

 hoops and ropes, and the boys with their marbles and tops. These 

 pleasant occupations engage them for a short time, but at the ap- 

 proach of the March winds, they are laid aside until the following 

 season, and in their place jou will see in the school yards and farms 

 and village streets, groups of boys with kites of every description, 

 from two cross-sticks covered with newspaper and a few rags for 

 a tail, to the fancy kites of varied hues, made in imitation of 

 birds and butterflies, from the crude to the artistic, and, do you 

 know, a wonderful lesson can be learned by watching this kite 

 flying? It reminds us of human beings. How some scarce rise above 

 the surface; others soar aloft, then lurch and pitch, and eventually 

 fall, often bringing others with them in their down-fall; others, again, 

 rise steadily to great altitude and maintain their exalted positions. 

 The next in order will be swimming, and ball playing, etc. Thus 

 it has been in the past, is at present, and will be to the end of time. 

 We do not change much; Nature is a pretty steady old machine, 

 and it is good for the majority it is so. We have become so familiar 

 with Nature's program; it tells us when to plow, when to sow and 

 harvest, when to plant the tree, when to prune. At the proper 

 season, the sap begins to flow, the buds to swell, some to burst forth 

 into luxuriant green foliage, others iuto beautiful bloom, with petals 

 of varied hues, to be later developed into the ruddy-cheeked apples, 

 blushing pears, the juicj' peach or crimson berry. We often wonder 

 at the regularity of her ripening seasons; the many transformations 

 that are taking place around us. 



Who orders these things? Not man; no; he cannot order or 

 change the seasons; he cannot bring rain, or prevent frosts. Yet 

 man is not helpless. He can so clo«ely attach himself as to become 

 a partner of Nature, working in harmony with her. He can by 

 proper culture at the right time retain the surplus waters she has so 

 lavishly spread over the earth by snows and rain during the season 

 when vegetation was taking its long rest, and use it to his advantage, 

 giving it to the growing plants during periods of drought. He can 

 also, by proper culture at the right time, by proper fertilizers and 

 pruning, grow and ripen the wood, and store up so much vitality 

 in wood and buds, as to render them immune to ordinary freezes. 

 He can by these means, and by properly thinning his fruit, produce 

 annual crops of fruit, so who can say, that man, if he but observes 

 Nature's laws, cannot, to a certain extent, control the growth of his 

 crops? 



The apple crop, the past season, was one rather above the average 

 in quality, where sprayed; but where unsprayed, much of the fruit 

 was badly infested with codling moth, fungus spots, and with Ban 



