70 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



them in our service we must acknowledge them in a large 

 sense as our partners in the affairs of life and worth our most 

 thoughtful consideration; and until we take this fraternal and 

 humanitarian view of the conditions, we shall be constantly 

 menaced by the trials which are so commonly talked of in con- 

 nection with the hired man and the hired girl. 



The occupation of the horticulturist is not one that usu- 

 ally leads to large wealth, but he has other compensations in 

 life more valuable than money. He must, however, if he 

 secures the highest benefits from these other compensations, 

 cater to some extent to the demands of wealth, because in 

 catering to this demand he most easily draws upon the reser- 

 voirs of wealth to aid him in the continuance of the occu- 

 pation that he follows. 



As our population increases and becomes more congested, 

 the question of intensive soil culture becomes of the greatest 

 importance. The man who can get the largest returns from 

 the smallest space of ground at a minimum cost is the one at 

 whose feet we can afford to sit and learn. We must conserve 

 our energy and quicken our powers of observation, watching 

 the development of the needs, and moulding our methods 

 largely by the evolution of the times. And in so doing we 

 must avoid all the unnecessary strains of life. We must learn 

 to pick up the light end of the log and to save ourselves by 

 doing things the easiest way; we must recognize the fact that 

 there are more things we do not know that we can learn by 

 using to the best advantage our ability, than there are things 

 we do know. 



Allow me to illustrate this in a homely way by the sugar 

 beet industry. For generations France and Germany have 

 grown the sugar beet, until, as a result of their success, certain 

 well-defined propositions were made upon which the native of 

 this country thought he could succeed. Among the other 

 things that were established as facts were the following: The 

 ideal beet is one of medium size, with only a moderate 

 development of length of root. The crown must be reduced 

 to its lowest terms because of the lack of sugar in it ; any 

 forked appearance of the specimen beet is against its value in 

 percentage of sugar. A good percentage of sugar is from 12 



