18 STATE HORTICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



thousand will find employment in picking and handling our apple 

 crop, which will run up into millions of barrels. 



We also point with pride to the School of Horticultural, which 

 has been establised as a department of our State University, and the 

 first of its kind ever established in the United States, where our 

 young men and women may go and secure not only a book and theo- 

 retical knowledge of the science of horticulture, but a thorough, prac- 

 tical knowledge as well. And we trust the time is not far distant when 

 we shall have horticulture taught in the common schools throughout 

 the State. 



As the country grows older, our insect enemies become more num- 

 merous and destructive, so much so that many become discouraged 

 and are ready to give up and go into other pursuits. We think this is 

 a mistake. I can think of no occupation that offers a more inviting 

 field for work, or one that promises to pay better or more certainly on 

 the capital and labor invested, provided both are directed by a thor- 

 ough, practical knowledge of the business. 



We are not here to invite you into the pursuit of horticulture, 

 promising you a life of ease and freedom from labor. The very fact 

 that fruit-growing requires hard, intelligent, well-directed labor is what 

 gives value to our products and makes it possible to secure from fifty 

 up to five hundred dollars per acre in a single year. 



Let us then take on new courage and renew our efforts, remem- 

 bering that work is God-like and God-given, and not a curse, but a 

 blessing to our race. 



What this country now needs to lift it out of the ruts is more con- 

 stant employment for the twin brothers of prosperity — capital and 

 labor. If it were possible for us to reconstruct society so that all our 

 people could find steady employment at paying wages; if we could in- 

 duce the horde of worthless tramps and vagabonds that infest our 

 public highways that it is vastly better to work for an honest living 

 than to eke out the miserable existence they now do ; if we could per- 

 suade our laboring classes who now spend their hard earned money in the 

 saloon, the gateway of hell, to save the same and invest it in the cheap 

 homes of Missouri ; and if we could induce the youth, the young men 

 and women, many of whom are waiting for the soft snap that will never 

 come, to all go to work in real earnest, embrace the golden oppor- 

 tunity offered in our cheap fruit lands, secure homes and surround 

 them with fruits and flowers, and with all that will exalt and embellish 

 civilized life, how vastly better it would be for them, for our country 

 and the world at large ! 



