28 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIErY. 



THE ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



BY PRESIDENT J. C. EVANS, OF HARLEM. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Missouri State HoTticultural Society, 



and Citizens of Butler and Bates Comity : 



We have met to-day for the purpose of exhibiting af the products 

 of our toil, fair fruits, beautiful flowers and useful vegetables, and to-, 

 gain through the interchange of our thoughts and ideas information im- 

 portant to our success as horticulturists. We have come to this flour- 

 ishing young city on the invitation of the Bates County Horticultural 

 Society. We come hoping to have a meeting that will prove profita- 

 ble and pleasant to all. We trust we have chosen an auspicious time 

 and an auspicious place for this serai annual meeting, and that it will 

 excite a still greater interest in the work here and be an honor to this 

 beautiful and promising city. 



As we meet from year to year we find much of pleasure in the so- 

 cial enjoymenf, and we learn much from each other's experience. 



We are happy to note the progress made recently in this section 

 as well as in many other parts of the State by the organization of 

 county horticultural societies, and we say to all others that have not — 

 organize and let the good work go on until an abundant supply of the 

 best of fruits shall adorn the tables of every house in the land, the 

 poor laboring class as well as the prosperous farmers and wealthy peo- 

 ple of our cities and towns. Until fruits and vegetables become lead- 

 ing articles of food for all classes, and flowar^ and ornameatal trees and 

 plants adorn every home and lawn in the land, there will be a need 

 for these meetings. 



Some of the members of this society have worked hard for a score 

 of years, and while we are proud of the progress we have made, we 

 must admit we have advanced but little beyond the A B C's in this 

 great work. We have learned many valuable lessons (some by dearly 

 bought experience), but the field for advancement is yet unlimited. 

 Large districts of our State are still untouched as far as horticulture is 

 concerned, and yet they contain some of the very best fruit lands in 

 the world. Prof. Badd, of Iowa, after an extensive tour of investiga- 

 tion in Europe and America, has decided that the apple district of the 

 world is here in Western Missouri, Eastern Kansas, and Northwestern 

 Arkansas. 



