FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATIONS IN THE MISSOURI VALLEY 115 



detail; then with careful foresight in securing pickers, packers, markets, 

 and in fact giving every part of the transaction the same care that a 

 successful business man gives to every detail of his business, may be 

 summed up as the essentials of success, and if this is done there seems 

 to me to be no better place, and that there is no better prospect of 

 success in any business, or in any place, than in commercial frui+ 

 growing on the hill lands of the Missouri river slope. 



DISCUSSION. 



The Chairman: Gentlemen, this paper is open for discussion or for 

 questioning. Any one who has any questions they would like to ask Mr. 

 VanHouten, he is perfectly at liberty to do so. I wish to say I think it is 

 a very fine paper. 



The Chairman: We have with us a number of visiting brethren 

 from Iowa. Quite a number of them are already honorary members of 

 our society, and we wish those who are not, as well as those who are, 

 to feel at perfect liberty to take part in the discussion here, and at all 

 sessions of this meeting. We will now listen to a paper from Mr. J. P. 

 Hess of Council Bluffs, Iowa, on tbe subject of "The Advisability oZ Fruit 

 Growers' Associations in the Missouri River Valley." 



THE ADVISABILITY OF FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATIONS IN THE 



MISSOURI RIVER VALLEY. 



J. P. Hess, Council Bluffs, Iowa. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have no apology to make 

 for being here. About seventeen years ago I was invited to a horti- 

 cultural meeting at Arlington, Nebraska, and my memory and remem- 

 brance of that meeting are still with me. And I feel glad that I became 

 acquainted with such an active, boosting bunch of horticulturists as you 

 have here in the state of Nebraska. The fact is, we are just on the 

 border of the state, and being acquainted and becoming acquainted at 

 that time with these people, I felt like one of you ever since. 



Therefore I am happy to be here today, and if I can say a word that 

 will be of benefit and interest to the horticulturists of Nebraska I shall 

 be well repaid for coming. As I look down along the line from the time 

 I became acquainted with these men, I can see there has been a decided 

 progress made in the line of horticulture, and the demonstration across 

 the way is evidence that the people of Nebraska have about the right 

 class of men in this line of work, and I can only account for this great 

 success that has been made here by the splendid work that these men 

 have been doing, and especially by their team work — by working together 

 and believing in what they are doing. And I believe, in the near future 

 we will see the results that we little dream of now. I believe that the 

 state of Nebraska, as well as the state of Iowa, will produce fruit, and 



