08 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



the rich inheritance arouud us, and to threaten the extinction of 

 the most beautiful products of the land. Xo thing will arouse the 

 majority of our orchardists from their slothful attitude to these 

 evils but the brilliant and profitable success of the few among them 

 who can see this question in its proper light, and who have the 

 energy to combat these difficulties single-handed and alone. 



There are no more destructive agencies in the orchard than 

 the two insects I have alluded to ; but there are other hindrances 

 to success far more difficult to deal with. The many forms of 

 parasitic fungi which attack our trees, vines, plants and fruits, are 

 the .most serious of these. When we enter the wide realm of the 

 Ijlights, the rusts, the mildews, and the rots, we are in a strange 

 and obscure world whose laws and causes and effects we few of us 

 well understand, but whose varied power over our property we are 

 made painfully aware of. That stealthy fungus described by Pro- 

 fessor Burrill, in our last volume, under the title of "An Orchard 

 Scourge," is quietly establishing itself in the orchards over great 

 areas of country. And, wherever it gains a foothold, it seems, like 

 original sin, to have "come to stay." 'I cannot but believe that 

 the researches of our scientific investigators will open to us some 

 deliverance from this vegetable pestilence. If not, the outlook for 

 apple and pear growing is gloomy enough for many sections. 

 Certain it is, that with grape rots and mildews so infesting 

 the vineyards of the best adapted grape lands of this country, 

 sound grapes are an exotic luxury upon most tables ; with the 

 numberless fungi and corrupting forces which are continually at- 

 tacking the plants and the crops which we grow, there is need of a 

 great awakening among us of a spirit of investigation, and the 

 energetic use of remedies, until we find out how to make, and take 

 the necessary measures to make our fruits in reality what they 

 purport to be, something delicious to the eye and delightful to the 

 mouth, instead of repulsive travesties, worm-eaten, scabbed and 

 deformed. 



THE HORTICULTUEAL CONVENTION, 



There was an ap]3reciative attendance upon the convention, 

 both morning, afternoon and evening. A few more delegates from 

 a distance arrived, but the additions yesterday were mainly from 

 local points. At the morning session the election of officers for 



