230 Missouri State' Horticulttiral Society. 



We know how manifold are the horticultural contrivances that are 

 on every hand. Tiiese things are known to you all. How the 

 tools are on every hand for every little turn we may make ; how 

 rapidly we can propagate not only trees and vines, but every plant 

 known to man ; how our forcing houses are sometimes a wonder to 

 behold ; how the lawns and yards are gaining on every side. We 

 want to know not only what progress has been made, but what can 

 be made. Where do we need an improvement ? where are we the 

 most deficient ? It seems to me that our greatest need is in a good 

 horticultural education. 



We should have a school where the matters and experiments 

 should be followed out with the utmost cai-e. We know how to 

 plant, when to plant, where to plant, what to plant, or we think we 

 do, and all our talk is on these subjects, or pertaining to them, and 

 we never get beyond them. When shall we stop this A B C of 

 horticulture? We.should have in this school our experiments carried 

 on for ten, twenty or fifty years, and then the results will be worth 

 something. We think that we know what to do now, but listen : 

 Take any fruit grower and let him plant a portion of his place, and 

 keep planting every year after, as the fruits come into bearing, and 

 what will be the result? You say he will learn from each year's 

 experience what to plant. Yes, so he will, but each year will be 

 different. For instance : When I began planting, I was told the 

 White Winter Pearmain did finely, so I planted them. The next 

 year the Jennet was the only one that bore, so I planted Jennet. 

 The next year the Winesap were splendid, so I planted Winesap. 

 Next I saw some splendid Early Harvest, and th"ey brought $3.00 

 per bushel, and I planted them. 



So you will find many of us in the same line of work. This 

 is not only true in the apple, but in the peach and berries also, 

 Now what is to be done ? How will we remedy this ? I, of course, 

 cannot answer this fully, but this I do know, that if a series of 

 experiments, carried on for a number of years could be noted, the 

 weather, the bloom, the insects, the crops and the prices, we would 

 have some basis on which we could figure. 



Shall we ever have a rule for determining the names of apples ? 

 will be one of the questions for our horticultural progress to 

 answer. How many have come to me with discouraged look, 

 saying they could not find their apples in the book on apples, and 

 did not know where to look. Can we have a book that will tell us 

 the name of an apple as easily as we can find it in the dictionary, 

 or as easily as we can find the name of a flower in the botany. ' It 



