Winter Meeting. 351 



I regard these excursions as being of even greater importance than 

 the University study itself. It is, how^ever, highly desirable to make 

 the University a base and to get acquainted with the University and 

 Experiment Station men^ so as to secure the benefit of their knowledge 

 and experience in planning excursions and in securing access to tl:e 

 places and things that one most wishes to see. However, the Univer- 

 sity work is itself most excellent. In many respects they excell us in 

 America. In addition to getting better acquainted with the language 

 and the Horticultural literature of the country it is of great value to 

 become acquainted with their laboratory methods, methods of con- 

 ducting experiments and to study their Agricultural and Horticultural 

 instruction in comparison with, our own. 



So far as fruit growing goes, it is everywhere evident that the Ger- 

 mans greatly fear American competition. They admit that they cannot 

 produce canned, preserved, dried and evaporated fruits that can compete 

 with the low priced American product. The only opportunity left to 

 them in this field is to produce a very superior article, regardless of ex- 

 pense, and to sell it for a big price. It is eventually consumed by those 

 who are willing to pay a big price for the best article. They also find it 

 more profitable to grow varieties of the highest quality than to plant for 

 largest yield, as they can get fancy prices for the best fruit, wrapped and 

 shipped in small baskets. 



They laugh at the low grade of American fruit, whether green or 

 preserved, and fraudulent practices in American fruit dealing are a 

 standing joke in Horticultural circles. When a thing is small in the 

 middle and big^ at both ends, or fine looking outside and bad within, it is 

 likened to the American apple barrel. 



It seems to me we ought to make a point of supplying only a first- 

 class, honest product for the European trade and if we do it, it will go 

 farther than any other one thing toward enlarging our fruit trade abroad. 



I never before realized how much I would miss meeting with the 

 Horticidtural Society. If every fruit grower in Missouri could realize 

 what a good thing those Horticultural meetings really are, as thoroughly 

 as one can when the ocean separates him from them, they would be packed 

 to overflowing until a special pavilion would have to be constructed to 

 hold the crowd. 



I have attended numerous fairs and horticultural exhibits over 

 here, and while the fairs themselves were good, I continually found 

 myself getting a trifle homesick through failure to see a single face 

 that reminded me of the Missouri Horticultural Society. I would 

 have given more to see a single plate of Ben Davis, with Evans, 

 Goodman, Murray, Miller, Robnett or Nelson sampling it, than I 



