ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 2G7 



EEPOET OF IIOLT COU^TY HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



BY W. K. LATJGHLIN, EL:M GROVE. 



President — X. F. Murray. 



Secretary and Treasurer — W. R. Laughlin. 



Attendance at our meetings is generally small, as in all similar 

 matters, a few do the work. Festivals and fruit shows bring out most 

 people. 



We have discussions at every meeting and essays occasionally. 



A committee of the society obtained from the railroad an impor- 

 tant reduction on rates of transportation of apples. 



The last winter was a very hard one. Cold, at one time 27 deg. 



The summer brought us the worst drouth for twenty-six years, 

 but that gave us the chance to demonstrate the fact that our Loess- 

 bluff Deposit soil can not be desolated by one years drouth if properly 

 cultivated. 



The apple crop of 1886 was a good one. Even on uncultivated 

 orchards the apples were of fair size, well colored and of good quality. 

 Orchards that had been well cultivated for years carried their fruit 

 well through the drouth, and when a few light showers did come in the 

 latter part of August and in September, the apples swelled to an un- 

 hoped for size, and came to market, large, exceptionally highly colored 

 and of quality, best. 



The Codling Moth did us much damage this year. Our society 

 passed a resolution on the subject that will result in work against the 

 pest. 



Holt county shipped about 200,000 bushels of apples this year, at 

 a price averaging thirty-three and gne-third cents per bushels, bringing 

 into the country say >'6C,000 in cash. 



Our Missouri apples met the apples from Michigan, in Dakota, 

 Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, and were preferred by buyers for their 

 large size, superior color and higher quality, and because they kept 

 better. 



