220 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Davis has a large orchard, say i,200 trees, of two ages. His 

 practice is, and has been corn for the first few years, then clover, weeds 

 and hogs. He is quite particular as to the time of year when his hogs 

 shall or shall not be among his trees, and now has no damage done 

 by them, but much good. For some years his only cultivation of the 

 soil has been the hogs. His style of prunning is essentially the same 

 as in each of the other cases. Has marketed in the different ways. 

 Both Mr. Davis and Mr. Murray went this fall with car loads of their 

 own apples to the markets. I am safe saying that in Mr. Davis' orchard 

 profitableness ranks close alongside of Mr. Harvey's and Mr. Murray's. 

 Several varieties besides the Standard, Ben Davis and Winesap have 

 done notably well for Mr. Davis. 



The statement of Mr. Harvey challenges our admiration for its 

 minuteness of detail, and for its arrangement. In our region where he 

 is well known, its accuracy goes without question. 



Mr. Murray's orchard joins my own place, and has been before my 

 eyes and subjected to my frequent and very careful inspection at all 

 times of each season for eight years. 



Mr. Davis lives fifteen miles away, but I have been often among 

 his trees during the past seven years, and have constantly heard of their 

 good health and large crops. 



All three of these orchards stand on the Loess soil: Mr. Harvey's 

 and Mr. Murray's among the hills, and Mr. Davis' on high prairie. 



No two of them have been treated precisely alike, but they all 

 teach us of thorough cultivation, while Mr. Harvey's and Mr. Davis' 

 point strongly to clover and hogs used with care and judgment, and al- 

 ternated with clean cultivation. 



These orchards furnish instances, fair and just, to be used in an- 

 swering the question: Will it pay ? When we ask the same question 

 about any other business, we do not go for an answer to the man who 

 through either ignorance, laziness or incompetence has failed ; but to 

 the wdde-awake man, who, learning all he could, has pushed his business 

 and succeeded ; or if he has failed, has done so because it would not pay. 



Cost of land, of trees, of cultivation, of marketing, the element ot 

 time, the certainty or uncertainty of crops, the liability to losses — set 

 the figures beside each other, and see which has paid the best per cent, 

 of net profit, these three orchards or the three most successful farms in 

 your county during the same period of years. And remember, that 

 during the time these orchards are accounted for has occurred the longest 

 series of the worst years for the business ever known in Missouri. The 

 great three years' drought that scourged so nearly the whole country 



