36 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tcrcd therein, we trust that you may be satisfied to view us as we are — a 

 nice little inland, 'Orchard City" of about i,6oo souls ; a city surround- 

 ed by as fine a farming country as there is upon the face of the globe ; a 

 city situated in a climate as healthy as that of California ; a city having 

 educational facilities which are absolutely unexcelled by any in the north- 

 west ; a city of neat residences, beautiful parks, happy homes, and a 

 solid business interest ; a city of thrifty, honest, sober, industrious, 

 intelligent and hospitable people. A city whose people are in sym- 

 pathy with your work — aye, a city whose people are in sympathy 

 with every work that has for its aim the enlightenment the 

 and elevation of the human race, or the advancement of in- 

 terests of any honorable business or employment. So, we assure 

 you now, that we are in full accord with your aims ; with all the laud- 

 able efforts being put forth by you in this work, and with that grand in- 

 dustry itself, which you have the honor to here represent. 



We recognize in horticulture, one of the most ancient and useful 

 employments ; a wide field for investigation and improvement — an art 

 school at which we could all become students with profit to ourselves. 

 We acknowledge and concede that there is no calling known to civil- 

 ized man than stands upon a higher elevation in the estimation of the 

 people of this country than docs your own ; and that there is none 

 other in which health, integrity, morality and good citizenship predom- 

 inate over their opposites, in as large a ratio as they do among 

 yourselves, and other tillers of the soil. We realize that all 

 means of subsistence must needs come, either directly or indirectly, 

 from the soil of the earth ; and we have learned to regard the great 

 lines of commerce, carrying the varied products of the soil to the mar- 

 kets, of this country, not as overshadowing in importance the producing 

 interests, but as auxiliary thereto — as the arteries of a nation conduct- 

 ing its life blood from part to part. A nation has two great natural 

 sources of wealth : the soil of the nation and the brain of the nation ; 

 and it is only upon the proper combination of the two — the proper ap- 

 plication of the powers of the brain to the thorough cultivation and 

 intelligent nurturing of the soil, that the sustenance, the prosperity and 

 even the life itself, of the nation must forever depend. Nature gives 

 the mind talent but not skill — to the soil fertility but not fruit. Thought 

 makes the mind productive, and cultivation makes the soil productive — 

 but the two must be combined in order that the best results may follow. 

 We need the application of thought to horticulture made more general 

 in our state — we need a thorough waking up upon the question of the 

 importance of this great industry to the material prosperity of our state 



