The Fruit-Farm and the Young Folks 213 



is a branch of applied botany, as Luther Burbank 

 has made plain. So too is it applied chemistry. 

 The significance, if any may be drawn from com- 

 parisons among vocations, is of continuity of 

 activity in the same family. Certainly it would be 

 easy to demonstrate in any valley that such con- 

 tinuity makes for wealth, influence, public order, 

 high character, and the general welfare. It would 

 be highly interesting were some economist of 

 practical tendencies to examine into the horti- 

 cultural interests of oiu* coimtry and bring into 

 common knowledge the effects of continuity of 

 ownership of land, of mastery of its uses, and of 

 contribution to the general welfare of the com- 

 munity. 



In most valleys change is the law: new owners, 

 the flotsam and jetsam of cultivation, the extremes 

 of neglect, spasmodic care, hope, and disappoint- 

 ment. Three removals are as bad as a fire, says 

 Poor Richard. Usually it is the remover rather 

 than the farm that suffers. The son cannot see 

 the worid through his father's eyes. To the young, 

 the call of the worid is as the voices of the Sirens. 

 Youth likes or dislikes and chooses; age chooses 

 on the margin of gain or loss, or safety. To 

 the boy, it is ever something better beyond. Yet a 

 trifle may deflect him from one career to another: 

 missing a train; meeting a stranger; a chance 

 acquaintance, a streak of sunshine, or a blinding 

 snowstorm. Few are the men who are what 

 they are because of deliberate preparation and 



