PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 87 



faction in its own little rut, have been eliminated, which has left every 

 member of the family time to cultivate the inclination for the proper 

 rounding-up. 



If the head of the house is taken away, the business is not paralyzed 

 for want of a leader. I have in mind a home left greatly involved at 

 the husband's death. The widow stepped into the breach, by judicious 

 nianagement paid off the indebtedness, saved the home, and made it a 

 shining mark in the neighborhood. It is one case that serves as an 

 illustration. But we are not here to show especially what women 

 are doing. Another home, where it has been my pleasure to be enter- 

 tained, furnishes testimony in favor of country homes. It is situated 

 ten miles from the trading point, but a telephone line brings it in direct 

 communication. It is approached by an avenue lined with stately trees; 

 the grounds are a bower of beauty and the house a haven of hospitality. 

 The walls are hung with pictures that would do credit to any art studio 

 in the State, the product of the hostess's brush. She showed hundreds 

 of dear little chicks, just released from the incubator that she had sole 

 charge of. She is also thoroughly conversant with the management of 

 the ranch, whose acres number thousands. Through the daily papers, 

 magazines, telegraph, and telephone, the country home is in direct touch 

 with the pulse of the world. I can not refrain from saying that the 

 daily paper, with its corrupting sensationalism, is not the important 

 factor in the ranch home that it is in the city home. 



Educational advantages are no longer monopolized b}^ the great 

 centers, and the inmates of the country homes have more time to 

 appropriate them, being exempt from the diverting temptations of the 

 social whirl of the city; in proof of which we point to the front ranks 

 of our colleges, which are so largely recruited from the country homes. 

 The bone and sinew of the professions, which are so preeminently a 

 part of the machinery of the city, is largely furnished by the rural 

 districts. 



Although we have made great strides, Utopia is not yet ours. It is 

 claimed that nowhere is there the same opportunity for successful agri- 

 culture as here. There is need of it, for there are many leakages that 

 ranchers themselves must overcome. They have not yet awakened to 

 the importance of combination. Ostrich-like, with heads in the 

 ground, they have worked to the one end, each individual making the 

 most of his own ranch, and have not seen the danger closing in upon 

 them. They have, in their single heartedness, been led like lambs to 

 the slaughter, and have awakened only after ranches were mortgaged 

 to futther the plans of the schemer. Irrigation canals have been 

 foisted upon irrigation districts at four times their construction price. 

 District taxation, under a law created for the purpose, has increased 

 the rate in some instances two and one half per cent. But these 



