The Green Forest tribune., 1903-03-28
MAN WHO RAISES FRUITS,
Himself and Family, as Discuss ed by Judge I. E. Lawton.

= BeutenVille read the following papers entitled '"The Horticul- turi ist--Iiimself and Family:"
 According to the common defi- milton, d horticulturist is pro- ducer of fruit, and we will assume that this is a correct rendering of a language that is so dead that no man cares what those dead and gone people meant.
 Where circumstances admit of it most farmers raise fruit to a greater or less extent. The Northwestern wheat grower, the Southern cotton planter and the Western stock rancher are the principal exceptions. The horti- culturists, to man, own the land on which they plant their orchard, and this is one strong point in their favor. God never made renter. He may allow his creat- ures to rent land for a few years for some wise and inscrutable reason but the man who tills the soil should own 1t, either as an individual or as part of a com- munity. The renter who was here last year and is looking for another place for this year, plants no fruit If the farm he rents has fruit on it he accepts the good the gods provide and his children regard that place as home. As a rule the farm suffers from this migratory inhabitant and the renter himself and his family suf- fer from much moving and often lose the benefits of schools and the rights of citizenship.
 This is no Aggression from the subject, for it shows what the horticulturist is not. His orch ards may be large or small, but there is a look of permanence in all the surroundings; the sides and roof of the buildings are in fair repair, the fences show the presence of an owner, and the bushes do not encroach on the fence rows and orchards. This is the natural condition of the farm where horticulture has a recognized interest. The man votes for what he thinks is for his country's best interest and for i've mill school tax. He wants good roads, and, so help him, he will get them. He takes good farm and fruit papers and the literary needs of the family are not neglected. The woman fills her place in society and church and sends for flower catalogues galore. She keeps good chick ems and makes good money from them. She has flowers in doors and out and plants beans in the garden where her husband wants to cultivate. The children go to school, know how to pick straw berries, crate peaches and barrel apples. They are not compelled to steal fruit of the neighbors and early learn to eat good ripe fruit instead of green and immature trash.
 A good man says it is wrong to kill even the smallest boy for stealing fruit, ard he is no doubt correct. But the parent who raises his children without fruit of their own is liable to future punishment. Boy nature de- lnands fruit and they go out and begin on the ten commandments in the weakest place. The rest of the decalog may remain in full force, but it IS better to raise fruit for your children than to run any risks. Those who get the acid of fruit, green, canned and dried, seldom have craving for alcoholic drinks. After making due allowance for errors in the calculations of temperance reformers, the hard, cold fact re- mains that alcoholic drinks cost more than bread and meat, and cause more crime than even the greed for money. If the free use of fruit prevents, in any degree, this use of intoxicating liquors (and all statistics point that way), then the horticulturist is an aid to 8 great reform. If most of the farmers, and some of those who follow other professions, are horticulturists, a6 6least to the ex-