324 State Hortiailtitral Society. 



the disease has be^n most destructive that a few plants, scattered here 

 and there have escaped the disease, while all of the other plants in 

 the field have died. Instead of going to uninfected districts to 

 secure seed the brilliant idea was suggested that these plants which 

 lived through without taking the disease must be resistant to it. 

 Seeds of these have been selected and in many cases their seedlings 

 have proven" to .resist the disease like the parent which escaped the 

 scourge. In this way strains of wilt resisting cotton have been pro- 

 duced. It was by selecting from the fittest plant to live under ad- 

 verse conditions which brought this about and wdaich promises to 

 put cotton growing beyond the dangers of the wilt. 



A century ago the greater part of the named varieties of apple 

 grown in this country were of European origin and most of these were 

 at best only imperfectly adapted to our climatic conditions. The best 

 proof of their non-adaptability is the fact that at the present time 

 •more than ninety per cent of our varieties of apples are of American 

 -origin. A'arieties better adapted to our conditions are being originated 

 and are crowding out those which are less adaptable. 



A similar condition may be noticed in selection of varieties which 

 are adapted to the west. Formerly we grew the same sorts wdiich 

 were brought from the older states of the east. In recent years,, how- 

 ever, western varieties, better adapted to our conditions are coming 

 into prominence and are taking the place of the older sorts. Some of 

 the most prominent commercial varieties of apples grown in ^Missouri 

 today had their origin in comparatively recent }'ears in this very 

 State. The Gano, Ingram, ^lissouri Pippin and Huntsman may be 

 mentioned among these and many still newer sorts are continually 

 gaining prominence. It may be said that Missouri and Arkansas 

 seedling apples are destined to form the list of varieties which are to 

 be grown in the Ozark region in the future. A similar evolution of 

 adaptable forms is taking place in the case of the other fruits. 



Many of our most serious drawbacks in fruit culture in ^Missouri 

 today are only paving the way to future success through the develop- 

 ment of varieties which will resist our diseases or our peculiarities 

 of climate. • Once some serious difficulty appears it is the signal for 

 the orchardist to begin to look for some resistant form or some method 

 by which this difificulty may be overcome. 



When I first joined the }>lissouri State Horticultural Society the 



question of how to get fruit to market was uppermost in the mind of 



the grower. No one then dreamed of shipping strawberries or peaches 



.to New England markets. At the present time methods of pick- 



