Aniiual Meeting at St. Joseph. . 115 



In all sections of our state the peach crop is oftener a failure 

 than a success. If we have a good full crop one season out of three 

 we are fortunate. The same is true of grapes also. Of late years 

 large vineyards, once productive and remunerative, have been dug 

 up and the land is being cultivated to field crops or grass. 



The pear blight has long ago destroyed most orchards planted 

 for commercial purposes ; hence these are utterly neglected or en- 

 tirely dead. Even choice dessert apples are being imported to 

 Missouri from states east of the Mississippi. The fruit stands in 

 our large cities, and such families as can have fine fruit, no matter 

 what the cost, are being supplied from New York, Ohio, Delaware 

 and mainly California. 



Even the cultivation of the stravvberry is not very profitable, the 

 earliest in our markets being grown in Arkansas, Tennessee and 

 even in Alabama and Louisiana. The berries are picked before 

 being ripe so as to stand transportation, and of course are hardly 

 fit to be eaten at all. But they spoil the market, so that when 

 home-grown berries reach the stalls, the season is short, and the 

 prices even at an advance of two or three cents per quart, are never 

 high and scarcely remunerative. This will hold good for all sec- 

 tions tributary to St. Louis. We hope it is not true of the entire 

 state, and on our Avestern border a more bountiful crop and better 

 prices obtained, while a ready market awaits the producer. 



Are we now to conclude from the conditions just recited, and 

 which can not be successfully gainsaid, that we are to make no fur- 

 ther efforts, and that a brighter and more proj)itious day will never 

 dawn upon the fruit growers of Missouri ? By no means. Our 

 coming together here at this time is to look these matters square in 

 the face, and consult about the remedies which shall turn apparent 

 defeat into victory ! 



We hold this truth to be self evident, that all men are actuated 

 by motives of more or less selfish and personal nature in purely 

 business transactions. When a man plants a vineyard, orchard or 

 garden he hopes to reap the reward of his labor and expenses in 

 flowers, fruits and vegetables. Nor is there a wrong in this kind of 

 selfishness. If he has been circumspect in the selection of kinds 

 and condition of plants, vines or trees and their adaptation to soil, 

 climate, latitude and exposure he may and ought reasonably to' ex- 

 pect to gather fruits from the planting ; that is, if he has also 

 fulfilled all other necessary conditions. You will expect me to 

 point to some of these in the sequel of this paper. 



After a man has selected the localitv for his orchard, or 



