TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 101 



The committee on the president's address submitted the following: 



We have noted the various suggestions offered by President Lyon, and recommend 

 the following action: The executive board have appointed the president and secretary 

 a committee to confer with the county and local societies, to secure a re-establishment 

 of the former auxiliary arrangement. We recommend that the action be approved, as 

 it can not fail to benefit the cause of horticulture, and will secure a proper distribution 

 of the Reports. Regarding the distribution of the Reports in the northern portion of 

 the state, to farmers' clubs and similar organizations, we recommend that it be left 

 with the president and secretary with full power. We advise that the exchange of our 

 Reports with sister societies, boards of agriculture, etc., be continued whenever practi- 

 cable. We believe the society should accept the offer of the division of pomology, and 

 would urge all members to furnish their names to our society that they may regu- 

 larly receive these periodicals. The bulletins of the state experiment station and the 

 report of the state board of agriculture will also be furnished free of expense to any 

 member of this society, and a request is all that is necessary to receive them. The 

 matter of legislative appropriation for the Columbian Exposition has already received 

 attention by the executive board, and Messrs. Monroe and Watkins were appointed as 

 a legislative committee. We can only assure them of our hearty support and best 

 wishes for their success. In case arrangements are made with the Detroit Exposition 

 for the coming year, we believe some steps should be taken to secure the accurate 

 nomenclature of the different exhibits. We recommend the appointment of a special 

 committee who shall perform this work if called upon to do so. While the report of 

 the society for 1889 was delayed by the illness of the secretary, we trust his new lease 

 of life will permit him to place the copy for the next report in the printer's hands soon 

 after the opening of the new year. L. R. Taft, 



S. H. Comings. 



The secretary was instructed to certify to the officials of the Columbian 

 Exposition, the resolutions against Sabbath opening of the World's Fair. 



Mr. Roland Morrill of Benton Harbor read a paper, here given in 

 full, upon 



THE FUTURE OF COMMERCIAL FRUITGROWING. 



The question which interests the grower of fruits for market more than 

 any other, is the question of profits, and includes so many and so varied 

 circumstances and conditions that it demands our deepest thoughts and 

 best judgment to make the business profitable. 



The fact that ordinary, slipshod, hit-or-miss fruitgrowing has been 

 profitable in the i)ast, must not be accepted as evidence that the same 

 methods will be successful in the future, for the profits secured in the past 

 have caused a wonderful extension of the business, which now has at its 

 head some of the best business men in the country, with abundance of 

 capital, planting and managing orchards and plantations of such size as 

 to cause us to wonder where and how the product is to be marketed. 



Think of apple orchards ranging from 40 to 1,000 acres each, being set 

 all over the great state of Missouri, and running as high as 1,400 acres in 

 Kansas, with orchards of 40 to 100 acres common in a large portion of 

 Illinois and Arkansas — then tell us what you are going to do with your 

 apples when all these fine orchards of Ben Davis, Willow Twig, Jonathans, 

 Winesap, Huntsman's Favorite, etc., begin to pour their annual product 

 into the markets which we have called ours for years. 



We must not flatter ourselves that they will not succeed, for they have 

 a favorable soil and climate, with plenty of brains and capital — in fact, 

 one of these mammoth orchards sold this season $70,000 worth of apples 

 and is not nearly all in bearing yet. We find the same thing repeated in 



