MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 319 



a,nd upon capital invested, but in many instances affording comforta- 

 ble incomes to the producers. 



It is not believed that the business is now overdone, or that, even 

 in the near future, intelligent effort will not be rewarded with reasona- 

 ble success, notwithstanding the millions of trees that are annually 

 being put, and the new and extensive areas that are being planted. It 

 is not probable that the price of apples will average in the future as 

 high as in the past, but with the problem of cheap transportation 

 solved in favor of the fruit-grower, we will in all likelihood not seethe 

 day when that kind of fruit culture which is productive of the best re- 

 sults will not be a paj^ing business. 



It is to be hoped that with the great advantages which this county 

 possesses as a fruit-growing section, there will not be wanting those 

 who have both the means and the skill to engage largely in the enter- 

 prise of growing fruit for the market, for the advancement of not only 

 their own personal interests, but the promotion and enhancement of 

 the prosperity and wealth of the whole country. To accomplish such 

 ■satisfactory results, there must be brought to the business that enter- 

 prise and those methods that would insure success in other vocations. 

 Special adaptability and skill, with no small share of practical as well 

 as scientific information, is needed, but not in greater degree, perhaps, 

 than would accomplish the highest and bes tresults in other directions, 

 and compel success in these times of hard conditions and strong com- 

 petition in every avenue of employment. With the prices of our 

 cereals and live-stock depressed almost beyond the point of profitable 

 production, it would seem the part of wisdom, in consideration of the 

 adaptability of our soils and climate to the successful cultivation of 

 fruits, and the superior advantages which our locality possesses for the 

 cheap transportation of the products of our orchards to the markets 

 of the country, that we turn our attention more to fruit-growing, and 

 it is to be hoped that in a few years our hills and slopes may be 

 crowned with thrifty, prosperous and profitable orchards. 



" Polleiiizatioii." 



By Joseph Kircbgraber, Springfield, Mo. 



The above subject, assigned me by the Executive committee, is 

 rather a complicated one, but, nevertheless, the most important and 

 essential in nature, for without the^proper fertilization there would be 

 no fruits. How many tillers of the soil^know anything about this, the 



