1(30 State Horticultural Society. 



trade. Over one million barrels of apples were sent to Europe in the 

 past month or ;N"ovember. The prosi>ect for high prices is very sat- 

 isfactory. In the summer I predicted that apples would be worth from 

 $2.50 to $3.00 per barrel this fall. Yesterday I found them selling in 

 St. Joseph at $2.75 to $3.25 for Xo. 1 Ben Davis; $4.00 for Xew York 

 Baldwins, and $5.00 for home grown Jonathan and Grimes. At these 

 prices they should be very profitable. I also found the Missouri per- 

 simmon in the market at fifteen cents per quart. If nuts can be grown 

 in Italy, shipped across the ocean and sold in the United States for ten 

 cents per pound, at a profit, we should certainly be able to grow them at 

 a profit in this country, and surely none need fear the overproduction 

 of first-class fruit ; luit we must have better culture and better care. 

 We must foster and care for our feathered songsters. The horde of 

 insects which prey upon our fruit must be overcome. We must handle 

 our fruit carefully and put it in nice packages. We must be right at 

 the front along these lines. We must try to excel if we want the Eur<i- 

 ■-oean market. We must try to make a good exhibit at the Paris Expo- 

 sition next year. Our worthy secretary, Mr. Goodman, Mr. Gano, ^iv. 

 Evans, and others, have some seventy barrels of apples now in cold 

 storage at Kansas City for this purpose. We want to capture the 

 Erench market. jSTow we do not send many apples to Paris, most of 

 our exports go to England and Germany. We also want to make a 

 show of our fruits at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. Xew 

 York, in 1901. In 1903, at St. Louis we must make the best exhibit 

 the world has ever seen, at the celebration of the Louisiana purchase. 

 So you see there is a great deal of work before us, in the near future, in 

 the way of letting the world know of our wonderful resources and pos- 

 sibilities in the production of fine fruits. 



I want to sav that there is a great deal to be learned in horticulture. 

 Some of us have been working at it for a life time ; still we do not feel 

 that we have learned much. We think we are just beginning to see the 

 light. We find that in fruit growing one succeeds where another fails, 

 and why? One knows how; the other does not. L-et us conununicate 

 to each other our knowledge and experience. We have good horticul- 

 tural literature. Let ns spread it over the land. Let us adorn aii'l 



