58 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



one of our members tells me that he has sixteen six-gallon crates picked 

 for market to-day, and these too as nice Cumberlands and Jersey 

 Queens as have ever been grown in the State. Very often of late I 

 am stopped on the roads and asked questions about as follows : "How 

 do you manage to raise such tine strawberries ?" or other fruits as 

 the case may be ; or» " How do you raise such pears '? your land is cer- 

 tainly no better than ours ; why is it that we cannot do the same V r 

 Such questions are asked of me every time almost when I am away 

 from home. My answer generally is that our neighborhood has a horti- 

 cultural society, through which we keep ourselves posted as to the 

 best varieties and best modes of culture. That this society has accom- 

 plished a great deal of good there is not a shadow of a doubt, as our 

 fruit display at St. Louis last fall very plainly showed. Three-fourths 

 of the fruit sent there was grown by the members of this society. 



Our society is strictly local, perhaps more so than any other society 

 in the State; all of our members, with the exception of Judge Miller,live 

 in the same school district. We meet regularly on the first Saturday of 

 each month in our hall, which was partly built for that purpose last 

 summer. We expect to have some nice displays of fruit during the 

 summer, and perhaps somewhat of a fruit show in the fall. 



REPORT O^ ORNAMENTALS. 



BY MRS. C. I. ROBARDS. 



There is an intimate relation between plant life and our own lives, 

 that is seldom recognized, or if recognized, is not properly appreciated. 



The treeless door-yard and weedy lawn betoken the disposition and 

 habits of the occupant, indicating either a lack of cultivated taste or a 

 want of understanding of man's relation to society and his Maker. As 

 a rude log cabin, with its uninviting exterior, may surprise us with its 

 clean whitewashed inner walls, with its plain but tastefully arranged 

 decorations, so a pleasant garden of plants and flowers will reveal the 

 inner life of him who planned it. 



A tree or shrub planted by a father's loving hand continually casts 

 a beneficial influence over the lives of the children, creating in them a 

 love for the beautiful. No good deed is ever done in vain. Should any 

 one answer that he cannot spare the means to purchase trees and 

 plants, I would say : select a few choice specimens of forest trees that 



