214 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The subject is one worthy to be handled by the brightest and 

 deei)e8t thinker of the State, and no man, however exalted he may be, 

 either by native genius or in the estimation of his fellow-men, need be 

 ashamed to attempt its analysis or solution ; for it involves the material 

 interests of nearly 300,000 farmers and producers, and indirectly the 

 progress, the well being and the development of the entire State. It 

 is a subject that our legislature has never had fairly presented to it, 

 and for the reason I suppose, that those who were capable of handling 

 and of presenting it were more concerned in the political issues of the 

 day, and their time and attention more occupied with lobbyists of the 

 railroad interests and in those great corporations, to be able to think 

 of a matter so small as the horticultural or for that matter the agricul- 

 tural interests of the people of one of the leading States in the Union. 



I very much question if the great majority of the members ever 

 thought for a moment that the State owed anything to horticulturists 

 or to any other one branch of agriculture. The lobbies at Jefferson 

 City were never haunted by the farmers, the legislature never pestered 

 all through the session with a dozen or more farmer lobbyists with an 

 axe to grind, even though it were in the interests of the whole people 

 in place of a single firm or corporation, or a single city or railroad. 

 They never had to say we will grant their request lest they wrong us 

 with much importunity; and this is one reason why they never knew 

 what they owed to the horticulturists of the State. It is patent to you 

 gentlemen, that when the legislature meets next month the lobbyists 

 will very soon take the measure of every member, will watch their 

 movements, dog their footsteps, familiarize themselves with the pecu- 

 liarities of each and will very soon learn how to approach them as to 

 gain their confidence and win their favor. Then they will gradually 

 and cunningly open the subject of their desire and when the proper 

 time comep will crowd it for all it is worth. The farmers I say, do not 

 do this, they are not sufficiently compacted and drilled as to act to- 

 gether, and in solid phalanx move upon the enemys works; hence, 

 their wants are never told, their voices never heard and the greatest ' 

 interests of the commonwealth are lost sight of and absolutely neg- 

 lected. 



Nor do I suppose that this thing is subject to speedy remedy, and 

 perhaps never will be until an occasion shall arise of some extraordi- 

 nary character, that shall so arouse the community as to compel from 

 sheer force of circumstances an acknowledgment of the justness of 

 our cause, and the immediate necessity of a remedy. 



