ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 213 



State Superintendent of Schools to use his influence with the legisla- 

 ture to get them to pass a law gi%'ing- us a little appropriation for the 

 purpose of improving our school grounds, and to make a law requiring 

 the school board to have some ground for the cultivation of flowers 

 and fruits. 



Mr. Goodman — It is a part of our plan for the State Society to take 

 the lead in the matter. We expect to have a day set apart by the 

 State Superintendent for tree planting next spring. We can lead in 

 the work, tell the school boards what to do and how to do it. 



Mr. Speer — Our society has done something like that mentioned 

 by Mr. Murry. The arbor day appointed by the State was entirely too 

 late, and the trees did very poorly. We will have to do a great deal 

 of the work over. I think there is no school district in the State of 

 Missouri that can not ornament its grounds if there is just one man in 

 that district who will make up his mind that it shall be done. It will 

 be worth, as an advertisement, to any nurseryman all that it will cost 

 him to furnish the trees to ornament the school grounds of this country. 



WHAT THE STATE OWES TO HORTICULTURE. 



BY L. CHUBBUCK, OF COLMAN'S EURAL WORLD, ST LOUIS. 



I would that I were able to rise equal to the occasion and tell to 

 this meeting of intelligent and experienced horticulturists, to you 

 gentlemen who have labored throuj>h the heat and the burden of the 

 day and made the great State of Missouri, a name and a fame known 

 throughout the land, what the commonwealth owes to the industry in 

 which you are engaged and of which you are indeed the bright and 

 shining hghts. But I will confess to you at the start, that though I 

 consented to read you a paper at this time on this subject, when I 

 settled down to the task I found such an abundance of material ta 

 draw from, that the problem was when to begin and which of its manj 

 phases I should select to present to you. 



