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Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL
Newspaper Page Text
JACOB HIGGINS AND PEACHES By Hi Akers (Copyright, 1917, W. G. Chapman.) Matthew Dakin came out -of the Agricultural college considerably im pressed with the practical knowledge and sound sense of Jacob Higgins' lecture on peach growing. As a rule Mr. Dakin did not attend lectures. They generally bored him; also the oretical farming was to him of little account. It will be inferred that Matthew Dakin had yet, in spite of his 55 years, much to learn; but so has any one who allows himself to become prejudiced and run in nice, smoothly worn ruts. He had inherited a comfortable fortune, mostly in real estate in a large western city, and the care and management of it had kept him busy; but for the past ten years he had given more and more time to the culture of his garden and orchard belonging to his pretty country home a few miles from the city. The work became so alluring that he had de cided to go into fruit raising on a large scale. For this reason he sought all the information on the subject he could find, and having been told that Jacob Higgins was a great authority on peach culture, he went to the lecture. Before he came out he had arranged with Higgins ior a private conference concerning his venture. Dakin's other great interest in life was his daughter, Sue. She was all he had. Her mother had died some ten years before and Sue, having been graduated from an eastern col lege, was now in Chicago studying illustrating, for which she had a con siderable talent and liking. Her fa ther was anxiously looking forward to the time when she would again be borne with him. Marriage for his daughter was something he had not yet considered , or, if it did flit into his mind it meant her settling down ntMi h's home and within easy reach. The conference with Higgins re sulted in Dakin asking him if he would go with him and take a Iook at a large tract of land which had been represented to him as especial ly adapted to peach growing, and which he intended to buy for that purpose. Higgins went with him and, after a careful examination, convinced him that it was neither the right soil nor location for peach raising, and Dakin did not purchase. The owner, who had hoped to sell, Angrily Denounced Higgins as a Grafter. angrily denounced Higgins as a "grafter," with something else to sell, but as no proposition was inade to Dakin he was more than ever con vinced of the honesty and integrity of Jacob Higgins. He promised Higgins he would look him up the next time he went east, as he wanted very much to see his peach orchard Sue always spent the holidays with her father, and ifaUyMArfiMMiM