The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1896-07-29
SOME CAUSES OF FAILURES.

The average American desires to have
the appearance of doing we'll, whether he
is or not, and in many cases this tendenc,
brings not only himself into trouble bu
others with whom he associates or owe
whom his sayings and doings may have
some influence. For instance, man may
start in some new project in which he ha
the utmost confidence but when the projec
is put under way he must meet with
numerous drawbacks that did not have g
place in his plans and were not arranged
for hence, when the ledger is balanced he
finds that the venture did not materialize
as he had anticipated and planned it would
and he was loser. To acknowledge thai
he has made failure requires more cour
age than he possesses and his desire tc
appear as doing we'll prevents him from
telling the whole truth about his venture
He may not tell direct falsehood, yet hi
replies to inquiries are such as would b.
misleading, and give the impression tina
it turned out all right. He may still have
faith enough in his project to go still
deeper and consequently people are led tc
invest their money in a way that they
would have avoided had they known the
whole truth We know an orange grower
that tried to impress his neighbors and
hearers that his method of handling and
packing fruit was far IN advance of theirs.
When he received his returns for ship
ment and the price received happened to
be good he proclaimed it was the direct
result of his methods; but no one ever
heard about the poor returns. The letter
was quickly showed down into his pocket
and his neighbors were left to wonder why
he never had any bad luck. 1t was
noticed, however, that his wonderful (?)
success did not make any very great i'm
provement in his surroundings and that in
reality he did not seem to get along so we'll
as his less-knowing neighbors. This man,
however, has his influence and some one is
induced by his braggadocio ways to follow
There is another class of people who
cannot bear to see others succeed unless
they at once endeavor to get a part of the
business, and it not infrequently happens
that when there was good living for one
or two more would cause a failure, as the
demand would not exceed the supply.
This is not intrequently the case in Florida
gardening. Some one puts out an acre of
a certain kind of vegetable and hits every
thing just right and large returns are the
result. The wonderful profit" is heralded
abroad and at once numerous others
attempt the same thing without first con
sidering whether there is chance for &
failure and their entire labor expended
Again a great many venture on a large
scale to grow fruit or vegetables without
previous knowledge and at the end of a
few years they are stranded and want tc
blame some one for it. We have in mind
a grape grower who became enthusiastic
over the success of few vines and at once
put out ten acres. We advised him not to
do it as he would get more than he could
handle. The first year the vines were
cared for nicely and they did we'll The
second year they received little attention
so that the grapes produced were not up to
the best aud the returns low, consequently
the venture is pronounced failure. Had