The Fruit-Farm and Old Age 327 



self, not man as a kind of animal among animals, 

 is the principal element. To the man all comes at 

 last. The living of one man is as much to him 

 as the living to another, whether acreage be small 

 or vast, or the menu be bread and cheese or of 

 nineteen courses. The fruit-grower is as much 

 to the fruit-grower as is the banker to the banker. 

 Threescore and ten years on the fruit-farm in the 

 Valley mean as much to him who lived them as 

 three score and ten years in the bank, or in prac- 

 ticing law or medicine to him who lived them. 



Does it follow, then, that as all fruit-growers do 

 not die centenarians fruit-growing is a risky busi- 

 ness? Does the making and the care of orchards 

 and vineyards keep the arteries young? Or do 

 stock-raising, wheat-farming, or '*a few acres and a 

 cow"? If a man would have young arteries he 

 must select young arteries to be born from, — not 

 merely young arteries, but arteries that keep young. 

 One cannot put new arteries into old bodies. The 

 flight of time is not stayed by a man's taking title 

 to a fruit-farm. But in bringing up a cherry tree 

 in the way it should go, a man also determines the 

 state of his arteries. Ancestors here play their 

 part; indeed, they really determine all the import- 

 ant lines for their posterity. Next to ancestors 

 come the man and his habits, or, say, his bundle 

 of habits, — which is the man, — and next to the 

 man the orchard and the vine. Of these habits 

 thinking is most tyrannical, for he is as he thinks. 

 There is an imperfect translation of this line, — 



