114 An American Fruit-Farm 



state of industry but of a state of mind. After all 

 it is a psychological question. And here it is best 

 to see clearly and straight. Labor is the supreme 

 necessity of the fruit-farm. The wage of the 

 laborer is his return for the use he makes of him- 

 self. What is his most profitable use? Is it as 

 he sees himself or as you see him? Essentially it 

 is as world-conditions regulate matters. We are 

 all prisoners of conditions, limitations, needs. 

 Neither he nor you alone determines these. You 

 as a fruit-grower depend upon the world-market; 

 he as a laborer depends the same, through you, or 

 whoever employs him, or gives him an opportunity 

 to contribute to that market. The market condi- 

 tions regulate the number and the wage of laborers 

 in any activity. Farm work requires judicious 

 planning in order to be successful. Horticulture 

 is special farming. It is not *' light farming," — 

 one room and a fireless cooker. Its risks are 

 greater than those of general-farming; its returns 

 are larger. Its labor shares in its conditions: 

 greater skill and larger returns. But all labor on 

 the fruit-farm is not expert. Indeed, most of it 

 is unskilled, or at least is labor which any person, 

 physically able to work, may readily do. It is of 

 its kind and is regulated by demand and supply 

 of its kind. Being unskilled, it is in general de- 

 mand and therefore brings a general wage. But 

 fruit-culture, being a special form of agriculture, 

 requires labor of general skill for a special purpose, 

 which tends to the limitation and selection of the 



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