The Editor's Outlook. 



TT SEEMS strange at first thought 



THE MISSION ,.4. 1 -ij A 



r-r ^,,-,-^c- that vouug Children and womcn 



OF FLOli ERS. ■' ° 



and old people should care more 

 for flowers than do boys and middle-aged men, yet 

 it is not strange. The spirit of flowers belongs to 

 the calmer and tenderer virtues, and it is foreign to 

 the restless boy who is fired with indefinite aspira- 

 tions, and it is apt to find little room for lodgment 

 in the mind of ambitious manhood. But when the 

 years begin to soften passions and ambitions, the 

 first love of the flowers begins to return, and it re- 

 turns the more completely the more tender and care- 

 ful the disposition. Youth and old age meet in many 

 ways. It is a fond ideal of artists to picture the 

 child upon the grandfather's knee or frisking by his 

 side through the calm and shady fields. Nature 

 speaks to both, to one in some unknown and strange 

 emotion which inspires a wonder of what the great 

 world is and what it means, to the other with the 

 sweetness and nearness of a friend. Both love the 

 flowers because they appeal to their sentiments and 

 emotions. Life begins and ends at the same point, 

 in purity, emotion and love. To women flowers al- 

 ways appeal, because in them the fundamental af- 

 fections are less obscured by ambitions and sin. It 

 is a hopeful sign if some of the tenderness and 

 sweetness of childhood remains in the man, if the 

 flowers and nature still retain of their old-time fra- 

 grance and wonder. " It is character that counts, 

 after all." 



THE DISCIPLINE 

 OF DIFFICUL TIES. 



HT REGARD the yellows as 

 -'■ one the greatest blessings 

 which ever fell to the lot of 

 peach growers. It has checked the recklessness and 

 inflation which follow uniform success." This bit 

 of heresy was given us recently by a peach grower 

 of large experience and observation in the Chesa- 

 peake peninsula. We had ourselves taught that 

 diseases and difficulties which can be readily over- 

 come or can be checked without great sacrifice, are 

 directly beneficial to any community, because they 

 drive oat the shiftless and incompetent growers, and 

 because they lessen production, and, therefore, aid 

 in keeping prices within the limit of profit. But we 

 had hesitated to make the same declaration in re- 

 gard to such serious and obscure diseases as pear 



blight and yellows, and we had never thought of the 

 discipline of diificulties in checking the recklessness 

 of success. This, our informant assures us, has been 

 true in many parts of the Chesapeake country. It 

 is almost an axiom that the most staid and honest 

 people are found in regions where greatest effort is 

 demanded. 



It will be interesting to carry our friend's remark 

 to its logical conclusion. In the first place, difficul- 

 ties, whereever we find them, are moral goads. 

 The man who does not overcome thein must turn 

 out of their way. Therefore, they drive from any 

 business those men who are not staid and coura- 

 geous enough to oppose and overcome them ; they 

 rid the business of an uncertain and therefore un- 

 stable element. 



Again, difficulties engulf most seriously those who 

 are ignorant of the details of the business or who 

 lack perception and alertness. As a rule, other 

 thing being equal, the most competent men in any 

 business are those who have confined their atten- 

 tion to a comparatively small field. Difficulties, 

 therefore, tend to drive out the general or old-style 

 farmer, and the greater the difficulties the greater 

 must be the exodus. 



We cannot escape our friend's conclusions ; the 

 difficulties of any business drive out the incompetent 

 and careless, and tend to make specialists. And 

 the more serious the difficulties, the more intense 

 must be the specialization. General and mixed 

 farming, in connection with fruit growing, is con- 

 stantly becoming less satisfactory. 



Specialization is the salvation of our agriculture, 

 for whether we wish to throw the responsibility of 

 present depressions upon politicians or upon the 

 moon, it is still true that the man who is most skill- 

 ful in a special line is bound to be the most suc- 

 cessful. A prominent educator recently remarked 

 to us : "The agricultural colleges are bound to at- 

 tract more attention from the farmers, for the diffi- 

 culties of farming are constantly becoming greater. 

 The boys want help." 



'T'HE most urgent need of horticul- 

 -'■ turists in the direction of laws is 

 a statute in every state designed 

 to control fungous diseases of plants. The ravages 



FUNGI AND 

 THE ST A TE. 



