30 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



living in it. This is most emphatically illustrated 

 in apple -growing to which the least skilful attention 

 has been given for the years of crop are years of 

 low prices. This means that apple -growers allow 

 the seasons and other environmental circumstances 

 to absolutely dictate the bearing time of the orchard, 

 and when one man has a crop other men may 

 have one. Yet there is no fruit which comes so 

 near to being a staple commodity as the apple does, 

 and none which has a longer market season, or is 

 capable of manufacture into a greater number of 

 secondary products. 



Perhaps the last thing which the farmer learns, in 

 respect to his own business, is to thoroughly master 

 his local conditions. He must feel that his problems 

 of soil and exposure, his limitations of capital, and his 

 own tastes, are all unique and personal, and he must 

 then begin to work out his results in his own way. 

 What he can learn from books and teachers are 

 principles and truths, he can pick up suggestions, 

 and he can, above all, acquire an ability to grasp his 

 local problems ; but he must solve his problems for 

 himself. This is the. secret of that close and single- 

 minded attention to business which makes for the 

 greatest success. 



The most profitable stock in trade of the fruit- 

 grower, therefore, as already indicated, is training ; 

 and if a good part of this training is in pure busi- 

 ness methods, very much will be gained, for there 

 are probably ten men who can grow a given quality 

 of fruit where there is one who can sell it to advan- 



