198 An American Fruit-Farm 



light ; the growth of wood scanty ; the leaf color bad ; 

 the fruit small and scraggly, and the production 

 about one third of the amount during the first five 

 years. There is never enough barnyard manure 

 to go round, save as is the case with the owner of 

 one estate, who being a high ofiicial of the Lake 

 Shore Railroad sends to his fruit-farm carloads of 

 manure from the Chicago stockyards and scatters 

 it a ^'foot deep*' among his vines. These show 

 heavy growth of wood; rich, large, glossy leaves; 

 and produce abundantly. Hence, after some 

 experience, I abide by my judgment that, while 

 fertilizer factories doubtless bring blessings in 

 dividends to stockholders, we who try to raise 

 grapes get and keep healthy vines and raise grapes 

 abundantly as we cover our vineyards with barn- 

 yard manure as nearly a foot deep as may be. 

 Not being able to secure fertilizer in this form, we 

 substitute cover-crops, as of clover, vetch, or turnip, 

 which we plow in, and add phosphates, nitrates, 

 and potash in such quantity as in our selfishness 

 we may think necessary. 



That soil is a chemical laboratory in which 

 Nature perfects the transformation of mineral and 

 vegetable matter into available plant-food makes 

 life possible on the globe. It is a vast and singular 

 conclusion of the oldest science — astronomy, — 

 that the life we know and see about us on this 

 planet and of which we are part, is limited to this 

 planet alone, — ^to this earth, this globe, this grain of 

 sand in the universe. Most awesome the thought 



