32 An American Fruit-Farm 



lem of temperature and exclusion of air, and I may 

 add, of light. The fruit-cellar therefore becomes 

 a conserver of supplies: it is a clean, airy, cool, 

 ventilated, dry room, usually below ground. It is 

 not an ice-house. The great clock of Nature 

 marks off the farmer*s time: to do and what to do. 

 Neither too early nor too late, but in season is the 

 law of the fruit-farm. Nature hates to be nagged 

 and refuses to make up anybody's lost time. There 

 is a tide in the affairs of the fruit-farm which leads 

 on to fortune. It must be taken at the flood. 

 No man can run a fruit-farm on an ebbing tide. 

 Nature gives man and beast, plants, and all living 

 things their food in due season; but she has no 

 supplementary hours; no extra seasons; she is 

 reduced to the lowest terms. Instinct tells the 

 fruit-farmer all this. Some fruit-farmers learn 

 it as a task of the day. But whether by instinct 

 or by knowledge, the farmer knows his clock, 

 though he never winds it; and though he can not 

 set the hands backward or forward, he can move 

 precisely with them. 



