THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
185 
GOOD WORK OF THE MISSOURI STATE BOARD OF 
HORTICULTURE 
[Special Correspondence] 
Out in Missouri the State Board of Horticulture is 
becoming a power for the good of fruit growing. Al¬ 
though young in years, this State Board has taken over 
the work of the old State Horticultural Society, which is 
no longer active, and has greatly enlarged on its activities. 
The Board of Horticulture was created by an act of the 
legislature in 1907. The State is divided into six districts, 
approximately equal in size, and the Governor appoints a 
man from each of these territories to serve on the Board 
fo r a term of four years. 
The Missouri Horticultural Board from the first directed 
its attention to the improvement of the existing orchards 
rather than to the further planting of large areas. Its 
recommendations to prospective fruit growers have always 
been conservative. It advises “to plant only what you 
can take good care of.” The Board members have alway^s 
been agreed that boosting is a good thing, but that over- 
stimulating an industry by inducing the wrong kind of 
people to enter it would certainly react on the State and 
be harmful in the end. 
ORGANIZATION 
The Board maintains headquarters at Columbia at the 
Agricultural College, a member of the Horticultural staff 
of the University, Dr. W. L. Howard, being the Secretary. 
In the first place a live list of over 3000 fruit growers of 
the State was made up and the Board has always kept in 
close touch with them. Sending out an Annual Report 
once a year was not enough, so now and then a bulletin was 
distributed or a circular letter mailed to each. Brief 
articles and crop reports were published in the country 
weeklies. From the very first every letter of inquiry was 
answered fully, literature sent if available, and if not 
citations were given as to where it could be found. The 
fame of the Board as a source of information and advice 
soon spread, and letters came pouring in from every 
country. This has kept up until the correspondence will 
now average 500 letters per month, and on the average 
one bulletin or pamphlet is sent out in connection with each 
letter. Thus one thousand pieces of mail matter go out 
monthly to the growers of fruit. Calls for one of the 
bulletins came from every state in the Union and from 
seven foreign countries. In addition to the above special 
requests, the Annual Report, one or two bulletins, and 
several circular letters are sent out to the entire mailing list 
of nearly 5000 names, annually. 
The Board is endeavoring to organize the fruit growers 
into as.sociations for purposes of growing and marketing 
fruits. Strawberry and peach associations have been 
very successful. Apple growers sell through one large 
association very largely. So far they have not seen the 
necessity for maintaining organizations for growing and 
packing purposes, but this will come soon. Members of 
the board go out and organize associations upon request. 
Special conventions are held in various parts of the 
state for the special purpose of encouraging certain indus¬ 
tries. Last fall a Strawberry Congress was held in the 
center of the berry district. At this meeting the discus¬ 
sions were confined to strawberries alone. Other similar 
institutes were held at other places. Once each year a big 
State meeting and fruit show are held in connection with 
the activities of Farmers’ Week at the University. Last 
year 1400 people were in attendance. 
PRESIDENT STARK, AN ACTIVE WORKER 
For two years W. P. Stark, the well-known nursery¬ 
man and President of the American Association of Nursery¬ 
men, was President of the Missouri State Board of Horti¬ 
culture and it was largely due to his activities that horti¬ 
culture in the state took on new life. President Stark 
followed the policy of gathering all the latest information 
to be had regarding practical methods of orchard manage¬ 
ment. He sent delegates to all the prominent fruit 
districts of the country, and these delegates reported to 
the growers at the next annual meeting. Mr. Stark is a 
man with a wonderfully active mind, and he gave the 
Board work some of his best thought. At all times in 
office and out of office, Mr. Stark has worked for the enact¬ 
ment of a law providing for compulsory inspection of 
nurseries and orchards. The fruit growers are with him, 
and such a bill would have been passed by the legislature 
just adjourned, had there not been a political controversy 
in progress during the closing hours of the session, which 
resulted in great confusion and the loss of several meritor- 
ous measures. As it was, the inspection bill, which 
provided for a State Horticultural Inspector, passed the 
Senate unanimously and encountered no opposition in the 
House. Fruit growers and nurserymen of the state will 
not be satisfied without a law of this kind, and a united 
demand to this effect is sure to be made on the next 
legislature. 
The appropriations for the State Board for the years of 
1911-12 amount to $26,000, for all purposes. Mr. Stark 
personally appeared before the joint appropriations 
committee and secured the above sum after stating the 
needs of the Board in order to continue the work it is doing. 
COOPERATION IN THE STATE 
Other men to whom much credit is due for the success¬ 
ful work of the Board are Mr. R. M. Hitt of Koshkonong, 
now president of the Board and Mr. T. H. Todd, a veteran 
fruit grower and former member of the Board. President 
Hitt is a type of the modern fruit grower. Young and 
vigorous and full of enthusiasm, he soon made up his mind 
that the growing and marketing of fruit was a complicated, 
exacting business, which required as much intelligent 
thought as a m.ercantile or banking business. He is one 
of the large peach growers in the famous Koshkonong 
district of southern Missouri, where they never have an 
entire failure of crop. Last year Mr. Hitt employed the 
latest methods in handling his trees to prevent the rotting of 
the fruit, with the result that he marketed ninety-five per 
cent of a full crop, while the owner of a 200-acre orchard 
adjoining refused to break away from old practices, and 
marketed only five per cent of a crop. 
