Summer Meeting, 103 



Our program is never made up simply for the instruction, as- 

 sistance and direction of those alone who are in attendance at the 

 meetings. They are about one-thousandth part of the people we 

 reach through the horticultural press and our annual reports. Our 

 program, therefore, is made up so as to get just the information 

 wanted for the report, so as to answer the hundreds of questions 

 which we get every year, as to soils, varieties, kinds of fruits, 

 adaptability, location, markets, cultivation, spraying, etc., etc. 



These reports go to 5,000 different families and are read by 

 more than 10,000 people, and reach, through the horticultural 

 press, 100,000 others who are interested in Missouri fruits, or 

 should be so interested. It is worth more to have a good report 

 than a good meeting even (and we have never failed to have a 

 good meeting). Many persons are put on the program when we 

 know that they cannot be present, but we want the results of their 

 experiences, and we can secure them in this way. For example, 

 out of 48 people on one of our programs, we had only four fail- 

 ures in getting the papers; out of 44 on another, we had only 

 four failures ; out of 53 on a third, we failed in only six. Can any 

 other society show as good a record where nearly all the work is 

 done free? We have never lacked a good program, full to over- 

 flowing with practical papers, valuable information, lessons of ex- 

 perience and excellent discussions — not at any one of the 50 meet- 

 ings held during the last 25 years. Another thing, we have had a 

 good, large attendance, a representative gathering and enthusiastic 

 crowd, who went home full of facts and inspiration gathered 

 from the sessions. 



Our report goes to 3,500 people of our own State and to 1,500 

 of interested fruit growers in various parts of the world and 

 isles of the sea, and to all the different State organizations. Agri- 

 cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, thus bringing Mis- 

 souri into notice and prominence as one of the great fruit grow- 

 ing districts of the world. These reports have been graciously ac- 

 knowledged from India, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ger- 

 many, England, Russia, Egypt and other foreign lands, and the 

 experience of our fruit growers has been of value to all of them. 



Some things may have failed of proper attention, t)ut nothing 

 has ever been neglected unless through some error of time. The 

 first resolution for the appointment of a committee to change mat- 

 ters at Mt. Grove was passed at Springfield, but President Robnett 

 forgot to appoint it. The next meeting, at Neosho, a committee 

 was appointed, viz: Mr. T. C. Love and Seymour and Mrs. G. A. At- 



