450 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sented, have an idea that it is a swamp, a wilderness, a veritable border 

 Indian hunting ground, not only uncultivated, but not susceptible of 

 cultivation. 



They have little or no idea of our flocks and herds, our pastures and 

 dairy products, our orchards and nurseries, our universities, colleges, 

 normal and other schools, our large cities and equal civilization to the 

 oldest States of the Union ; no idea of our population, the fertility of 

 our soil, the extent of our cultivated and pasture lands, and but little if 

 any knowledge of the State, unless it be the term of derision invented 

 for political purposes. Poor Old Missouri. 



Now, then, it is the wish to so present the products of our orchards 

 and of our fields, as that every one that sees them shall pronounce the 

 State one of the finest in the Union, the people abreast of the times in 

 all that can evidence enterprise, intelligence, thrift and commercial 

 progress ; for the State that can show the finest fruits and the best pro- 

 ducts of the soil, must be accredited to possess good farmers and first 

 class business capacity. We have no State Board of Immigration, no 

 means voted by the legislature to disseminate information abroad cal- 

 culated to attract the sons of the progressive and hardy farmers of th& 

 Northern and Eastern States, or of foreign countries ; hence what is 

 done in this regard must be done by private and individual enterprise,, 

 and by the officers of local and State associations. 



The enterprise which has made the State what it is to- day, must 

 take hold of the means at their command and spread their goods, wares^ 

 and merchandise before the world, at such time and place as that they 

 may be seen and admired by the greatest number, and the fame there- 

 of go out through all the land. We know no better time, no more con- 

 venient place than the St. Louis fair, managed in the interest of agri- 

 culture, attracting crowds by thousands from all parts, and nearlj 

 every State. But the work of maturing the plan of operations and of 

 putting the machinery into operation by which the enterprise is to be 

 brought to a successful issue, rests with our State societies and their 

 enterprising officers. — Colman's Rural World. 



A MISSOURI FRUIT SHOW. 



We believe in advertising our own goods, our own county, our own 

 State. We believe in doing it thoroughly and well, in order that all 

 who ought to know might know, and if they don't want to know we 

 will make them anyhow. Some think ignorance is bliss, we do not ;: 

 particularly when the bliss consists in knowing nothing of our grand 

 State and its grander future. There is hardly a crop prominently known 

 to American horticulture which it is desirable to cultivate that cannot 



