186 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trious, intel]i{?eut people, who will cause the wilderness and the solitary 

 places to be made glad, and the desert to become a fruitful field; who 

 will delve down deep into the mines and force them to yield up their 

 rich treasures; who will utilize the granite and marble to build stately 

 edifices, institutions of learning, and temples in which to worship God ; 

 who will build up large manufacturing centers where commerce will 

 ever roll her golden tide along; who, through the vim and energy of 

 her people and the knowledge gained by them through a rapidly ad- 

 vancing civilization, will utilize the power of wind and water, and com- 

 bine the forces of nature to serve the highest good of man. 



But what, now, of the orchard question in these northwestern 

 states If From their latitude and distance from large bodies of water, 

 and being subject to sweeping winds, extreme drouths and excessive 

 changes from extreme heat to extreme cold, there can be no reasonable 

 hope that orchards of apples, pears and peaches will ever be a success. 

 They may grow an abundance of certain varieties of small fruits, plums 

 and crab-apples, but for their supply of fine apples, pears and peaches 

 they are destined to be dependent on other more highly favored fruit- 

 growing states. 



The south half of Iowa and southeastern Nebraska are doubtless 

 the most favored sections for the production of these fruits in all the 

 eight states spoken of; but their apples, in size and keeping qualities, 

 will not begin to compare with those of Missouri. Professor Budd, of 

 Iowa, a man of national reputation, and one who stands in the front 

 rank of horticulture, says of Iowa apples tliat " the dealers at Ames 

 and adjoining towns do not care to handle them on account of their 

 poor keeping qualities," and further states that even the oaks of cen- 

 tral Iowa are injured by the drouth. As for the Dakotas, it is impossi- 

 ble to get apple-trees to live there. One man I heard from planted ten 

 acres of box elders, and after they had grown ten feet high they were 

 all killed by the drouth. Seventy-five miles west from the Missouri 

 river, in ISlebraska, apples do no good. Prof. J. Meyer, formerly of 

 Holt county, Missouri, but for a number of years past in charge of the 

 Experiment station at Lander, Wyoming, some weeks ago sent me 

 some fair specimens of the Wealthy and some very nice crab-apples ; 

 but he informs me that the Ben Davis, Janet and other choice varieties, 

 after growing a year or two have been killed by 45 degrees below zero. 



I mention these drawbacks and disasters to the orchards of the 

 northwestern states, not that I wish to discourage the brave and ener- 

 getic people who occupy them, but rather to encourage the fruit-grow- 

 ers of our own great State, especially those of Northwest Missouri, 

 by showing that ve have in the people of those northwestern states a 



