Clearly defined purpose and consecutive effort in the affairs of life will eventuate in the attaining of a due measure of success. In the business world, as well as in all other departments of the material world, effect logically follows cause, and in the analyzation of a successful career we find that prosperity has resulted from effort well directed, from sound judgment and from indefatigable enterprise. It is true that sometimes incompetent men win success, but their wealth comes as the effect of the labor of some one. One of the most prominent business men of central Ohio is William N. Scarff, and his efforts have resulted largely in promoting horticultural interests in this state. In that department of business life he sustains a very wide reputation, being known throughout the country in connection with certain improvements and progress in his chosen field of labor.

Mr. Scarff was born in Miami county, December 19, 1863, his parents being John J. and Mary E. (Neff) Scarff. They were married in Miami county and the father became a most successful farmer and stock raiser, making a specialty of the breeding of Devonshire and Jersey cattle and of Poland China and Chester White swine. He also raised fine poultry, and in the various departments of his business met with creditable success. His sales became very extensive and he was widely known in connection with his stock raising interests, his efforts being largely instrumental in advancing the grade of stock raised by the farmers of this locality. His life has been one of activity and enterprise, but he is now living retired, at the age of seventy-four years, enjoying the rest which he has truly won and richly deserves.

William N. Scarff spent his boyhood days upon his father's farm and in the district schools acquired his elementary education, which was supplemented by two years' study in the Ohio State University. Failing health compelled him to abandon his collegiate course, and with the hope of being benefited by outdoor life he began fruit raising on a very small scale, having an acre of land, which he planted to various kinds of small fruits. That was the nucleus of his present extensive business. As his sales have increased he has enlarged his facilities, has secured new varieties of fruit and has done much toward producing superior qualities. He has extended the field of his operations by building up a large nursery trade, and he has to-day two hundred and fifty acres of valuable land devoted to the fruit and nursery business. He makes a specialty of small fruits, and in the year 1899 he raised twenty-five hundred bushels of strawberries and five hundred bushels each of raspberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries. Throughout the year he furnishes regular employment to from fifteen to twenty men, during the packing season to from fifty to seventy-five men and women and during the picking season to from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty. He has made a very close and comprehensive study of the needs of various fruits, and his thorough understanding has enabled him to produce fruit of a superior size, quality and flavor. He has recently planted a new orchard of cherries, plums and peaches, having fifteen hundred trees of each kind. An eighty-acre farm, four miles north of Dayton, is devoted entirely to his nursery business, and in 1896 he purchased the old Scarff homestead of one hundred and forty-four acres in Miami county. This he has also planted to fruit and nursery stock. In 1899, in company with his brother, M. T. Scarff, of Michigan city, North Dakota, he also purchased his father's homestead in Clark county, of two hundred and thirty-two acres, and there he engages in fruit growing, general farming and stock raising. His nursery business is confined to the production of small-fruit plants, which he produces to the amount of over two million annually, his yearly sales bringing him from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. He sells to the wholesale trade and also sells through catalogues, of which he sends out fifty thousand annually. Mr. Scarff introduced the Eureka raspberry, an early black-cap and one of the finest of the class; also the Munger raspberry, a later market fruit, and the Marie strawberry. The strawberry is a splendid producer and is very superior in size and flavor, being especially adapted for home consumption and for the market. In his farming he makes a specialty of producing the finest kinds of cereals, corn, wheat and oats, his idea being to secure seed grain of the popular varieties and superior quality. These he sells in connection with his nursery stock. During his boyhood he assisted his father in the care of poultry, and still makes a specialty of the raising of White, Buff and Barred Plymouth Rocks and Seabright Bantams. They also have a flock of genuine wild geese, which have been raised from a pair domesticated by Mr. Scarff's father forty years ago. You will also find upon the farm many other rare land and water fowls, such as peacocks, guinea and sea fowls.

On the 17th of September, 1890, Mr. Scarff was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ella Miller, of New Carlisle, and they now have three interesting children: Max Miller, Howard Neff and Lucile. The parents are members of the New Carlisle Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mr. Scarff is a trustee. For ten years he has been a member of the State Horticultural Society, and for three years has been and now is its vice-president. He was also a member of the Miami County Horticultural Society for fifteen years, and in 1895 he organized the Clark County Horticultural Society, since which time he has been its president. His entire life has been passed in this section of the state, and his career, ever honorable and upright, has won him the high regard and respect of all with whom he has come in contact. There is but one general ruler of a nation, be he king, emperor or president, and but few attain to positions of leadership in military life, but the business world offers a vast field to those who are ambitious enough to prosecute their labors with diligence. Many can attain prominence in commercial and industrial circles, and there is ever room for leaders in this direction--men who are not content to follow in the paths of progress, but go beyond into new and untried fields, making discoveries and promoting methods which prove of benefit to the race. This Mr. Scarff has done. He is recognized as one of the leading horticulturists of Ohio, and his prominence has gone beyond the borders of his native state. Marked success has attended his efforts and it has been worthily won, being the just reward of earliest labor and capable management.