WINTER MEETING. 135 



we hare come partly for oar pleasure, let us strive together that it may 

 be for your good as well as your pleasure. Let us build on that foun- 

 dation that has been by nature so well laid, until your section shall 

 have attained to that prominence it so justly merits, until |your hills 

 and your valleys shall blossom as the rose, and in due season bear 

 fruit in abundance until horticulture shall be your leading industry, 

 and your means of transportaUon be taxed to their utmost capacity to 

 bear your products to the markets of the world. Your section is pos- 

 sessed of all the elements and surrounding conditions to render all 

 this possible, and it is only necessary for your people to avail them- 

 selves of the many advantages so lavishly spread out before them by 

 nature, and with the proper energy, industry and good judgment reach 

 such results. It is the purpose of the State Horticultural Society to 

 aid and assist, not only the people of your section, but those of all sec- 

 tions within the borders of the State, and as mach as may be, those 

 beyond our borders, to the end that Missouri shall be placed first in- 

 stead of fourth in the production of horticultural products. 



With the help and cooperation of the people and the proper en- 

 couragement from our Legislature, this is all possible. Every man and 

 every woman in the State who makes any pretentions to horticulture,. 

 or who owns and lives on an acre of land, should become a member 

 of this Society and receive the benefits of its work, and assist in bene- 

 fitting others by their knowledge and experience. Our Legislature 

 should by all means increase the appropriation to the Society to $5000 

 a year instead of $3500, as it now is. Such a change would insure a 

 much more rapid development of the horticultural interests of the 

 State, and in time the State would reap the benefit of increased rev- 

 enue. Who can look into the future and tell what the possibilities of 

 the great State of Missouri will bring within the next generation '? 

 Long ago the question was asked, where will be the future orchards of 

 the world? That question was answered then just as the actual facts 

 and figures are demonstrating today. Missouri and her border states. 

 Northwestern Arkansas, Eastern Kansas, Southern Iowa, Western 

 Kentufiky and the entire portion of your own great State. Nature has 

 so endowed this section, the very center of the United States with all 

 the elements that go to make up a rich country, and especially a fruit 

 country, soil, climate, altitude, rain and sunshine, that it is justly en- 

 titled to be called the garden spot of the United States. Here may 

 be grown any and all of the known fruits (except the tropical), and all 

 the staple food products that enter into commerce or go to make food 

 for the human race, besides much raw material for the manufacturer. 



