The Colfax chronicle., 1888-12-22
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.



There is pleasure in the cultivation
of fruit. There is no branch of agri-
culture which is a more fertile source
OF enjoyment Our fruit growers live
in an atmosphere which is deliciously
perfumed. and man does not watch
the growth of his child with more un-
qualified pleasure than the fruit grower
watches the growth of the plant or the
tree, and the development and ripen-
ing 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 wrong impression
from this. They seem to think that
pleasure and labor are not compatible.
They imagine that pleasure in the or
chard or the garden means ease, and
even indolent ease. Sometimes they
go so far as to think when bad health
has wholly untitled them for any other
employment, 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 tree and sleep until the
harvest comes, you will find that they
are woefully mistaken, II they ever
try it. Fruit growing and gardening
are hard work, and it is work OF the
brain as well as the hands. There are
two things, one of which the seeker
after easy jobs will find conspic-
uous in his experience: he will either
never find such a job or he will never
amount to any thing. We do not know
of any thing that has been the subject
of more exhausting thought or harder
manual labor than fruit culture. Our
great pomological 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 oi
entirely new difficulties which he must
surmount with study and persevering
toll.
The reason that pomologists fine
pleasure in their avocation is largely
because they love to labor. They are
satisfied with the rewards of theil
labor, and so toll on patiently, the
limbs often being weary and the head
often aching. Neither the orchard mol
the garden is any place for a lazy man
and neither is it place for sick man
il regard for the interests of the orch
ard or garden is thought of. Tht
garden or orchard will benefit the in
valid, but the invalid will not benefit
either of them. 1t is far better fol
such person to engage in genera
farming, for they can not stand thu
strain which profitable fruit cultur'
requires. 1t is true that after al
orchard once gets start and comes
into bearing condition, the labor i
comparatively light. But even then
as before said. there are new Difficult
ties to be overcome and the mind ant
hands will find enough to do to maxi
Industrious habits and health neces
sity. But when we compare the labO
of general farming to the marke
garden, the labor attending the forme
is very much less than attending tn
latter. We know of no men who worl
harder than the market gardeners o.
the outskirts of our cities They ear
all they get for their fruit and vegeta
bles, and some of the naturally tire'
people who think that fruit growing
and gardening are such pretty wor
and easy work, would be unwilling t
labor week as these gardeners az
for all the money they receive for
seasons crops.-Western Rural.