THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 37 



one here has a razor in the end of his tongue, and he can get 

 up and tell a man if he gets off the track. I am glad of that, 

 because I have tried to put the truth into what I am to say this 

 afternoon, and the more questions that are asked, the more good 

 it is going to do. 



I am glad to have a chance to explain one thing. Brother 

 Hale has had a lot of fun with my "crowbar method" of plant- 

 ing trees. I want to say right here, that I planted one thousand 

 trees with a crowbar and I will never plant another that way 

 again. But somebody had to go to the expense of planting 

 a thousand trees with a crowbar to learn how to do it. 



Now I am going to try and show you on the screen how 

 the trees are growing. But first let me say how I came 

 to attempt this work. For a long time I have thought, with 

 all due respect for our horticultural brethren here, who have 

 been verv successful at the experiment stations and agricultural 

 colleges, I have thought sometimes those men did not get down 

 to the natural conditions which surround the average man on 

 the average farm. I find as I go through the country, people 

 tell me they are not going to go into fruit culture, because it 

 costs too much, requires too much capital. They thought it 

 an expensive thing. They thought they must start with the 

 best of soil. These ideas have gone out ; and when an average 

 farm came into my hands with average conditions, average 

 capital, etc., to carry it on, I wanted to see if I could make that 

 land, from which five generations had made a living and the 

 sixth had run away, I wanted to see if I couldn't take that land 

 and make it yield an income. 



It was rough, stony land : you have got some of it here in 

 Connecticut; I knew it when a boy, and I can tell you my land 

 is as rough as yours. It was all right except it was abandoned. 

 But I had faith in it, for I believe that land which will grow 

 a good chestnut tree or a good maple tree, with proper handling 

 will grow a good apple tree or peach tree. 



I have found that the currant as it ordinarily grows and is 

 planted will better stand hard, rough, conditions than will any 

 other fruit I have ever grown. It will give year after year a 

 better fruit than raspberries or strawberries or any other fruit 

 under the same conditions. I began to try and find why that 

 was, and it seemed to me it was largely the rooting of the currant 



