Winter Meeting. 179 



UNIVERSITY WORK IN HORTICULTURE AND RELATED 



SCIENCES. 



(John Craig, Professor of Horticulture, Cornell University, Ithaca.) 



Agriculture is the dominant force of this great empire. If agri- 

 culture thrives, business life throbs with vitality; if agriculture lan- 

 guishes, material life weakens and degenerates, says a prominent 

 writer. Agriculture is the original, natural, necessary, single and. 

 universal business of mankind, sa3^s Kerrick. "There is nothing be- 

 fore, nothing higher, nothing beyond agriculture." The character of 

 agriculture of any country more nearly expresses the advancement of 

 civilization of a country than any other means of comparison. We 

 may further admit that horticulture is the refinement of agriculture ; 

 therefore, the development of fruit a-nd ornamental plant culture in 

 any country may be looked upon as an accurate indication of the 

 culture and refinement of its people. 



Where does Missouri stand in the role of the great agricultural 

 commonwealths of the Union? The twelfth census tells us that Mis- 

 souri is the fifth State in the Union, graded upon the basis of agri- 

 cultural wealth. The same census tells us further that, in acres of 

 improved land, Missouri leads all but three States, having, more than 

 twice as much improved land as all New England with New Jersey 

 and Delaware thrown in. In the number of farms, Missouri is ex- 

 ceeded by only one State in the Union. In fruit growing, the position 

 held by Missouri is one of commanding importance, and if I can read 

 aright the signs of the times, she has but made a small impression 

 upon the vast possibilities concealed in the lap of the future. The 

 census again tells us that in production of nursery trees, her position 

 is eighth ; in orchard products, eighth ; in forcing fruits, flowers and 

 vegetables, ninth ; in number of bearing peach trees, eighth ; in num- 

 ber of bearing appple trees, first, or 200,000,000. In the face of these 

 facts, it is not surprising that Assistant Pomologist Taylor of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, should prophesy that the 

 next ten years will see the apple bin of the United States moved from 

 the east to the west of the Alleghanies. 



The completion of this structure dedicated to horticultural teach- 

 ing, horticultural science and allied sciences of botany and entomology 

 at once places the State on record as a commonwealth appreciative of 

 its inevitable destiny and mindful of the cultural influences of plant 



