172 An American Fruit-Farm 



means systematic and profitable farm manage- 

 ment ; a larger body of laborers, better wages, best 

 type of packages, and highest profits possible. 

 Not merely a bank account but a real fruit-farm; 

 and a bank account because there is a fruit-farm.. 

 Sifted to real substance, it means raising cherries, 

 and that depends upon cultivation. Feed the 

 orchard and the orchard will feed you; care 

 for the vineyard and the vineyard will care forj 

 you. 



Thus the fruit-farmer now touches elbows with 

 the rest of the world. He finds the whole in the 

 soil beneath his feet. The world looks for cherries 

 in the cherry tree, but the fruit-grower knows that 

 he must first raise them in the soil and then culti- 

 vate them out of it. He must be ever in active 

 copartnership with four associates: 



Nitrogen, Potash, Phosphoric Acid, and Humus, 



but his partners are helpless unless he drains the 

 earth in which they work. He must drain top and 

 bottom, and he must keep his partners busy. He 

 makes his soil and it makes fruit for him. He trims, 

 sprays, cultivates; he blankets the ground with a 

 soil-feeding crop; he keeps it like an ash heap and 

 filled with humus. Having climate on his side, 

 his fruit-farm conveniently located, accessible, a 

 well-made and a well-managed machine, an operat- 

 ing, chemical laboratory; his mind open to ideas 

 from every quarter, — neighbors, joiu-nals, books, 

 experiment stations, and he himself does a little 



