Selecting the Farm 



59 



much, much shall be given, and from them much 

 is expected. The fruit-farm must not be suffered 

 to run to shade trees. All this means thought and 

 activity in the owner, — ^and activity and thought 

 are health. 



But there are other friends on the fruit-farm, 

 foremost among them "Nature dressed in living 

 green.'* Our very interference with Nattue inten- 

 sifies as well as creates our interest in her. She is 

 the imdiscovered country, the unexplored mystery, 

 the untried experiment. Our ignorance is her 

 opportunity. Not that with knowledge come all 

 our woes, but that the invasion of Ignorance and 

 conquest over him is the god-like deed of man. 

 In dressing land we clothe our own souls. It was 

 the earth, the land, not Adam that was cursed, 

 and to him dominion was given. The ancient 

 story conceals life. Idleness is death. In subdu- 

 ing the wild, man becomes immortal. Fruit- 

 growing is a long process of land-conquest, as yet 

 hardly begun. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon 

 were made famous by the arches which supported 

 them, not by the fruits and flowers they bore. 

 It was the engineering not the apple that made 

 them one of the Seven Wonders. On the fruit- 

 farm it is still the engineering that works the 

 wonder. It is the selection of the land, the making 

 of the soil, the kind of tree and its planting, the 

 cultivation of the ground which produce the won- 

 der. This done, apples, peaches, grapes, cherries, 

 berries follow as night the day; as echo, the voice. 



