WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 253 



Tie had picked seven bushels and sold them for $4 per bushel. Now, 

 we are all ready to admit that he is a good horticulturist, and I wouldn't 

 wonder if he was just as good a salesman, but I don't believe he can 

 raise more than seven times as many to the tree as I can, and sell them 

 for over four times as much per bushel, and even this would give me 

 one dollar's worth per tree-; and as 160 trees will stand on an acre, 

 yielding $160, or enough to buy on the market to-day 800 bushels of 

 corn. So I ask, what's the matter with growing damson plums 1 Of 

 pears, will say this : that if only one tree out of four lived to a good old 

 age and bore the average crop, they would be very profitable to 

 grow. Many believe they can do much better than this, and with the 

 hardy families being introduced, such as Keifer, Duchess and the Le 

 Conte in some sections, we may expect to grow pears with as little 

 risk of loss as almost any other fruit. 



Of the grape, my favorite fruit, can only say that with this as with 

 all other fruits, the profits depend on the care and culture and selec- 

 tion of varieties, perhaps to a greater extent even than any other fruit. 

 That our markets are at times over-supplied and prices unsatisfactory, 

 there is no doubt. Still, I believe that with late varieties for a south- 

 ern market, there is a good prospect of fine profits. The greatest menace 

 to profitable grape growing, worse even than the rot, is that on the 

 Pacific slope and in many of the valleys this side, in Arizona and New 

 Mexico, they have the climatic conditions more suitable to grape pro- 

 duction than we have in our State, and the time is not far distant when 

 our markets will be supplied from these regions at prices that would 

 not be remunerative to the grower here, because of the labor required 

 to care for them. In the meantime experimenters are at work, and it 

 is not improbable that in the near future we may have varieties equal 

 or even superior to the California product, that will be as free from 

 disease and as prolific as theirs. On the whole, when we come to re- 

 view the probabilities of profitable fruit production, and compare the 

 prospects with that of many other branches of business, we certainly 

 should be encouraged; and our State and county horticultural societies 

 are doing a grand work, both for the State and for its people, in direct- 

 ing their footsteps into this path that leads both to health and to pros- 

 perity. 



A recitation was finely rendered by Miss Eva Jump, Lebanon, Mo. 



After a vocal solo given by Mrs. Kelson, of Lebanon, the follow- 

 ing paper was read : 



