Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-01-07


q atmosphere which is ieliciously per
TUNED, and q man does not watch the
growth Of his child with more unquali-
fed pleasure than the fruit grower
watches the growth of his plant or tree,
and the development and ripening of the
fruit; and the pomologist and the
writer upon the cultivation of fruit
never tire of dilating upon the pleasure
experienced in fruit growing. But
many people get q wrong impression
from this. They seem to think that
pleasure and work are not compatible.
They imagine that pleasure in the Or
chard or the garden means ease, and even
indolent ease. Sometimes they 20 so far
as to think when bad health has wholly
untitled them for any other employ
ment, fruit culture is precisely the
thing for them to enter upon. Now,
whoever thinks that there is nothing
to do in this business but to get under q
tree and sleep until the harvest comes,
will find that they are woefully mis-
taken, if they ever try 1t. Fruit grow
ing and gardening are hard work, and
it is work OF the brain as we'll as the
hands. There are two things, one of
which the seeker after easy jobs will
find conspicuous in his experience; ne
will either never find such a job or he
will never amount to anything. We do
not know of anything that has been the
subject of more exhausting thought or
harder manual labor than fruit culture.
Our great genealogical advancement in
this country has been the result OF this
mental and physical toll. Success in
the business requires very intimate
acquaintance with some of the most
perplexing sciences, and almost every
year the fruit grower runs amuck of
entirely new difficulties which he must
surmount with study and persevering
toll.
The reason that pomologists find
pleasure in their avocation is largely
because they love to labor. They are
satisfied with the rewards of their labor,
and SO toll on patiently, the limbs often
being weary and the head often aching.
Neither the orchard nor tie garden is
any place for lazy man, and neither is
it a place for a sick man, if regard for
the interests of the orchard or garden
are thought of. The garden or orchard
| will benefit the invalid, but the invalid
will rot benefit either of them. It is
far better for such person to engage
in general farming, for they cannot
| stand the strain which profitable fruit
culture requires. It is true that after
an orchard once gets start, and comes
into bearing condition, the labor is
comparatively light. But even then,
as before said, there are new difficulties
to be overcome and the mind and hands
will find enough to do to make industri-
GUS habits and health necessity. But
when We compare the labor Of general
farming to the market garden, the labor
| attending the former is very much less
than attending the latter. We know of
no men who work harder than the mar
ket gardeners Oh the outskirts of our
cities. They earn all they get from
their fruit and vegetables, and some of
the naturally tired people who think
that fruit growing and gardening are
! such pretty work, and easy work, would
be unwilling to labor week as these
gardeners do, for all the money they
receive for seasons crops Western
Rural.