^52 STATE HORTICULTUHAL SOCIETY. 



and corn-fields and hustle for their living. Hogs range in the woods by 

 the thousands, getting no other care. A butcher said he had paid out 

 over $100,000 last year for hogs that had grown up in the woods feed- 

 ing on acorns or mast, as they call it here, and were simply driven to 

 the town and sold to buyers — not a bushel of corn or an hour of time, 

 in most instances, having been given to the care of these hogs. With 

 some of the methods of good Northern farmers applied to dairying and 

 stock management, the most profitable farming would be realized here, 

 for everything can be done so much more cheaply in this fine climate 

 than in our six months of winter in stock-feeding. The temperature 

 in summer is said to be very comfortable, more so than in some of the 

 more northern states, the mercury seldom going above 92 to 95 for a 

 short time in June, with the nights cool. 



I have addressed fine audiences at the opera-house every evening 

 for a week on horticultural topics, in point of intelligence and culture 

 equal to any New York audiences. In a population of 3000 there are 

 but two saloons, which speaks well for the character of the citizens, 

 and there is a large amount of business done here. On the public 

 square may be seen on every Saturday the traffic in every kind of pro- 

 duce from eggs and butter to cotton, the town filled with mule teams, 

 some of which have driven over 40 miles with produce. That there is 

 to be a wonderful development in this part of Missouri there is no 

 question ; farms are being bought and sold every day at prices ranging 

 from $12 to $40 per acre, according to improvements, and values are 

 steadily advancing without any unnatural influences of booming. 



The country is now green and beautiful, leaves and blossoms are 

 coming out, and while the peach crop was destroyed by a cold wave 

 and blizzard in February, this section is as free from troubles as any 

 portion of our great country. This portion of the Ozarks lies 1100 

 feet above sea level, which explains the very fine climate in this sec- 

 tion of the "Sunny South." 



Geo. T. Powell. 



