He put the machine-shops to work constructing the big gold dredge on which he had experimented one summer.
He had a pet scheme of farming which had come into his mind from watching his father's gardener the year before raise the most delicious cantaloups he had ever tasted. He discovered the secret of their marvellous sweetness and leaped to an instantaneous conclusion. He had the opportunity to test this inspiration now on a scale as vast as his dreams.
He called the superintendents and overseers of the farm together, and asked their plans for the crop on the five hundred acres of fertile lands under cultivation. They gave him their schedule for a variety of crops.
"Won't this soil grow cantaloups?" he asked.
They all reported that it would.
"Then I suggest that the entire acreage be planted in these vines."
To a man they declared the plan absurd.
"But suppose," he persisted, "that we raise and send to the East the most delicious melon they have ever tasted, and suppose we get three dollars a crate, we will make three hundred dollars an acre and our first crop will be worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
They laughed at him.
"Do you know," smilingly inquired the superintendent, "how much it will cost to plant and harvest such a crop?"