188 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



how to utilize the great resources of that wonderful soil, and direct those fertile 

 agencies to produce fruit that was the wonder of the world, and unequaled by that 

 of any other portion of the western continent. 



Mr. Gilbert was, of course, just a little 'out of breath," and when the hat 

 was put on looked a giant in height. After a little composure, he replied as 

 follows : 



Citizens of Alton: Your kind expression of appreciation of my success is 

 accepted in the same generous manner as given. I certainly should be thankful 

 that friends do appreciate the efforts and labors I have put forth in the planting and 

 growing of fruits in Oregon county, which has fully demonstrated that the sands 

 of Maryland and Delaware and the far-famed and high-priced lands of the Pacific 

 coast are literally "nowhere" in comparison with the cheap flint hills of Oregon 

 county in the growing of choice fruits, and especially the most luscious of all, the 

 peach. — " Kover" In Colman's Rural World. 



"poor old MISSOURI" DEPARTS A PROUD PRIZE-WINNER. 



The first State prepared to move all its exhibits out of the Fair grounds is the 

 fifth State in the Union— "Poor Old Missouri." To the credit of Missouri, too, it 

 can be said that she was the first State to have all her exhibits on display at the 

 Fair, and that, too, when she was represented in more departments than any other 

 state or territory in the United States by exhibits in the Agricultural department, 

 crops and wool exhibits, horticultural, pomological, floricultural, and had the 

 largest herbarium on exhibition ; live stock, fish, ornithological, liberal arts, edu- 

 cational; mines, commercial and scientific; machinery and transportation, in which 

 there were individual exhibits. 



J. K. Gwynn, executive commission, in speaking of " Missouri at the Fair," 

 said yesterday : " The people are proud of the display the State made, and Mis- 

 souri exhibitors proved prize-winners in the first degree." 



Enumerating, Mr. Gwynn said the State had carried off the following among 

 other prizes : 



Sweepstakes on cattle against the competition of the world. 

 On Aberdeen- Angus cattle one Missourian took 9 prizes out of the 13 first-class 

 prizes oftered. 



On Merino sheep, 50 out of 80 prizes, and 70 out of 100 on Berkshire hogs. 

 Sweepstakes were awarded for saddle horses. 



And Missouri, showing all the mules exhibited, won every prize, and could 

 have done it, too, according to Mr. Gwynn, "if the bars had been let down and 

 every mule in Kentucky had been stampeded toward the World's Fair." 



The Missouri exhibits, loaded on 20 cars, will leave for St. Louis in a day or 

 two. There, by act of the Legislature, they are to be put on exhibition in the Ex- 

 position building for two years, after which they will be consigned to the museum 

 of the State University at Columbia. This act of the Legislature has prevented Mr. 

 Gwynn from contributing largely to the Columbian museum. He has. however, 

 presented the institution with samples of St. Francois county lead, Jasper county 

 zinc, and many fine slabs of Ozark onyx.— St. Louis Republic. 



