WINTER MEETING. 183 



the home of the husbandman and his family and for the prodaetion of 

 good, sound and perfect fruit, may it be in small fruit or in tree fruit. 



Please, my dear friends, only one item now and then I am through. 

 Have you heard that cry: over-production, ruinous prices, fruit-grow- 

 ing don't pay, etc. Yes, there was an over-production of inferior fruit 

 that did not pay for handling. We must raise good, nice, well-colored 

 and perfect fruit, and offer for sale nothing else but that, packed in 

 attractive clean packages, every specimen wrapped in tissue paper, 

 and my word for it you will never hear it said "fruitgrowing don't 

 pay, or glutted market." Certainly it don't pay to raise wormy, scaby, 

 misshaped, ill-colored small fruit. We must learn to raise good fruit. 

 The fruit-grower must know his business to be successful ; he must be 

 wide-awake; must be diligent; he must fight the insect foes ; must know 

 when to spray, how to spray, with what to spray and why to spray; 

 he must protect his young fruit trees from being barked by mice and 

 rabbits, prevent the insect from laying its egg in the bark of the trees 

 and if it escapes his vigilence, must cut it out In time to save his tree. 



Never let your tree bear a full crop. Thinning is one of the most 

 important duties of the fruit-grower to raise a good specimen, to raise 

 marketable fruit. 



If fruit-growing don't pay, why do capitalists, who are very cau- 

 tious, far-seeing and careful in making investments, invest their money 

 in orcharding? Do you think your Secretary tells you a myth when 

 he talks of an orchard campany setting out 100,000 fruit trees on the 

 hills and plateaus of Barry county? Fruit raising does pay, and more 

 so on the hills and hillsides in the State of Missouri. Therefore I 

 would say, plant every hill and hillside suitable for fruit with the best 

 marketable kinds of fruit and crown the top of these hills with the 

 luscious grapes, and by so doing you will make your State blossom 

 and its inhabitants prosperous, happy and well contented. 



L, Geiger, Boonville, Mo. 



FIRST SIX YEA.RS OF AN ORCHARD. 



The life and profits of an apple orchard depend upon the first 

 six years' care. Enough mistakes are often made during this period 

 to make an orchard forever unprofitable. 



Experience in many things is the best teacher, but to raise an or- 

 chard by actual experience would be too expensive. We must make 

 use of the experience of those who have gone over the road and paid 

 all the bills for us. They now stand ready and willing to keep us from 



