214 State Horticultural Society. 



taking up the work along with other lines. This is being done in 

 various ways, chiefly in nature work, laboratory instruction, and 

 experimental gardens. True, this work is just beginning, and several 

 years will elapse before the plan will be in general operation, but the 

 plan in its inception promises great things. 



Park College of Parkville is taking great interest in horticulture 

 in an experimental way, evidence of which I saw a few weeks since 

 at the St. Louis Fair when it was my privilege to assist in unpacking 

 and placing on display a barrel of Jonathan apples of the 1903 crop 

 from their experiment orchard, which was the best barrel of storage 

 apples in the Missouri exhibit. The condition, quality and packing 

 were perfect and Park College should indeed be proud of such a 

 record. 



In our own school at Princeton, of which Prof. Fred L. Appleby 

 is superintendent, they are making a beginning of nature work through 

 all the grades and our Board of Education has just expended as a 

 starter two hundred dollars on laboratory apparatus for the High 

 School. In connection with Biology much instruction along agricul- 

 tural and horticultural lines with experiments is being given this 

 year. These subjects are interesting to most all pupils, developing 

 their own natural actions and awakening them to the beauty and 

 utility of things that are usually passed by without interest or even 

 knowledge of their existence. While this line of thought may seem 

 foreign to my text, yet I firmly believe our future successful horti- 

 culturists will build from this very foundation and it should be most 

 carefully laid, for "as the twig is bent the tree is inclined," and the 

 young man or woman thus talented and trained will enter the fields 

 of fruit growing a potent factor, broadening its possibilities and add- 

 ing thereto still greater achievements of success. 



The local fruit farm should grow all kinds and varieties of fruit 

 that succeed well on that particular portion of the earth. No certain 

 list of varieties will succeed in all localities and on all soils alike. 

 Hence, study the conditions of your location. Avail yourself of all 

 possible information and combine it with your best judgment, follow 

 up with the same care that you start in with, be industrious and 

 watch the results. The time for operating the fruit business in a 

 careless, haphazard way is past. You can no longer set out your 

 trees in the yard or hog lot and let nature, the stock and the neigh- 

 bors do the rest. You must use the same care that you would to suc- 

 ceed in any other line of business. You can no longer bring your 

 berries to market in the milk pail and your grapes in the wash tub 



