INDIANA IIOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 225 



' you to understand that it is the great adaptability of southern Indiana 

 that is responsible for my fine apples, rather than Joe A. himself. I would 

 not intimate that pajiug crops can be gi'own here without some care. 

 That day has passed. What I want to impress upon you is that it is not 

 a diflacult thing to grow apples in this region. 



FRUIT POSSIBILITIES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA, 



BY MRS. \V. W. STEVENS, SALEM. 



Much of the entire area of southern Indiana is specially adapted to 

 the growing of fruits, both small and tree. The knob lands all along the 

 Oliio river have sufficient elevation and adaptability of soil to make both 

 apple and peach growing profitable. Here we now find the largest peach 

 and apple orchards in the State. The small fruit industi.'y is being devel- 

 oped in a few localities, and is proving quite remunerative. We know 

 farmers who have realized as much as $450 per acre on strawberries. 

 Where up-to-date methods of cultivation and caring for orchards are prac- 

 ticed, fruit land will yield much larger returns than any other branch of 

 farming. We would not encourage peach growing, except in a very few 

 especially favorable localities, but the possibilities of apple culture on 

 our limestone soils, and of small fruits on the free stone, are without 

 limit, both in quality and quantity of fruit. All we need to make this 

 part of the State famous is well directed energy and co-operation among 

 intelligent, progressive fruit growers. We do not think our State Horti- 

 cultural Society has ever done as grand a work for horticulture as that of 

 locating an expeiameutal apple orchard here in a section of country that 

 is especially adapted to apple growing. 



The possibilities of apple growing in at least a dozen counties that 

 lie along the Ohio river is best exemplified by stating what has been done 

 in a few localities. We know of lands that a dozen years ago were con- 

 sidered worth little more than the taxes that were paid thereon — were 

 sold at from one to three dollars per acre. When it was discovered that 

 this same land, when planted to apples, and when large enough to pro- 

 duce a crop, brought in one season from .$75 to $100 per acre, these same 

 lands brought more than the level bottom lands that were especially 

 adapted to corn and wheat growing. We also knew lands on the knobs 

 that twenty-five years ago had been deserted and given up as worthless, 

 but now that the cultivation of small fruits has developed, these same 

 jk lands are veritable garden spots and the new, commodious homes of the 

 owners thereof bear testimony that prosperity has again returned to them. 



15— Agriculture. 



