66 An American Fruit-Farm 



what may be called vegetable psychology — not 

 merely to tell how long it takes a man of 32 years, 

 5 months, 7 days, 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 3f sec- 

 onds, at high noon, to think, but also how long he 

 has been thinking and when he ceased to think. 

 For as a man thinks so is he and his fruit-farm. 

 Years ago, in the days of pioneering it was oats 

 and barley, buckwheat and potatoes, rye and wheat, 

 com cattle, sheep and horses; but the thinking of 

 the Valley no longer takes these antiquated forms ; 

 it is peaches, cherries, grapes, prunes, strawberries, 

 raspberries, currants, plums, gooseberries, apples, 

 melons, some com, a little wheat, less oats, a few 

 potatoes, and a somewhat neglected vegetable 

 garden. Fashions change in thinking and so in 

 farming. Our grandfathers thought in terms of 

 ox-teams; we, of automobiles. We are warned 

 not to put our trust in the legs of a horse and we 

 are rapidly learning not to put it in the brake of an 

 automobile. Sufficient unto the day is the evil 

 thereof. As many fruit-growers now have autos, 

 some new perils are added to the ancient list. It 

 may be possible to run a machine and keep in good 

 health, but not all autoists have as yet learned 

 the secret. Some manage to keep in fair health 

 without machines. Whence the conclusion that 

 autos are not necessary to health, or even to 

 fruit-farming. Yet, as an automobile gives its 

 owner much to think about, and, as it ages, keeps 

 him increasingly busy, and as thinking and doing 

 are conducive to health, owners and users of 



