204 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ing back the tops of such trees as are inchncd to grow too rampant, and 

 keeping the bark on the trunks of the trees clean and smooth, but of 

 that I will speak some future day. 



ADAPTATION IN HORTICULTURE. 



BY J. AMES, CARTHAGE, MO. 



In the business of fruit growing, the question of adaptation or fit- 

 ness should enter into every step, from the first purpose formed in the 

 mind to have an orchard or fruit garden, thence onward at every succes ■ 

 sive step or stage of development, to the completed fruit farm. We are 

 considering and deciding questions of fitness or suitableness. In no 

 other business is there so great a necessity for wise discrimination and 

 intelligent action. 



In illustration of my subject, let us first see the relation of the 

 orchard and fruit garden to the home. Is it important that we have a 

 home .'' How can we suflficiently express and emphasize the value of a 

 home .'' A rural home without trees, or an orchard or fruit garden ? What 

 kind of a home would it be .-• Is there any other thing so well adapted 

 to the home to beautify it, and delight the eye, and be a kind of perennial 

 spring of luxury, a continual feast .'' 



When God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed 

 into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul, God at once 

 planted a fruit garden, and there put the man whom He had made. In 

 this garden the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to 

 the sight, and good for food, and the tree of life also in the midst of the 

 garden, and made it man's business to dress it, and keep it, saying of 

 every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat — except — . Here you 

 have God's idea of a home; and it should be man's first and chief purpose 



