The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 163 



thing" IS a poison — ^poisonous to the plant that 

 receives, to the grower who grows, and to the eater 

 who eats, unless properly applied. While we 

 must handle poisons as it were with gloves, we must 

 always mix them with common sense. Here we 

 cannot safely go by rule of thumb, but by scale, 

 weight, and measure. Never entrust the prepa- 

 ration of the spray to an inexperienced hand and 

 trust to luck. The fruit-grower himself is the 

 responsible man and must know how to prepare the 

 spray, how to apply it, and what results to expect. 

 He must of course be able to decide what sort of 

 spray is particularly needed. So too must he be 

 present, at least constructively, when orchards and 

 vineyards are planted, trimmed, and cultivated. 

 There must be no work of any kind on the place 

 that he does not understand how to do, and prefer- 

 ably can himself do if necessary. That valiant 

 heathen, Cato the Censor, wrote more than two 

 thousand years ago the first principle of sound 

 farming • 



"The face of the master is good for the land." 



In fruit-farming, " The hireling flees because he is a 

 hireling. *' There may be exceptions, but they are 

 always on some other fruit-farm than yours or 

 mine. 



While "book-farming** is still held in contempt 

 by most farmers, it has in late years come into 

 respectability by sheer evidence of value. We do 

 not condemn medical schools, law schools, schools 



