354 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



A MISSOURI FRUIT SHOW. 



We believe in advertising our own goods, our own county, our own 

 state. We believe in doing it thoroughly and well, in order that all 

 who ought to know might know, and if they don't want to know we will 

 make them anyhow. Some think ignorance is bli.ss, we do not ; particu- 

 larly when the bliss consists in knowing nothing of our grand state and 

 its grander future. There is hardly a crop prominently known to Am- 

 erican horticulture which it is desirable to cultivate that cannot be 

 grown in Missouri as abundantly, and with as good or better returns as 

 in any state in the union. The people of other states do not know this, 

 and not knowing do not appreciate it when told. Thousands of men 

 pass through Missouri every year with their wives and families, and the 

 wealth they have acquired, and settle in other and less favored states be- 

 cause they know nothing of this state. They know nothing of our pro- 

 ductive lands, of our immense orchards, our wheat and corn, our cattle 

 and sheep, our colleges and schools, our churches, and social and domestic 

 surroundings, and the peace and plenty which permeate our rich and no- 

 ble state, because it has not been advertised in every paper, at every 

 railroad station, and roadside , inn, and on the granite hillside of their 

 own states ; because their country has not been deluged with highly col- 

 ored pictures and fairly-worded pamphlets describing it as it has of the 

 states and territories beyond ; therefore they go farther and do not fare 

 as well as they would if they knew something which we would tell them 

 of Missouri. Such ignorance is not bliss, neither is it desirable or 

 profitable. 



The great St. Louis fair has done much to advertise St. Louis, for 

 many have attended it from a distance, either as exhibitors or sight- 

 seers, who have carried away with them impressions of its magnificence 

 and of the extent of its manufactures and commerce. But whilst these 

 in a measure must convey an idea of the surrounding country and the 

 productiveness of the land to sustain such a city, it does so only in part, 

 and a very small part at that. True, when' we make a show of grandly 

 improved stock it conveys an idea of our advanced farming, but the ex- 

 hibits ar^ open to the world, and the stock one sees is as likely to be 

 from Mfiine or Kansas as from Missouri. And what is true in that re- 

 gard of stock is equally true of nearly everything shown at the fair. 



