78 STATEIHORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rienced should bend every energy to get as exteusive orchards as possible? 

 To this end every cent is put into land and trees to plant it with. In not a 

 few instances, to my knowledge, men have made only a small payment on 

 their lands and used the balance of their means to buy nursery stock, and 

 trusted to the large returns sure to follow to meet expenses and pay for their 

 lands. Result — a life-and-death struggle to meet payments and expenses. 

 Why? Simply because it takes years before a fruit farm becomes self-sus- 

 taining, even in the hands of one skilled in the business. There are excep- 

 tions, of course, but this is the rule. What chance, then, has the novice if 

 his means is all used up to begin with ? He can not support his family, pay 

 his help, buy his tools, feed his teams, and meet all other expenses 

 necessary for the cultivation of his orchards, vineyards, and berry 

 fields. This without means he can't do, and something must be 

 neglected. The small fruits will be first to yield returns, and so 

 they absord his time and attention to the neglect of his orchard. Posi- 

 tively, orchards must not be neglected ; and by the time he is enabled, by 

 working night and day, by depriving himself and family of many needed 

 comforts, and by exercising the strictest economy, to give his orchards the 

 needed care, they have become so much injured that he might about as well 

 begin at the beginning; but if health and strength are left him and he con- 

 tinues economical, energetic and persevering, he will still succeed. In any 

 event, the risk attending fruit raising on a large scale, without practical as 

 well as theoretical knowledge of it, is altogether too great. 



Now, as I said to begin with, I am a firm believer in the healthfulness, 

 pleasantness and profitableness of the fruit business in western Michigan. 

 But it is a business, which, like any other, to be profitable, must be learned, 

 and learned practically. No amount of theory or book knowledge will take 

 the place of personal experience, though they may be, and often are, great 

 helps. 



In view of the facts above stated, I will venture to make a few suggestions 

 for the benefit of the inexperienced who contemplate entering into the busi- 

 ness of fruit raising. I set above all other requirements a love of and taste 

 for it, and he should bend all his energies to it until he has fully mastered it; 

 and if I mistake not he will find the subject large enough to engage all his 

 time, energy and brains. No branch of agriculture requires more brains than 

 this. As but comparatively few men can etnploy laborers profitably, he should 

 not undertake more than he and his family can accomplish ; and this should 

 be adhered to for at least the first five years. He should not undertake any 

 other branch of business unless ahsolutely necessary to obtain means for the 

 support of his family or the care of his orchards. It will, of course, be 

 necessary for him to raise such farm products as are to be consumed on the 

 farm. But ordinary farming and fruit growing do not go well together. If 

 general farming is carried on at the same time, the fruit will be quite likely 

 to be neglected, for the corn must be cultivated and the wheat must be har- 

 vested at the time when the berries should be pickei and otherwise attended to. 



ARE COLD WAVES MORE FREQUENT AND SEVERE THAN FORMERLY? 



IF SO, WHY ? 



was the title of a paper by Joseph Lannin of South Haven, who spoke thus: 

 Tnese two questions, combined as they are in our scheme of topics, assume 



