68 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



SO I cannot give you the balance of this until I find another position^ 

 Just when or where that will be I am unable to say, but I will take the 

 original notes with me and finish it as I get the chance. 



Yours truly, 



J. E. Little. 



Wednesday, June 5—8 p. m. 



Fruit Cviltiire in Howell County. 



It is not considered as within the proper scope of this paper ta 

 trace the course of fruit-growing in Howell county from its beginning, 

 but rather to show what the present stage of its development is, and 

 what its future promises. Fruit growing, as a pursuit, did not begin in 

 Howell county until the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis railroad 

 opened up the region and gave it a market in 1884. Prior to that time 

 the surplus of apples was hauled in wagons to the cotton districts of 

 iSforthern Arkansas, and there found ready sale at $1 per bushel, or 

 more. Many of the best known sorts were successfully grown, and it 

 has always been claimed that the much decried, but ever popular and 

 profitable Ben Davis, is a far better apple as grown on the southern 

 slope of the Ozarks than anywhere else. Several desirable new varieties 

 were added to the list, and the best new winter apple at the 'Sew Orleans 

 Exposition was from Howell county. 



Peaches were found to be a profitable and almost certain crop, and,^ 

 though neglected for want of market, it was amply demonstrated that 

 here is the '• home of the peach," as once felicitously expressed by 

 Secretary Goodman. There were, even then, an enthusiastic few in 

 the county, as the records of this Society will doubtless show, who 

 were interested in horticulture, and enough tine fruit was forthcoming 

 to make a notable showing for Howell county in that famous display at 

 New Orleanr, from which Missouri brought home the only gold medal 

 oflered in the horticultural exhibit, the premiums for the best 200, 100 

 and 50 varieties, for 20 separate varieties, also (as just stated ) for the 

 best new winter apple, and apples from the most ancient trees ( 80 years 

 old), from Montgomery county. Honor to those members of this 

 Society who had the pluck and perseverance thus to place our State in 

 her merited rank among great fruit producing districts, and special 

 honor to the two men whose zeal for the horticulture and loyalty to 

 their State made the exhibit possible and its success certain — J. C. 

 Evans and L. A.Goodman. 



