20 \ THE CONNECTICUT P0M0L0GICAL SOCIETY. 



was dead. He looked all around and then drove back ; got 

 back to town, and the doctor said, "How did you find the 

 patient?" "Dead, Massa." "Yes sir, he is dead, Massa." 

 '•What is the trouble?" "Ate horse." "Ate horse?" "What 

 do you mean?" "What do you mean by talking that way?" 

 "Why," said the darkey, "there was a saddle and bridle under 

 the bed." (Laughter.) Now I told that story just to illus- 

 trate this point. Success in fruit growing or in vegetable 

 growing is in part due to observing along the right line. 

 There are a great .many tendencies to failure,, a great many 

 failures among farmers, and I think one of- the causes is be- 

 cause the farmer often shifts from one thing to another, and 

 does not stick to one particular line long enough to thoroughly 

 master all of the details which are necessary to success. So 

 it is with the farmer who shifts from one work to another, 

 and so it is with any man who shifts from one work to 

 another over the country. When he has got into a certain 

 thing, a man of that type does not stay, but he is soon gone 

 into some other line. Just when he begins to learn what 

 there is in that business he becomes discouraged, throws it 

 up and goes into some other line. Now, no doubt, many 

 of you know, within your experience, people in vour locality 

 who figure on some new line of work along the line of agri- 

 cultural production, and then carry that out and make good 

 money at it. Did you ever see a person do that in your 

 locality for any length of time? Very soon the business is 

 over-crowded. A good illustration of this vegetable business 

 is afforded by another instance from Michigan. Some twenty 

 years ago, I think it was, a certain man went to Benton Har- 

 bor, Mich., and began growing the Egyptian onion. He 

 found that if he could get them into market along the latter 

 part of March or April he could get a good market and a 

 good price ; that he could get from two to three dollars a 

 crate. People in Chicago were crazy for those onions. There 

 was just one man of whom they. could be obtained at that 

 time of vear. That man went into the business and did well. 



