| The State Fruit Experiment Station marked 100
years of public service on November 15, 1999. The Station was established
by an act of the Missouri legislature to serve the fruit production and
processing industries of Missouri. The
Station operated as a state agency under a board of trustees appointed by
the governor before the station became part of Missouri State University in 1974. Dr. Innocent Onwueme serves as the seventh
director of the State Fruit Experiment Station having been preceded by James
F. Moore Jr. (1984 - 2004),
Kenneth Hanson (1963 – 1984), Paul Shepard (1934 –1961), Frederick W. Faurot (1918 – 1933), Paul Evans (1903 – 1918), and John T. Stinson
(1899 – 1902).
The first director of the State Fruit Experiment Station, J. T.
Stinson, introduced the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away".
The health benefits of eating fruit have since been incorporated in the
FDA recommendations for a healthy diet. Former director Paul
Shepard, in a 1951 article on his research projects in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, foretold that "There’s a good day coming when vineyards
will garland the Ozark hills and wine flowing from the presses will
bring wealth to the growers." The state has since experienced a rebirth
of the grape and wine industry, with fifty-two Missouri wineries in business today.
The State Fruit Experiment Station continues to promote the
Missouri Fruit Industry with continuing research, advisory, education, and
public service programs.
Several commercially important fruit cultivars were released from the State Fruit Experiment Station
including Ozark
Gold apple, Loring and Topaz peach, and Ozark Premier and Bluefre
plum. The traditional breeding program at the Experiment Station was
discontinued in 1985. Fyan, although not a commercially important apple, is named
after the original town of Mountain Grove. Read more about the
cultivar releases in the bulletin "Cultivars
Released from the Missouri State Fruit Experiment Station".
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| At the turn of the century, outreach
education was carried out by using railroad cars to move displays and
scientists from town to town. (Photo from the archives of the
State Fruit Experiment Station). |
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| Clean cultivation was practiced at the State
Fruit Experiment Station at the turn of the century. A grass cover
between rows is now recommended to prevent soil erosion. |
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