136 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Of the 114 counties iu the State, fully 100 of them are well adapted 

 to horticultural pursuits. Some few have already become famous, but 

 many of them, perhaps as well suited, have not made a start. Much 

 of the lands in many parts of the State once considered only fit for 

 grazing purposes, are now being developed into orchards, and are 

 proving superior for the purpose to our best agricultural sections. 

 Millions of acres of such lands are yet idle in many parts of the State. 

 The bluff lands along the Missouri river and all its tributaries in the 

 north central part of the State comprising a part of the great Loess 

 formation. All of the east part, along the Mississippi river, the vast 

 E,ed lands or Ozark region, comprising nearly one-third of the State, 

 on the south side, all are yet comparatively undeveloped, and all are 

 the very best fruit lands, and are only waiting the coming of thousands 

 of people who are eking a scanty living on rented land in older states 

 and countries paying more per acre per annum in rents than these 

 lands would cost to buy them outright. 



Where away back in the beginning of the present century the 

 white man came to settle the territory of Missouri, and only a few 

 years back the best agricultural sections were selected and there the 

 family orchard was planted and it was not until commercial orchards 

 began to be planted that it first came to be known that these lands, 

 first considered worthless, were so well adapted to fruit-growing. 

 Even at the present rate of development it will require at least fifty 

 years to convert a respectable majority of the lands into orchards. 

 Some of you may ask, as we know many have already asked the ques- 

 tion, what will be done with all the fruit then I The answer is : We 

 have the world for a market, and the population of the world is in- 

 creasing more rapidly than our orchards are ; besides, there is a large 

 part of the world where fruits cannot be grown, and in most cases 

 these parts are the most densely populated. There are large sections 

 of the United States, either densely populated or becoming so, where 

 fruits are very little grown. Owing to the varied climates, soil, etc., 

 of our great fruit region we do not get a full crop of fruit all over the 

 country each year. Asa rule we find failures and successes here and 

 there all over the country; and this is perhaps a wise provision of 

 nature, to give trees and plants a rest and prevent any over-production, 

 which we need not fear in the present generation. 



The means of transportation have been so improved that we can 

 send our fruits to markets that awhile ago we had not thought of ever 

 reaching. The time is coming, and it is not far in the future, when 

 train loads of fruits will Heave our orchards to go to the seaboard, 

 there to be loaded into cold storage vessels and taken to the various 



