118 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



difficulties. To a transient visitor who strolls about, admiring- 

 the regularity, thrift, and fruitfulness of every plant in sight, it 

 may seem an easy matter to grow violets, roses, or chrysanthe- 

 mums ; tomatoes, cauliflowers, or cucumbers ; strawberries, grapes, 

 or cherries, as the case may be. Certainly nothing seems easier, 

 and just as certainly no business of life is beset with more diffi- 

 culties, requires more constant attention, more good judgment, 

 more knowledge derived from painful experience, or more 

 thoughtful consideration of every least detail of the business. 

 The transient visitor sees the brilliant successes ; what he does 

 not see is the long line of mingled successes and failures, the 

 Avorries and disappointments, the long experience and sleepless 

 care of years, which have led up to this fine consummation. If 

 he thinks such results are born full-fledged out of Mother Earth, 

 like Minerva from the brain of Jove, and that all one has to do 

 is to plant seeds or set out cuttings and wait contentedly for the 

 early and the later rains, let him try for himself. It is usually 

 easy to find some pessimistic mortal with greenhouses and truck- 

 ing grounds for sale, and he can begin at once, if so inclined, let 

 i\s say, on cucumbers or tomatoes for the winter and early spring 

 market. He has himself paid fifty cents a pound for tomatoes 

 and ten cents apiece for cucumbers, and knows there is "big 

 money " in it. Let us follow our optimistic friend for a time and 

 see what happens. He starts in well and early the first season. 

 He is up with the lark and overflowing with energy. Things 

 must gee. He has the writings of Peter Henderson by heart and 

 all he lacks is experience. Let us drop in some months later. 

 The plants are not doing well ; the crop has practically failed. 

 What is the matter? The seeds were poor, and did not come 

 up, or germinated slowly and irregularly, or the seedlings damped 

 off in great numbers, necessitating a second sowing, which set 

 the crop back and brought the product into an overflow- 

 ing market with poor prices. Or the soil was not properly 

 selected, and yielded only inferior plants and stunted fruits, in 

 spite of all care and coaxing. Or, possibly, the crop may 

 have started off well, but the gardener or other help did not 

 understand firing or the management of ventilation, the plants 

 being nearly roasted at times, in spite of the plentiful supply 

 of expensive thermometers hung in all parts of the house, and 

 then suddenly chilled with floods of cold air by way of compen- 



