128 State Horticultural Society. 



business men have investigated the subject thoroughly and have 

 invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the enterprise as a' com- 

 mercial investment. Professional men are investing their savings in 

 orchard lands and orchard planting as a safe and profitable invest- 

 ment, one which improves in value as it grows older, and one which 

 will always pay well for money properly and judiciously spent under 

 intelligent direction of an orchard man. 



We find today the same cry going up louder than ever, "You 

 can never sell your fruits,'" "the market is more than supplied," 

 "overproduction" is still what we hear. But times have changed, de- 

 mands have increased, markets have opened, railroads have provided 

 quick means of distribution, refrigerator cars are delivering all their 

 fruit to distant market in splendid condition. The large cities are 

 asking more and more for fresh fruits, fruits from the tree to market 

 in good condition. Manufacturing centers are wanting more fruits 

 and less meat. Mining sections demand every day abundance of fresh 

 fruits as one of the best health preservers to be found. Demand from 

 districts in the north, south and west where fruits cannot be grown 

 have increased a hundred, yea even a thousand fold, and people gen- 

 erally are using more fruit, more people are using fruit and more 

 people everywhere are using more fruits of all kinds and where they 

 used it a part of the time, they are now using it all the time. Markets 

 are opening across the waters and the call each year is more and more 

 for American fruits until now millions of barrels are taken by Europe 

 and many millions more can be used just as well if they can only 

 secure them. 



The question is not one of "over production," but one of "distri- 

 bution." The supply is not greater than the demand, but the supply- 

 ing this demand by the railroad companies is required. 



Adaptability is the question for us to settle, and we may say the 

 only question for us to settle. Missouri has the climate, the soil, the 

 subsoil, elevation, the location, the rain-fall, the water drainage 

 through the rivers, the cold air drainage down the valleys from the 

 hills, the varieties or kinds of fruits which succeed well, the plans and 

 manner of cultivation, the men of intelligence and knowledge who are 

 able to do these things, and the main question to settle is the adapta- 

 bility. 



Adaptability of soils, and subsoils, kinds and varieties of fruits 

 to these soils and elevation, adaptability to markets, to demands, 

 adaptability of varieties to certain soils, and peculiar locations, to resist 

 diseases, to being exempt from attacks of insects, to keeping qualities, 

 to ease of gathering and handling. 



