424 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trees. Tlie seeds were sown in the spring of 1881. Our locust and 

 catalpa trees are fast growers and make good wood to cultivate for 

 profit. For fence posts and like use the locust is much superior to the 

 catalpa. I think that for profit the ash is one of the most promising 

 and most thrifty trees. The rows of ash trees grew with great regu- 

 larity and stood crowding better than any other tree we have culti- 

 vated. There is great demand for young ash as well as old ash. The 

 soft or red maple grows more rapidly than the sugar maple, but I no- 

 tice that the sugar maple grew well the third year. On the bottom 

 lands of Ohio the chestnut will not grow naturally and hence cannot 

 be raised for profit. Our soil does not take kindly to it and our 

 chestnut trees are dwarfed. I believe that the time has come for us 

 to give more time to the culture of trees. I urge this upon the ground 

 that timber culture pays. I do not think that we should gain much by 

 calling for forests on account of the climate. Cultivate for the money 

 that is in the timber, and if the forests help the climate so much the 

 better. If you have land you don't cultivate, utilize it for timber. 

 Plant seeds in the winter and let healthy young trees take the place of 

 unprofitable timber, that should be cut from the woodland. We should 

 also make it a law never to allow stock to enter woodland for pastur- 

 age. AVe should also guard, with more care, against fires. The loss 

 by fire is not in the timber destroyed alone, but it unfits to a degree 

 the land for the growth of trees in the future. 



Mr. Cushman asked if it would not be well to memoralize State 

 legislatures asking that some effective inducements be offered by the 

 States to stop the ravages of fire in forests, and for the preservation of 

 woodland, such as giving exemption of taxes for timbered land. 



Several hundred people visited the exhibition during the supjter 

 recess last evening, and the large crowd did not diminish in number 

 when the president rapped for order. Professor McKay, of Missis- 

 sippi, opened the session with a talk on agricultural colleges of the 

 south. In the course of his remarks Mr. McKay said : "Until within 

 a few years it was thought that nothing could be raised in Mississippi. 

 Cotton was king. Since the war a few have gone into the cultivation 

 of fruits and vegetables, and by the side of the cotton gin we see fields 

 of grain, large herds of stock and fine gardens. Horticulture is still in 

 its infancy, but already we see berries going from Mississippi by the 

 car load, and peaches, apples and vegetables are all doing well in our 

 State. Our interests are increasing rapidly and the railroads offer us 

 every facility. We are working on a system that gives us cheap boxes 

 for shipping and fast trains. Our college is in the eastern part of the 



