200 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



crop, not a winter crop, easily frozen. It must be planted early in the 

 summer, say April or May, and then plowed down in the fall. 



(At this time, on motion of Mr. King, duly seconded and carried, the 

 Convention adjourned until to-morrow morning at 9:30 o'clock, but 

 the members to immediately come together again in special session.) 



IN SPECIAL SESSION. 



Thursday Evening, December 5, 1907. 

 MR. GERALD SON. I thank you for the courtesy you have accorded 

 me and hope you won't be disappointed. I feel that, coming after the 

 scholarly effort of Mr. Mills, my paper will appear crude, but you can 

 class it as the effort of the man with the hoe as against the scientist 

 and the student. I know I am going to shock you to some extent. 



OVERWORKING THE SOIL. 



By GERALD GERALD SON, of Newcastle. 



I can now just imagine how the good professors, and the sturdy, con- 

 ventional old wheel-horses of good husbandry will "swat" me when 

 they get a chance. But the truth must be told, and apparently I am 

 elected by fate to tell it and to take the consequences— first lots of 

 "swats," but finally vindication, full and glorious, "for truth crushed 

 to earth will rise again"— and time will certainly demonstrate that my 

 views are sound and that it has been my good fortune to stumble onto 

 the true solution of our troubles in the way of soil destruction, and 

 which the accepted authorities have missed altogether. 



It is the mechanic who actually builds and operates the engine who 

 improves it. It is the man who actually follows the plow and who 

 comes in actual contact with mother earth who most accurately sees 

 and feels her needs. The same intimacy that you can develop with 

 your trees and flowers, you can also develop with mother earth herself. 



To say that soil becomes exhausted after thirty or forty years of 

 cultivation must be a mistake. If it were true, the race would speedily 

 starve. Nature must have a way- of finally overcoming the damage 

 which man, in his misguided enthusiasm, does during his stay upon a 

 given piece of land. 



If we climb up Time's ladder a little way, so that we can look out 

 over a period of say one hundred years, we will see that she finally 



