i82 State Horticultural Society. 



These trees are all individual specimens, differing in variety and time 

 of ripening. Some are evidently derived from Old Mixon and Heath 

 families, others were covered with Indian blood. They have never been 

 propagated, and stand where nature started them. Some are sheltered, 

 others stand apart ; some in shade, others on the south side of buildings, 

 in the blazing sun. Several in thickets where other seedlings crowd 

 them," in a struggle for existence, but out of the same foot of soil grew 

 the large free-stone, luscious enough for the epicure, while beside it, with 

 branches interlocked, grew seedlings, with fruit not larger than hickory- 

 nuts — and about as juicy. Some of these trees have a record of missing 

 but one crop in fifteen years. Yet they are chance seedlings, growing 

 from pits thrown carelessly by some unthinking hand. Nature seems 

 to have given them power to resist our changeable winters, and while 

 as fine as the best, they seem as hardy as the worst. 



It would not be wise to assume that because they are seedlings, they 

 are hardy. I assume nothing, but simply find them bearing every year, 

 therefore conclude that they are hardy. The Alabama Experiment 

 Station found budded trees hardier than seedlings. Some report the 

 Elberta hardier than seedlings in their locality. Then plant it there, and 

 everywhere it bears. But why should we plant anything which has borne 

 but one crop in ten years for our neighbors? After fifteen years' study 

 of the fruit problem in the Ozarks, I have decided to propagate from 

 trees of native origin. O'zark fruits for Ozark orchards, is the solution 

 of the problem on the Ozark plateau. Let each locality coin for itself a 

 rule to fit its special environment. To you these may seem but theories 

 now, but after testing them under many methods of culture, for a few 

 years, we may appear before you again and give facts. In the mean- 

 time, let your neighbors and horticulturists experiment and patronize 

 agents, while you plant the best that bear in your locality. 



SUCCESS IN GROWING PEACHES. 



(W. G. Uano, Parkville, Mo.) 



Remember that we are way down in Southwest Missouri and I 

 do not want to put a blanket on what has been said. I do think that we 

 can grow peaches in any part of the State. We as fruit growers of 

 Missouri have lost sight of a part of the State for we have a section 

 where we can grow peaches and that oftener than one year in ten, even 

 the Elberta. I refer to the north half of the State from St. Louis to 

 Kansas City and to the Iowa line. We have men who have grown 



