70 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 
anticipates a uniform success, one year with another, 
from any system of husbandry. From this year’s mar- 
kets alone the wheat farmer has more reason than the 
fruit grower for anticipating an uncertain future, still I 
doubt if many grain farmers will give up the growing of 
wheat. The questions, whose answers should have most 
weight in deciding the matter of planting, relate more to 
the adaptability of the man to the business, of the soil to 
the health and productiveness of trees, to market facili- 
ties, etc., than to the state of the market in a single year. 
It should be borne in mind that good fruit is nearly 
always in good demand. : 
The most complete failures I ever knew in fruit grow- 
ing were those connected with men who had no native taste 
for the occupation, or who attempted too much. While 
fruit growing is not a difficult branch of husbandry to 
follow, it nevertheless requires a vigilance and a certain 
adroitness which are not commanded by all farmers, and 
which are not readily adaptable to large estates. The 
bungler and shiftless farmer are entirely out of place in 
the orchard. Good fruit growers are nearly always good 
observers ; they recognize and study insects, birds and 
insidious plant diseases; they exercise great care in 
handling and marketing their produce. A successful 
orchard is commonly planted with much thought. Trees 
are perennial ; they ought to last as long as their owner. 
They cannot be cut down each autumn and a new crop 
started the next year. It is the lack of a good founda- 
tion, a thoughtful, well-pondered beginning, which ren- 
ders half our orchards unsatisfactory. Almost any fruit 
grower will tell you that he would have made money by 
