136 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



But lest I weary you, I must close this outlining of work to any 

 greater extent. Enough, I am sure, I have said, to open the way for a 

 series of experiments, which, if judiciously followed, and a plan laid 

 out 80 that if one man drops out another can go on with it to its com- 

 pletion. If this address, this night, will have opened the way for the 

 accomplishment of these great facts successfully, or if it has opened 

 up a new line of thought to any of you that you would like to see fol- 

 lowed, I shall have accomplished my purpose ; and unless these ends 

 are kept in view, and this worJc is carried on successfully and with some 

 sort of plan, then the whole Experiment station is a failure, and the 

 sooner the Station and the College are separated from the University, 

 the better it will be for the College and Station, and all concerned. 



J. C. Evans — This paper opens up a vast field for discussion. I 

 want to say a few words. It is not generally known by the people of 

 the State of Missouri that the government of the United States gives 

 the State some $40,000 a year for the work of the Agricultural College 

 and the Experiment station. This much money is absorbed every 

 year, and what have we done? We have not a college that is worth 

 the name. Mr. Waters is here ; he is familiar with this work, and can 

 cover the ground. 



Col. Waters — This question is too big to discuss now. I am not 

 disposed to lay the censure so much upon the Board of Curators and 

 the professors in charge as upon the organic laws. The Board of 

 Curators, the President of the University, the Dean of the Agricultu- 

 ral College and the Director of the Station shift the responsibility 

 about from one to the other. Nobody knows why anybody else failed 

 to accomplish the work to be done. I think the management should 

 be changed. It is certainly doing us no good whatever as now con- 

 ducted. Who is to blame and who is to censure I don't know. 



As a stock-raiser, I have watched far results from the College and 

 Station in vain. I am also with the horticulturists of this country. They 

 liave not taken up the breeding of fruits as they should have done. 

 Suppose we should pay no more attention to the breeding of stock 

 than has been paid to fruit. Our stock would go down in a few years 

 to the veriest scrubs. The American people and the people of Mis- 

 souri are being waked up to this question. I dare say they are wak- 

 ing up to the importance of this subject. 



Mr. Smithe said recently to the Trans-Mississippi convention at 

 St. Louis : " The American people can sleep longer and remain in 

 ignorance of their true condition, and awaken quicker, than any other 

 people upon earth." 



