Remedy is Diversification. 29 



ordinary. Iii fact, it is the ordinariness of it which 

 makes it a surplus. Now, inasmuch as most men are 

 ordinary, it follows that most things which they make 

 will be ordinary ; and it does not matter if we raise 

 the standard of all men, the greater part will still be 

 ordinary, for we have only raised the ordinariness of 

 the mass. This would seem to argue that the great 

 majority of fruit-growers to specialize the problem 

 can never really succeed. This demands that we 

 define what is commonly meant by "the best." That 

 kind of fruit usually sells the best of which there is 

 the least. It may not be intrinsically the best. It is 

 simply that in which there is the least competition. 

 The key-note to the business, therefore, is diversifi- 

 cation or individuality. The grower should aim to 

 have something or to do something which his neigh- 

 bors do not do, although it may reallv not be any 

 better than what they do. We are apt M be discour- 

 aged by being told that "there is room at the top," 

 for if we all get to the top then we are all on the 

 bottom. It is better to say that "there is room at 

 che top and on the sides." The best, as commonly 

 understood, is really the unlike." 



If every occupation is already full, then it fol- 

 lows that the choice of an occupation resolves itself 

 into what one cares for and what he has capital 

 for. He need have no fear of his success if he 

 grows what people want, or puts it up so as to make 

 them believe that they want it. In its common 

 levels, fruit-growing, like every other business, is 

 undoubtedly overdone, and there is only a precarious 



