264 State Horticultural Society, 



of the open air. Men raise corn and wheat and hogs because they 

 have to do so, but no man grows apples successfully who does not 

 love the calling. Happy the man who early fits the occupation of 

 his hands to the desires of his heart. If his hands do that his heart 

 does not approve, then every year is slow moving, melancholy pur- 

 gatory. But if his hands do that his heart commends, though the sky 

 be drear sometimes and gray with gloom, each day to him will be 

 filled with dimpled sunshine. There will be orchardists in heaven. 

 For are there not twelve manner of trees in heaven, each yielding 

 its fruit in its season ? 



The growing of the good apple is like unto the growing of 

 the good man. It takes to bring the apple in Missouri to its best 

 estate, sunshine, a favoring soil, some rain, good air and a northern 

 slope. So with man. He needs the sunshine of his neighbors' 

 smile, a favoring habitat, the dew of human sympathy, the envelop- 

 ing atmosphere of love and a northern slope is free from the ener- 

 vating influence of the south wind, is rough and somewhat bleak. 

 Great men are not cradled in king's houses. They need the buffet- 

 ings of the north wind to make them bravely vigorous. 



Each step in the apple's growth is a lesson unto spiritual know- 

 ledge. Watch the growing. An engineer lifts by the tiny pipes 

 and carries over boughs as bridges the sap. A chemist mixes the 

 materials in hidden laboratory. An artist paints the blossoms pink 

 and white as your sweetheart's cheek — and lo, the apple. And 

 these three, engineer, chemist and artist, are one God. 



The apple speaks a spiritual language to him who will but lift 

 his eyes and hear and read. The stiff stem stands for righteous- 

 ness. But the apple is more than stem, as any good man's life is 

 more than righteousness. It takes the stem to grow the apple — 

 3*es. So it takes righteousness to grow character. But that is not 

 the end. See the bloom upon the stem. Thus love blooms upon 

 the stem of righteousness in human life. But the apple is more 

 than bloom, as character is more than love, beautiful as the blossom 

 ever is. Beyond the bloom is the fruitage — it comes with the 

 obscuring of the stem, but depending upon it ; with the eff acemeni 

 of the blossom, but resulting from it — thus the apple, and it bends 

 downward to man's use. So with man's life. First, the stiff stem 

 of righteousness, then the blossom of love, and then, springing 

 therefrom, the fair fruit of service. Does not the apple teach this 

 gracious lesson with its stem and bloom and fruit? Righteousness, 

 love and — highest honor of human kind — service. 



Who shall say that the Missourian is not an ideal qitizen who 



