The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 169 



instead of keeping the team moving in cultivation 

 of his land, spring and simimer, should cut three 

 green wythes, cross them over his little finger, take 

 his stand at the comer of his vineyard and chant: 



Eeneyj meeney, meiny^ mOy 

 Ikery, eikery, tinkery, toCy 

 Concord, Cherry, Peaches grow I 



His wife (if he was so fortunate as to have one) 

 would promptly send him to a lunatic asylum, and 

 hire some sane man to run the farm. 



We know as yet comparatively little about the 

 mysteries of raising fruit, — soil-making, planting, 

 plant-feeding, — and have much to leam about 

 cultivation; therefore we turn eagerly to every 

 service of agricultural school, experimental station, 

 or actual experience however acquired. All as- 

 sociations of fruit-growers for exchange of ideas 

 contribute to the general welfare, — ^local, coimty 

 and State societies, which, as now conducted, 

 bring together experts in every branch of horti- 

 cvilture, and thus extend the benefits of experience. 



He who would raise fruit will soon leam by 

 experience that fruit-growers, as a class, are men 

 fixed in their traditions, jealous of association, 

 and almost immovable in their individuahsm. 

 Practically it will be extraordinary that fruit-grow- 

 ers of their own motion in any specialty unite and 

 long cooperate to any end. They tie ropes of sand 

 when they bind themselves to cooperation. They 

 complain bitterly of excessive freight-rates, of 



