WINTER MEETING AT CARTHAGE. 143 



Mr. J. K. Gwynn, of the Missouri Commission of the World's 

 Fair, made a brief address to the Society. He said: 



I have no oration to deliver, but am f>lad to hear that you have a 

 successful meeting, and that there is great interest in the horticultural 

 exhibit at the Chicago exposition. Personally I feel a very great pride 

 in this Society. I am very glad to say to you now that day before 

 yesterday I heard Mr. J. M. Samuels, chief of the horticultural depart- 

 ment, say that the Missouri Horticultural Society was the best 

 Society of the kind in the United States. He was not talking to me, 

 and did not know that I was hearing him. It seems you have made a 

 reputation for yourselves abroad, throughout the country. This repu- 

 tation carries with it a responsibility. The people will expect some- 

 thing nice and worthy of you and the great State you represent at the 

 exhibition. I have not the least doubt that Missouri will be well 

 represented. I feel very good over the general situation. The chief 

 said a few days ago that Missouri was in the best condition of any 

 State in the Union. We have the best located space and double the 

 size of that of any other State. In the department of forestry I was 

 handed a diagram of the allotment of space day before yesterday. 

 We are well under way with the forestry exhibit. In the various 

 other exhibits we have also made good progress. 



Now the question will arise, what have you done to take care of 

 the space allotted us, and to see that it is well tilled ? 



We have the best collection of agricultural products I have ever 

 seen in my life. I had a great many promises from farmers to save for 

 us some of their best samples. Very few of them kept their promises. 

 I expected this, and discounted them in advance. Early in the spring 

 I put a man to work, going into the fields, cutting the grasses, grains, 

 etc., and sending them to St. Louis at once, where they were properly 

 cured and stored for the State exhibit. 



Our horticultural interests are decidedly in their infancy, but we 

 want to make an exhibit that will show the possibilities of our great 

 State. The horticultural exhibit alone will be the means of drawing to 

 the State of Missouri millions of dollars, and thousands of citizens to 

 look upon the cheap lands of our State, capable of making men rich 

 in a few years. I find even now this is t^ue. Every acre of land will 

 be increased in value by the exhibit at the Columbian Exposition. 



We want to begin with the very first strawberries, and keep up 

 the exiiibit of other fruits in their season. Our jars have kept well. 

 I think we have about a thousand of them in St. Louis, Kansas City 

 and other places. We have 141 barrels of the largest apples now 

 stored in Chicago, ready for the exhibit in the spring. We have sent 



