10 An American Fruit-Farm 



vineyard and orchard which have witnessed his 

 activities, will not reminisce, reciting the changes 

 in his day. "When I came here — ** he will 

 begin, and narrate at length the transformation 

 he wrought till you wonder whether this now 

 prolific center, humming with modern life, can 

 possibly, within one short span of life, have been 

 the wild he pictures. But we all do fade as a leaf, 

 and the leaves fall every year. 



To the young this transformation is only a tale 

 that is told. I have heard old settlers tell of bear 

 and deer, of elk and wolves abounding in the 

 Valley; of wandering Indians; of itinerant preach- 

 ers; of journeys in saddle; of dollars rarer than 

 are diamonds now; of pewter dishes and wooden 

 spoons; of linsey-woolsey clothes; of hand-looms, 

 and corn planted between the stumps of the new 

 clearing. Could these pioneers return they would 

 be unhappy. They would miss this ancient world; 

 they would miss the hand-looms and the saddle- 

 horses; the pewter plates and the bowls of mush 

 and milk ; they would miss the venison, and the ser- 

 mons two hours long; the primeval forest, the vines, 

 the flowers, the meager fruits of their day. Suffi- 

 cient unto the day is the happiness thereof. We 

 would not be happy in their shoes, nor they in ours. 

 Their associations could not be ours, nor ours theirs. 

 Neither can ours be our children's. Each genera- 

 tion must form its own, for it can enjoy no other. 



We cannot then expect our children to think of 

 our fruit-farm as do we. We have made it our 



