1C4 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trees: the manure wagon was always in order. The second year we had berries; 

 the third we had all kinds and lots of them ; sold most of the crop at home at 20 

 cents per gallon, A correct account was kept of a small lot (30X150) of Sharpless 

 strawberries; 300 gallons were sold for $60. 



This was a new business here ; it created considerable excitement, and many 

 people came to see and eat the luscious berries. 



1 thought the whole country would begin to grow berries, and many did, only 

 for their home use, yet there are over half our people who do not have berries for 

 their children at home. 



Some plums and peaches bore the third year, which were very fine. This 

 work was kept up all the time. Tne fourth, fifth and sixth years gave large crops 

 of all kinds of berries. Peaches and plums missed only two years. Some apples 

 began to bear at three and four years, and gave good crops at live and six. A com- 

 mon fence took the place of the brush fence. The first house was burned, and a 

 good seven-room houi-e took its place on the two acres, where a barn, apple-house 

 and other buildings, and some fruit-trees and a large yard full of trees, shrubs, 

 plants and flowers, of many kinds, numbering in the hundreds. Everything all 

 over the twelve acres was doing its best the latter part of the sixth year, and spoke 

 for themselves. 



One pleasant day, while I was working with the honey-bees, a fine-looking old 

 gentleman came right on me, and almost without a compliment said, I want to buy 

 this place, it just suits me; I will give you .$100 per acre. I answered, I had only 

 12 acres, and that was no inducement, and did not want to sell. He hesitated a 

 moment, and went away, but returned in a few minutes and said, I want this 

 place, and will give $200 per acre, all cash. I only answered, the place is not for 

 sale ; he left 



My better half and I counseled a while, and looked around at the cheap land, 

 and thought we could in six more years have another nice home and more acres. 

 I followed the old man, and said he could have the place. He made a payment in 

 a moment, and paid the balance soon. We have another home started, with a 

 year's growth of trees, etc., and at the end of six years will be just as nice, with 

 more acres of land. 



In 18S7, I bought 40 acres IJ mile from the depot for $250; cleared, fenced with 

 rails, cultivated and planted 1600 apple trees on 32 acres. This fall, 1892, I refused 

 $50 per acre, or $2000 cash. Friends of toil, you see our cheap lands can be made 

 valuable by planting fruit and making nice homes, with the same care to make a 

 corn-crop, and will yield a much larger income than any crop of grain or grass. 

 These are facts; and any man can do as well, and many can do better, as I have to 

 hire the most of my work done. There is plenty of cheap land here, from one to 

 five miles of a good live town on the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad. Come and 

 live where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Murray — I think there is no fear in the world that the price of 

 well-grown apples will fall below the paying point. l!^ot one tree in 

 four planted will be cared for and brought into full production. Even 

 if they all produced full crops, the people are increasing and the con- 

 sumption of fruit is increasing in a faster ratio. The product is falling 

 off in Xew York and Ohio. In Kentucky the rot is ruining the crop. 



