WINTER MEETING. J 63 



Missourians, yet there is room for improvement ; the many failures to 

 be seen here and there is an evidence that ignorance and superstition 

 still lurks and lingers in some dark corner, but the time for guessing 

 at things must soon pass away while ignorance and superstition must 

 recede and fade out before the glorious morn of the day of exact knowl- 

 edge which is now dawning upon us. It has been said that Jerusalem 

 was destroyed because the education of the children was neglected, 

 and yet a nation may give all heed to the training of the young and 

 through a false philosophy of education only hasten the hour of her 

 doom. What we needisnot only a very high mental, moral, physical and 

 religious training of our youth, but how to combine all these forces and 

 carry them into practice so as to secure the greatest good to mankind 

 in general. We should educate to more closely observe and better 

 obey the great laws of nature which God has given us for our good 

 and cannot be violated with impunity without suffering the fearful con- 

 sequences. Individuals suffer and nations perish for a correct knowl- 

 edge and observance of these great laws. 



As horticulturists, the time has come when we should be doing 

 all in our power to prevent the destruction of our birds, our friends 

 given to us to protect our fruits from destructive insects. We should 

 also seek to awaken a more earnest sentiment in opposition to the de- 

 struction of our forests ; already our once grand white pine forests 

 are gone ; twenty years more and our hard pine will be used up ; our 

 black walnut has been cut and cleaned up, and every twenty four hours 

 thirty thousand acres of American forests go down to feed the remors- 

 less jaws of commerce ; we have cut down our chesnut, our pecan, and 

 other nut-bearing trees to make room for more corn, and import vast 

 quantities of nuts that we could and ought to grow at home ; we already 

 begin to see the evil offect of the destruction of our forests in the un- 

 precedented, destructive floods followed by burning drouths. We are 

 not pessimistic in our views; already the American people have seen 

 the danger, and many are planting groves and forests for timber, and 

 our horticultural societies are earnestly engaged in the increased acre- 

 age of orchards and in educating the people to a wider and more con- 

 stant use of good fruit. A Catholic priest once said to his congregation, 

 that it would be far better for their souls if they would eat less pork. 

 I beg to improve on that by saying yes, and for your bodies, too, and 

 eat more fruit for the good of both. An old Scandinavian tradition 

 represents the apple as the fruit of gods, who, when they felt them- 

 selves to be growing feeble and infirm, resorted to this fruit for the pur- 

 pose of renewing their powers of mind and body. It is a fact proven 

 by analysis that the apple contains a large percentage of phosphorus, 



