124 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In the absence of the Mayor of the city, Dr. C. C. Woods made 

 the address of welcome, and did it with considerable point and marked 

 abililty; making everybody feel at home and at their ease. President 

 Evans replied in a more than usually lengthy and pertinent address, 

 felicitating both the Society and the fruit growers of the State generally 

 on the progress made and the magnificent crops produced this year. 

 His address will be found elsewhere in full. We commend its earnest 

 perusal to our readers generally. Mr. Nelson read an address on 

 *'New Missouri." Mrs. Geo. B. Dagan, of Sedalia— " May Myrtle," the 

 well-known correspondent of the Rural World — was unable to be pre- 

 sent to read her paper," The Flower Garden, Wh8t to Use and 

 Why," and it was read by Miss Goodman with much grace and finish. 



Frank Hammon, of Amoret, Mo., opened the proceedings on Wed- 

 nesday, after the usual preliminary exercises, with an exhaustive and 

 very practical paper on " Preparing the Ground and Planting an Or- 

 chard." It met with a deservedly warm reception, and was of more than 

 ordinary thoroughness and ability. " How to take Care of Our Apples " 

 was another excellent paper by J. M. Purdy, of Neosho, who evidently 

 has noted the signs of the times, watched the markets and realized the 

 fact that there are good times to sell and good ways of keeping fruit 

 whilst holding it for the hasty ones to get rid of their stuff before he 

 wants to market his own. These papers were thoroughly discussed 

 and brought out many good points as to subsoiling, drainage, the depth 

 to plant, and the thought that no orchard should be planted on soil 

 that would hold water. Mr. Gardener, of Howell county, read a paper 

 on orcharding 15,000 apple and peach tiees, equally divided. Here 

 again we had the man who knew what he had done, could do, and 

 how to do it; and impressed the listener with the thought that too 

 much care cannot be devoted to the preparation of such papers from 

 the fact that they are widely reproduced by the press and read and 

 followed by hundreds of thousands. The paper was thoroughly and 

 instructively discussed by Messrs. Evans, Goodman, Dr. Bailey, of 

 New Mexico, Gano, Gardner and others, and drifted into the question 

 of the best varieties for commercial orchards. Here, there, was an 

 expression of confidence ^et in the Ben Davis and its very general 

 planting, especially on some soils, in which it evidently did better than 

 others; and yet it was not difficult to discover an undercurrent of 

 thought, if not of apprehension, that the Ben Davis was as an apple 

 unworthy, and that sooner or later an improvement would be found 

 that would set its showy qualities aside and afford both color and 

 quality as well. 



