CHAPTER 11. 



WHAT HAS BEEN AND MAY BE. 



Having pointed out the rock on which so many fair barks 

 have foundered, let us now look at the other side of the picture, and 

 see what has been done and may be done again by those who start 

 aright, and regard orange growing not as a pleasant pastime, but 

 as a serious, earnest business, to be carried out faithfully, carefully 

 and intelligently, like any other business in which success is de- 

 sired, and to be learned and studied as such. 



What reasonable man would expect to be successful in a 

 pursuit entirely new to him, without seeking such sources of prac- 

 tical knowledge thereof as might lay open before him? 



And yet there are men, who would bristle all over with in- 

 dignation were it to be hinted that they do not possess common 

 sense, who yet embark in a new life as orange growers, and think 

 they Avill succeed, while they scorn advice, refuse to seek counsel 

 of those whose experience is of many years standing, and turn 

 their backs scornfully upon the books and periodicals written by 

 practical men familiar to the business so new to them. 



Such self-sufficient egotists as these will fail, as orange 

 growers, and either leave Florida pronouncing her noble groves 

 humbugs, or else turn back to the beginning, and wisely seek 

 the course they before despised. 



The man who meets with as few drawbacks as possible, and 

 pushes forward his grove to its utmost capacity, is the man wdio 

 is not too proud to confess that he does not know more about as- 

 tronomy than the astronomer, more about geology than the geolo- 

 gist, more about farming than the farmer, more about orange 

 culture than the life-long orange grower. 



Therefore, ask opinions and advice from older settlers ; do not 

 take all you hear for facts, nor all for fiction ; take notes and com- 

 pare them ; weigh conflicting opinions and strike a balance ; look 

 about you wdth a view to learning^ something useful for you to 



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