WINTER MEETING. 185 



I remember aa elderly gentleman who came down the aisle of the Horticul- 

 tural building, not paying any particular attention to the exhibit as he passpd 

 along until he came to Missouri, and then he looked. He went on a little farther 

 and it was Missouri, and farther, and it was still Missouri, and by that time he 

 had gotten to the end of our display. He turned around and looked at it and 

 uttered what I believe was the honest conviction of his heart. He said to the rest 

 of his party: "That is pretty good for old Missouri." But while there were 

 those who were prejudiced, narrow-minded and selfish, it was a satisfaction to see 

 that the great majority of World's fair visitors were looking for the truth. They 

 were there to learn what they could do— were willing to bestow praise and credit 

 wherever it was due. 



The Missouri fruit exhibit was an eye-opener to millions of northern and 

 eastern people, who never knew of the marvelous resources of this grand State. 

 To others who knew of our resources as a fruit state, they said : "This is just 

 what we expected." Take Missouri's exhibits as a whole, in all departments, and 

 where is a state tbat made better for the amount of money spent, or that will reap 

 a larger harvest for her efiorts ? 



Our fame has spread all over the civilized world, even to' the islands of the 

 sea. We were shown an article published in a Sidney ( Aust ) paper in which the 

 writer attempted to correct an erroneous impression current in that country, to 

 the effect that the fruit region of the U. S. was limited to California, and a stiip 

 along the Atlantic coast. He says, "right in the very center of the U. S. on the 

 hills and plateaus of the Ozarks is grown the king of commercial apples, known 

 by the name of Ben Davis." He was very loud in his praise of the Missouri 

 apples, as to their beauty, high quality and long-keeping qualities. The Austra- 

 lian fruit-grower, you will bear in mind, harvests his apples in March or April, just 

 the time we have none. Just how this will affect the American and English fruit 

 growers when they get to growing in large quantities, which we understand they 

 are preparing to do, is hard to tell. 



It may be that we will then have no U3e for cold storage, and that some 

 varieties of our apples wliich have nothing to recoaamend them but their keeping 

 qualities will be dropped from the list. We will not, however, cross the bridge 

 before we get to it, but will go right along planting Ben Davis by the hundreds 

 and thousands of acres, and keep on planting until the world says, 'hold, enough " 

 Still, while we are busy planting our Ben Davis, we should not be oblivious to the 

 varieties which have a just claim upon our attention. 



The finest and largest collection of new varieties of apples that was on exhibi- 

 tion was shown by the state of Arkansas. They had in their collection 67 new 

 seedling varieties, and the remarkable feature about it was that they were all 

 good. They had qualities about them that would make them popular, and for 

 beauty would compare with any collection of varieties to be found anywhere.. 

 They were a crop of seedling-, as you might call them, and in the one lot, as good 

 a collection of apples could be made as by picking out an equal number of the best 

 varieties produced in the last 50 years. 



I will call your attention to a few varieties in particular. The Ingrahm, 

 known to most of you, though comparatively new, has qualities about it that will 

 recommend it to every otchardist. Gill's Beauty (No. 49) is very good and 

 promising. Arkansas Beauty (No. 6.5) is another good one, and also the Ozone. Xos. 

 1, 2, 4, 7 are especially promising. They are known only by number, never having ' 

 been named and described and their history written, as far as could be learned by 

 Prof. J. T. Stinson of the Horticultural department of the Arkansas Experiment 



