WINTER MEETING. 283 



was better and more honestly made. We have, within a radius of 100 

 miles of where we are now standing, a country that perhaps is not 

 excelled by the historic land which Caleb and Joshua saw. The prin- 

 cipal thing lacking is faith to go over to possess it. 



Even along the famous Kaw are locations where the disappointed 

 "Strip" boomer might find both health and happiness, and possibly a 

 competency. Our first parents were given a garden and told to dress 

 and keep it; this Society can do much to induce man to return to his 

 best inheritance. Let us not part with our best life blood without a 

 struggle. 



But to return to the fruit-grower : he needs to be a thoroughly 

 scientific person, with a knowledge of both botany and chemistry. So 

 many things conspire against hitn that he needs to know all that is to 

 be known. Skill and energy, witli an intelligent knowledge of the 

 business, will insure success. Science is reaching in every direction ; 

 it will not pass by the horticulturist. Now to sum up what we all 

 need is to embrace all that the past will give, all that the present can 

 teach us, and an implicit faith in the future. We have the country, 

 we have the brains and brawn, we have our agricultural colleges with 

 their splendid endowments; with the right use of all these will be 

 evolved the ideal methods of the Twentieth century fruit-grower. 



Orchards. 



BY H. W. JENKINS, BOONVILLE, MO. 



This heading is a broad one. It covers a vast field and is suscep- 

 tible of many subdivisions or heads, which will probably all be treated 

 upon and properly cared for by papers from more able writers, men of 

 more mature judgment, wider experience than the writer of this article. 



Al such meetings as the present we take it for granted that all 

 who take part should write or talk from actual experience, from facts, 

 not fancies. I shall confine my remarks to the planting of the trees 

 and subsequent care for the first five years, leaving the other subdi- 

 visions, such as " Age of Trees," "Varieties," " Pruning," " Marketing 

 of Fruit," "Spraying," etc., to those who follow, as our experience in 

 the "orchard business" has been altogether confined to this, having 

 planted three orchards in three different counties of this State, but 

 unfortunately, being of a rambling disposition, have not remained long 

 enough in one place to gather the fruit. I suppose, however, we should 

 be contented with our present location, for we recently heard an emi- 

 nent divine say in his sermon " that the Mississippi valley was the heart 

 of this nation, and that Missouri was the heart of this heart ;" and as 



