ON THE POSSIBILITIES 
improvements, all of them, which are capable of 
turning losses into profits, and of multiplying 
profits, instead of merely adding to them by single 
per cents. 
Improving the yield and, consequently, the 
usefulness and profit of existing plants, however, 
is but the beginning of the work before us. 
An almost equally rich field lies in saving 
plants from their own extravagance, thereby 
increasing the yield. 
The fruit trees of our fathers and mothers were 
shade trees in size, with all too little fruit. 
The ideal orchard of today, generally speaking, 
is the one which can be picked without the use of 
a step ladder. Thus, already, we have taught fruit 
bearing plants economy—saved them the extrava- 
gance of making unnecessary wood, at the expense 
of fruit, since it is their fruit, not their wood, that 
we want. 
The grapes of our childhood grew sparsely on 
climbing vines which covered our arbors; while 
the grapes grown for profit today grow thickly, 
almost solidly, on stubby plants three feet or so 
in height. The value of the grape plant lies in 
the fruit and not in the vine. 
In so many different ways can we save our 
plants extravagance and increase their useful 
[255] 
