80 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



nature aud carbouiferoiis limestone, are the very best lands for apple^ 

 and yon might say all fruits. ( 1 did say a year or so ago at Odessa^ 

 I was denied free speech), I would never say where the best fruit lauds 

 were in these two couaties; but a change has been wrought. I will 

 designate where the belts for fruit lie. There are three fruit belts com- 

 mencing in Lafayette aud Jackson counties, running parallel with each 

 other, and a vacuum between those belts of four to ten miles, varying 

 in different places, not for frnit. The middle belt line commences at 

 Lexington, six miles in width for eight miles, and lessens down to four 

 miles in width by Knob Noster, to five miles in width till it strikes the 

 Ozark mountain ranges of the greatest fruit belt incentral-westeru 

 United States, |known as Southwest Missouri, comprising about 25 

 counties. 



Another belt commences in Jackson county, near IndependencOy 

 Mo., winding by two subdivisions, one on the bluff, down as far as Na- 

 poleon, thence east, or rather southeast, lapping on with the Sni creek 

 region, connecting with Grain Valley and Oak Grove of Jackson county^ 

 following Sni creek country, crossing and recrossing Blackwater coun- 

 try as far down as Columbus, in Jackson county, there joining the 

 original belt of Lexington and Warrensburg, by way of Hazel Hill, 11 

 miles northwest of Warrensburg. There are some spots of fruit belts 

 of land near Holden, and isolated vacancies in other portions of these 

 two counties. 



We are trying to organize a society in Johnson county, but the 



people have been so used to pork, hay, cattle, and wheat at 25 cents a 



bushel, hence their minds have been in and run in the same channels 



as the days of old Missouri; but the all-absorbing topic is, and in the 



name of the great and lamented Henry W. Grady : Why not a new 



South, new Korth, new East and new West, and a new Missouri? 



Yours very truly, 



G. L. TURTON. 



Report on Orchards. 



To the ofiQcers and members of the Missouri State Horticultural So- 

 ciety : 



Your Committee on Orchards submit the following report: 

 Orcharding in this portion of the State has been a very poor busi- 

 ness for the past two years, and we have had a great many things to 

 discourage us"; but there is considerable orchard being planted every 

 year, though not as much as in some other portions of the State. 



