20 State Horticultural Society. 



have claimed thai lionor perhaps, but very hkely the apples came from 

 ]\Iissoiiri. As I have already said, we have not overcome all fruit ene- 

 mies, and in some states many feel greatly discouraged. We have dis- 

 couraged ones in this State, some who would like to give up in despair; 

 there is the extreme cold, and the drouth, and our crops are not 

 what they should be. Yet we are not going to give up. We are like the 

 Artie explorers who meet with one defeat after another ; yet like them 

 we are only defeated to try again. We are pushing forward trying harder 

 than ever to reach the goal. Now, of course, it would be nice if we could 

 always have good crops. But we must not expect that. Wt are told that 

 we must eat our bread in the sweat of our brow and we will tind that 

 we must struggle to make a living and we can find failure anywhere. 

 The farmer. The farmer is a business man and must meet with failures 

 like any other man. Xow, last year, we had a partial failure of the apple 

 crop ; this year we have a drouth nearly all over the State, but we need 

 not give up. I once knew of a drouth in California that lasted a i,ooo 

 days ; they did not give up. Xo rain for almost 3 years. Of course 

 they depend on irrigation there. But when it does not rain for so long 

 the water supply gets low. 



Now I want to call your attention to a few plain facts. We some- 

 times get discouraged over our fruit crops here in Missouri. In Colo- 

 rado and California — now we think that the great fruit region. Why, 

 they don't have anything to do there. But I did not find it so. I will 

 tell you what I did find. At Grand Junction, Colo., 75 cars of peaches 

 Avere shipped from one point. I asked them if they were grown right 

 around there and they said "O, no." I looked around and couldn't see 

 anv place where they were growing. They then told me that they grew 

 awav up on the mountains some 30 and some 40 miles from there. Now, 

 these had to be picked and hauled through the country with wagons to 

 the shipping point and yet they said it was profitable. But I would not 

 like that business out there myself. They don't have a crop every year. 

 Then they have to carry their fruit wrapped in paper all this long dis- 

 tance, some 150 to 250 miles in some cases. Think of the work, then 

 the freight and the likely price at the other end of the line and yet they 

 think it is profitable. Now, out in the fruit parts of California. The 

 orange is the main crop. They often have 5,000 cars or more to ship. 

 They have their enemies and yet they have converted the deserts into the 

 most beautiful groves of orange and lemon that you will ever see any- 

 where. I saw a most beautiful tract of 1,000 arces of lemons. Then they 

 have the prunes there. But one thing, my friends, you don't see the neg- 

 lected orchard there like you do here in ^lissouri and Arkansas and 

 Texas. No, sir; they believe in good cultivation. Every foot of or- 



