542 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



report, Dr. W. L. Howard, 1911) "... Although ... we wrote 

 to about eight thousand of these people at different times, and 

 to many of them sent out a second and even a third letter . . . 

 almost an even three thousand of these letters remained un- 

 answered, and yet they were not returned to us, showing that they 

 were taken from the office and read. We still have names of some- 

 thing over six thousand persons with whom we are negotiating. 

 Not only have over twenty-five per cent of the people who are 

 known to own orchards shown themselves utterly indifferent to 

 supplying information, but a surprisingly large number have 

 written us flatly declining to tell us anything about their orchards." 

 This method of obtaining the census was abandoned after many 

 months of futile endeavor to acquire effective data through cor- 

 respondence. The State Board of Horticulture then secured an 

 appropriation that would enable it to send out men to canvass the 

 State, inspecting each individual orchard, taking careful notes as 

 to the condition of the trees, the varieties of fruit, and the inten- 

 tion of the owner as to the management of the orchard. This work 

 was inaugurated in 1912 and enough work done to prove the 

 effectiveness and general advisability of the method. 



This census may be ragarded as the most important work of 

 the board to date. It will place on file in the office of the board 

 information that will enable it to get in actual touch with practically 

 all the fruit growers of the State. It will enable the board to com- 

 pile reliable crop reports. The meaningless figures "50 per cent of 

 the crop" can be supplemented by such practical data as amount of 

 blossoming, character and extent of spraying, frost damage, so- 

 called "June-drop," drouth damage, and the preharvest damage 

 from wind, bitter rot, codling moth, etc. As these details will be 

 secured directly from each grower from each district in the State, 

 it can be readily seen that a correct crop report can be compiled and 

 distributed at any time in the growing season. This will do away 

 largely with the buyer stampeding the grower into selling at a 

 low figure by gross exaggeration of the size of the crop. It will 

 also help the buyer, in that it will enable him to buy at a reasonable 

 marginal profit. He will not be forced to buy at an excessively low 

 figure in order to avoid the possibility of failure occasioned by an 

 overstocked market, thereby decreasing the market price. 



National associations have been unable, in the past, to give 

 correct estimates of the Missouri crop, thus hampering the work 

 of national distribution of crop reports. 



