8 CITRUS TREES AND THEIR DISEASES 



old grandfather who served in the Revolutionary War, 

 and who was beyond question a true Christian and 

 who believed that his efforts and his results were 

 wholly obtained from faithful prayer, together with 

 the ambition and determination to conquer and produce 

 the best results from all his undertakings. He be- 

 came very fond of the writer and instilled into him at 

 this early age the same kind of ambition and deter- 

 mination, and the writer becoming fascinated with the 

 study of trees grew up with this good old man until, he 

 at a young age, became so well acquainted with the 

 methods of propagation and with the natural under- 

 standing of tree life, that it became impossible for 

 him to even think of anything else other than a tree. 



In the writer's home city a few years ago, while 

 he was coming down one of the business streets, 

 a party of men were standing on the corner. Among 

 these men were two lawyers, one a money-lender and 

 one a congressman. As the writer came nearer to 

 them the congressman made a wager with the money- 

 lender ; he would bet a good cigar that he could not hold 

 a conversation with the writer ten minutes without 

 the writer making some remark referring to a tree. 

 Some weeks after this it appeared in an evening Jour- 

 nal that the money-lender had attracted the attention 

 of the writer on other subjects of conversation to the 

 extent of six minutes, thereby losing his wager in the 

 period of time set by the congressman. 



This same ambition, determination and desire to 

 acquire the best knowledge possible to be obtained 

 concerning tree life and their requirements and de- 



