188 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ing our fruit interests and helping to develop them, we have made » 



long step in the right direction. To do this we must organize, collect 



statistics, interview our companies, show them the importance of 



a little concession, and above all induce our fruitgrowers to plant in 



larger quantities, to take better care of they? orchards, to get all your 



neighbors to grow them, and make your town a regular fruit station of 



» 

 such proportions, and of such a unity of action, packing everything to 



a certain grade and guaranteeing every package, that the companies 



cannot but hear you and respond. 



Sending out information such as we have an abundance of, giving 

 our people instruction in varieties, modes of planting, care, cultivation, 

 how to fight the insects, how to pack our fruits, where to sell them,, 

 how to grade them, where, when, what, how to plant — could we but 

 get our people to understand some of these things which are so im. 

 portant to their success, half of our work would be done. We can do 

 this in no mean way by meeting and comparing notes. The horticul- 

 turist is the most liberal man in the world, for if he has a new plan, or 

 new idea, or new fruit, or new market, or new location, or new fact, or 

 new discovery, or new variety, or new blunder or new humbug, even, 

 he is sure to give it to the people without money and without price. 

 In this comparing of notes we can accomplish a hundred times more 

 through our local societies. We can therefore be of assistance to them 

 in many different ways, helping them in sending out and helping them 

 in collecting, meeting with them and giving assistance whenever 

 wanted. The local societies, where well met and imbued with enthusi- 

 asm, have a hundred chances of helping one another in their monthly 

 meetings, and time and place to put it into practice. 



My last point or points on the work of the society are : The love 

 of the beautiful, both in public and private homes, the general upbuild- 

 ing of the cause and the development of a love for the work. 



Wc have sought to bring about the planting and beautifying of our 

 public grounds, colleges and parks, with the assistance of one the best 

 landscape gardeners of the country. We have without cost visited 

 some of our college grounds, had them laid off in a beautiful sys- 

 tematic plan, and they are now trying to work with that end in view. 

 Kidder college, Kirksville, Warrensburg, Drury are now trying to carry 

 these very important plans into execution. The school-houses by the 

 hundreds all over our State have been beautified by thousands of trees 

 planted through the efforts of our society aud our local societies. Ten 

 or fifteen years later you will see the benefit of such work. 



Did you ever go into Forest park, St. Louis ? Well, if you could 

 have seen that place fifteen or twenty years ago, you would certainly 



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