THE SUCCESSFUL ORCHARD. 197 



ences to fig trees, olive trees and lilies of the valley. All this 

 goes to show that this man, whom we look to as the ideal man, 

 had His eyes open to nature and that He was a close observer of 

 plant life, of that part of God's creation which is exemplified in 

 the trees and the fruits, the farm crops and the flowers. 



I believe, then, that every home, whether it be in the city, in 

 the suburban districts or in the country, is distinctly the loser if 

 it has not about it some cultivated form of plant life. I am told 

 that in New York City some of the ladies of the most exclusive 

 families are becoming enthusiastic over roof gardens and win- 

 dow gardens, if they cannot get any ground upon which to grow 

 flowers. These ladies are taking this up as a fad perhaps, but 

 it surely is a most wholesome fad. They will be better persons 

 because of their love and care for flowers. 



Commercial orchards: — But to return to the "successful 

 orchard" ; that is what we started to talk about. First, as I have 

 said, we may put into one class all domestic orchards. At the 

 other extreme is the orchard which is designed primarily as a 

 commercial proposition and where everything bends to that pur- 

 pose. In some cases they have no other crops on the land. They 

 do not even grow the hay or the alfalfa which they need to feed 

 their teams or even their cow. The whole place is planted to 

 fruit. That is the purely commercial orchard. 



Farm orchards: — But we have a great many orchards on 

 farms, and I take it that our Minnesota farm orchards will come 

 in here. We have a great many orchards on our farms which are 

 something more than domestic orchards and something less than 

 strictly commercial propositions. Let us try to get before our 

 minds a composite picture of this class of orchards as they are 

 scattered over Minnesota. Hundreds of them are less than an 

 acre in extent; others may run from three to five or even ten 

 acres. They are our farm orchards. What can be done towards 

 making these farm orchards more successful? I wish to take 

 up that proposition first before taking up the practical question 

 of trying to establish a new orchard. I believe it is a good prin- 

 ciple to follow, to first make the best we can out of what we 

 already have in our hands and then go on from that to some- 

 thing better. 



One of the finest things that this Horticultural Society is 

 doing, and one of the finest things that the State Agricultural 

 College is doing, is to stimulate greater interest along the lines 

 of making these farm orchards better orchards. I firmly believe 



