350 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



about four feet, and mistrusting the success of these trees under the 

 situation, I planted a large Silver Band maple between them and the 

 house. The Matter is growing very fast, as also are the deep-set syca- 

 mores, now two years, and no show of decline yet. 



P. S. — I forgot to mention that I am surprised to hear that people 

 do not know better than to plant too deep. I never lost a tree by that. 



Samuel Miller. 



A Letter from Missouri, 



Correspondence of The Courier, New York 



Five years ago, while acting as a judge upon fruit at the Buffalo 

 Exposition, I examined 300 plates of apples from this portion of South- 

 western Missouri, which was the most beautiful fruit I had ever seen, 

 and to which I was obliged, for its great superiority, to award the first 

 prize. For the past week I have been walking and riding over thou- 

 sands of acres of this fruit land, examining its rocks and soil on its 

 many hill-tops and in its valleys, and I find, abundantly, the conditions 

 for producing the finest fruit grown in any portion of the world. ' 



West Plains is the county seat of Howell county, a town of 3000 

 population, on the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis railroad, 315 

 miles south of Kansas City. The country is broken with hills and nar- 

 row valleys, the hills covered with timber, white-oak, black-oak, a spe- 

 cies called black-jack predominating, also hickory, all of which indicate 

 a strong soil. The hills are covered with a very wonderful stone 

 deposit, rich in iron and phosphates, which disintegrates slowly and 

 will furnish the soil with fertility for ages to come. This deposit is 

 lying on the surface of the soil, and in some places covers it completely 

 from one inch to six inches in depth, from the size of gravel to boul- 

 ders weighing 500 to 1000 pounds. 



On the first appearance, to a Northern man, this stone deposit 

 would seem objectionable, but it is the most valuable feature of this 

 fruit land, for the stone is not only rich in plant food, but it helps to 

 equalize the temperature by carrying the heat of the day into the night, 

 as the nights are cool here during the summer and the soil is kept 

 warm for the grapes and other fruits during the night by the heat 

 which the stones absorb during the day, and they also condense the 

 in the moisture atmosphere and this keeps the soil supplied with 

 moisture during the day periods. 



Apples grow to great perfection, as also do peaches, grapes, apri- 

 cots, nectarines, strawberries, melons and all sub-tropical fruits. 



