306 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Imbued with this theory, my father, with many of his neigbors, 

 planted largely of the grape vine. Vineyards soon dotted many a hill, 

 but after about three years of bard toil and expense, the first disap- 

 pointment revealed itself. Mostly of the wrong varieties had been 

 planted. Here I might say in the language of our friend Speer, of 

 Butler, "That it is certainly a dark outlook after discovering you have 

 planted the wrong varieties." 



To make the best of this mistake, everybody set to work to graft 

 in other varieties. I well remember what a task it was during the chilly 

 weather of March and April to bend over in a kneeling position all day 

 long adjusting the grafts into the roots of the old "vines. 



This done at considerable expense and labor and a loss of about 

 two years of time, disappointment No. 2 was at hand — grape rot and no 

 sale for wine. California wines of superior quality, produced in large 

 quantity, and much cheaper, brought the final wreck. 



However, this failure was chiefly due to the non-observance of the 

 first condition to know what our soil and climate are best adapted for 

 and how their products compare in point of quality and quantity with 

 other parts of the world, with which we come in competition. 



Of course, it is human to err, and as I said in the beginning, so 

 long as we are human, mistakes will be made, and especially twenty- 

 five or thirty years ago, at a time when conditions of soil, climate and 

 varieties had not been extensively tested. 



However, the leading mistakes of those days are inexcusable now; 

 we have the experience of others before us, and should profit by their 

 mistakes and success. 



The practical horticulturist of to-day knows (or may know if he 

 will inform himself) what to plant and how to do it. All branches of 

 business as we progress and improve them take on a fixed system, and 

 run into specialties. This is not only the tendency of this age, but the 

 natural fixed law of evolution aud progress. 



We find this clearly demonstrated when we compare civilization 

 with barbarism. The wild man of the forest has but few if any systems 

 of trade or occupation. But to the degree that civilization advances 

 various employments and distinct systems of occupation and trade in 

 specialties follow, actual business experience has clearly demonstrated 

 the one important fact, and I think the most requisite to attain success, 

 to msike, if possible, a specialty of your respective calling and confine 

 yourself strictly to it, learning and studying it in all its details, thereby 

 becoming master of it. "The jack of all trades is master of none." 



Thai man who undertakes to raise the steer and take off the hide, 

 t:m it into leather, make the shoe, and sell it to the actual consumer, 



