196 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Successful Orchard. 



PROF. S. A. BEACH, HORTICULTURIST, AMES, IA. 



Orchards, as I see it, divide naturally into at least three 

 classes. We often hear the home orchard spoken of in distinc- 

 tion from the commercial orchard, but I wish to make a distinc- 

 tion in the different kinds of home orchards. 



Domestic orchards: — First of all I recognize what I like to 

 call the "domestic orchard." It should be called the domestic 

 orchard when it is planned and operated primarily for the simple 

 purpose of supplying the family with fruit. We have many home 

 orchards that do more than that, so the words "home orchard" do 

 not mean quite the same as the words "domestic orchard." The 

 domestic orchard should exist on every farm and, so far as pos- 

 sible, at every home. I should like to see every home in the sub- 

 urban districts, and even in the cities, supplied with fruit trees, 

 wherever they have room enough to grow trees. I should like 

 to see them devote some time to the domestic orchard. I believe 

 this would tend to do two good things. It would tend to put the 

 man, the children of the family and the wife and mother in 

 familiar touch with one of the most interesting parts of God's 

 creation, — plant life. It would help to rest their minds and give 

 them fine recreation aside from what they might get on the base- 

 ball field or the football field or on the golf links or in the club or 

 sewing society. Resting and re-creating their mind and body 

 thus in a natural way, it would tend, I believe, toward the de- 

 velopment of more simple and wholesome standards of life and 

 thought. 



I firmly believe that the One we look to as the ideal man did 

 this very thing. Read in the gospels the accounts of His life. 

 He was something more than a carpenter that simply was busy in 

 his shop. As His work took Him back and forth among the dif- 

 ferent families of His home community where carpenter work 

 was needed, He not only did His work but kept His eyes open to 

 see the things of nature. He talks most interestingly about vine- 

 yards. Some of the most important lessons which He left with 

 His disciples were those in which the vine was taken as the illus- 

 tration of the truths He wished to impress. Again He pictures 

 for us the person who thought he had no further use for the un- 

 fruitful tree, but his gardener put in a plea to let it stand one more 

 year till he could fertilize and stir the soil and give it one more 

 chance to fruit before cutting it ^wn. We have also His refer- 



