188 STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



not pee the point ? A hint to the wise is sufficient. These choice fruit 

 lands will soon double in price, for what other industry will compare 

 with our orchards of Northwest Missouri? Where can you tind or 

 make a safer investment, or one that will pay so large a dividend ? 

 Where can you find so rich a country, or one so beautiful or more 

 healthy? Where will you And better schools, churches and colleges? 

 Where will you find the people more industrious, intelligent, thrifty, 

 prosperous, happy and contented than in Northwest Missouri ? 



I pause for an answer ; but it comes not, and 1 pass on. Shall we 

 be contented with what we have already achieved ; fold our arms and 

 sit down to enjoy the victory already won ; consume the feast prepared 

 and leave the fragments for those who shall come after us? No ! No ! 

 Horticulturists are not built that way. Our aim is higher than self, our 

 march onward and upward to newer fields and greater victories. Our 

 ambition is to make and leave this old world better than we found it, 

 that our memory may live in the hearts and affections of a grateful 

 people who have been benefited by our labor, rather than to have 

 beautiful epitaphs carved in costly monuments of cold inanimate mar- 

 ble. And so we live and labor ; plant and grow our orchards; seek to 

 originate new and better varieties ; seek through a practical applica- 

 tion of scientific methods to overcome our insect enemies, to improve 

 on planting, the care and cultivation of our orchards, on picking, 

 packing, handling and the marketing of our fruits ; in short, do all in 

 our power, through the medium of our State and local societies and in 

 every other possible way, to impart the information learned by long 

 years of costly experience, to others, that we may encourage them to 

 take hold in earnest and plant more orchards and give them better 

 care ; that we may induce men of small capital, who are not able to 

 buy a farm, and our young men, who may have little or no money, but 

 who have a fortune in young blood and strong muscles, to secure a 

 piece of our choice fruit land of Northwest Missouri — if only ten 

 acres — go to work in good faith, remembering that you are the archi- 

 tects of your own fortunes, and that God helps those who make hon- 

 est, earnest effort. 



Plant an orchard. How much! If you have only 10 or 20 acres, 

 plant it all in apples, mostly Ben Davis, some Jonathan and Winesap. 

 Orow garden truck and berries among your apple trees to live on while 

 you are waiting for your trees to come into bearing. Keep some pigs 

 and poultry ; build a house, if but a rude, cheap cottage ; keep it light 

 with cheerfulness, and warm with the tire of love. Your wife and chil- 

 dren will enjoy such a home more than a rented palace, with rent over- 

 due and nothing to pay with. Strike out boldly, and with self-reliance 



