The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 147 



will produce one apple, one plum, one bunch of 

 grapes fit for the county fair, but does it produce 

 fruit all of which you would enter for a premium? 

 First prizes have been given for fruit culled from 

 a neglected tree, and were the tree before the judges 

 they would not award the prize. Some fruit- 

 growers use packages with two faces: the upper, or 

 top, for big bunches of grapes of fine quality; the 

 lower, or bottom, for odds and ends, culls, even 

 stones, leaves, and weeds. This means that culti- 

 vation is on the surface, — at least of the basket. 

 But the fruit-farm is more truly mirrored in the 

 bottom of the basket. It is easier to cultivate 

 the fruit-farm to quality and quantity than to 

 cultivate the fruit-grower. There is that about 

 horse-trading that affects the morals of the man 

 and the appearance of the horse. Even a deacon 

 deteriorates in the process. There is that also 

 about fruit-growing which affects the fruit-grower; 

 he may run to culls like his trees and vines. In- 

 deed, it is somewhat of a strain on some men to be 

 fruit-growers. Yet, happily, there are growers and 

 growers. All do not neglect cultivation of their 

 plantation; all do not raise a preponderance of 

 culls, or top off the scraggly fruit with a thin layer 

 of "selected fruit,** as the label on the basket 

 bravely, not to say effusively, informs the pur- 

 chaser. It is a case of human nature; the fruit 

 of the garden is no better than the gardener. You 

 can read the character of the fruit-grower in the 

 condition of his fruit-farm. 



