308 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of the people's money for this very purpose, and at least duplicate many 

 of the individual premiums offered by the fair associations. 



Take for instance our large expositions and fairs. Let each county 

 offer premiums of about $50 or $100, for displays made by individuals, 

 divided up in a systematic and judicious way so that it will bring in a 

 good lot of fruits and vegetables. Let ten, fifteen or twenty of our coun- 

 ties do this and we would get together some horticultural displays 

 worthy miles of travel to see. 



Besides this, let some $50 or $100 be given to some good man of 

 the county to use in making a general collection of horticultural products 

 for the advertisement of their counties. Some ten, fifteen or twenty 

 such county displays, not too large, but neat and compact, would be the 

 means of bringing thousands of dollars into their counties, and the people 

 would pay for it as it should be, and not a few individuals. 



All this could be arranged in a systematic whole very pleasing and 

 very attractive. 



The authority for all this is to be found in Section 4057, Revised 

 Statutes of Missouri. 



Besides all this, our counties should be the educators of our people 

 in better fruits, better seeds, better plans of growing, better means of 

 cultivating, newer varieties, and many other important facts, which our 

 people should know to the best development of our interests. 



It is not right, nor is it just, that our fair associations should pay for 

 all this valuable information. Our counties should take a prominent hand 

 in the amount of money used in our displays, and my word for it, we 

 would see less of the gambling games and swindles and of the (so-called) 

 only attraction, horse-racing, so prominent in all our western fairs. 



A complete change in our mode of conducting our fairs in this de- 

 partment will be a blessing to the people. Let the horse-races be races, 

 and let our fairs be displays of our manufactures, live stock, and products 

 of our land. 



I look forward to the time when we shall see a great majority of our 

 people not only favorable to such a scheme, but interested in it enough 

 to come out, not only once, but many times a week to see it. 



I should be glad to see our people as interested in our horticultural 

 products as are they in Boston in their horticultural society. A dozen 

 or more displays are held by this society each year, and thousands of dol- 

 lars are given in premiums, and yet it is all returned to the society by 

 the admission of the public to the displays in the payment of a small 

 admission fee. 



