The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-11-15
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
Pleasant but Hard Work.


There is pleasure in the cultivation
of fruit. There is no branch of agri-
culture which is 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 I'M
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 INDECENT 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, if they ever
try 1t. 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 genealogical advancement in this
country has been the result of this
mental and physical toll. Success in
the business requires a 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
the garden is any place for lazy man,
and neither is it @ place for sick man,
If regard for the interests of the ORCH
ard or garden is thought of. The
garden or orchard will benefit the in
valid, but the invalid viii not benefit
either of them. 1t is far better for
such person to engage in general
farming, for they can not stand the
strain which profitable fruit culture
requires. 1t is true that after an
orchard once gets a start and comes
into bearing condition, the labor is
comparatively light. But even then,
as before said, there are new difficult
ties to be overcome and the mind and
hands will find enough to do to make
industrious habits and health a neces-
sity. 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 market gardeners on
the outskirts of our cities. They earn
all they get for their fruit and vegeta-
bles, 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 90,
for all the money they receive for a
seasons crops. Western Rural.