190 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WHY WE SHOULD GEOW FRUIT. 



Why? Because the all-wiwe Creator gave us fruit before grain 

 and meat. A supply of fruit we owe to our families and to our health. 

 Our climate and soil are adapted to fruit culture second to none. The 

 more the nature of this country is studied, the more we become con- 

 vinced that Southwest Missouri will at no distant day rank first in fruit 

 culture, as it should — the veritable garden spot of the world — if the 

 science of fruit culture is studied. 



Why are not Missouri farmers the most independent class of men 

 on earth? We can live longer on a bushel of corn, potatoes or apples 

 than a millionaire can on a bushel of dollars. The appetite of an aris- 

 tocrat craves for the fruit we can have with little work and enterprise. 

 Strawberries (those luscious, health-giving beauties) commence to 

 Tipen in the month of May, and can be raised for two cents per quart. 

 I have grown 400 bushels per acre, though perhaps 250 bushels would 

 be called an average yield. Before strawberries are gone raspberries 

 will ripen. They can be grown for six cents per quart, and yield about 

 seventy-five bushels per acre. Before raspberries are gone the black- 

 berry will ripen. The Early Harvest blackberry will ripen two weeks 

 before the other varieties or the wild ones. Blackberries can be grown 

 for two cents a quart, 100 bushels to the acre. Before these are gone 

 grapes will ripen, and on up to October. During this time other fruits 

 will ripen : gooseberries, currants, whortleberries, mulberries, cherries, 

 plums, pears and the apple, which itself will supply us the whole year. 

 What more can we ask of nature? 



To be successful, we must read and attend horticultural meetings 

 and farmers' institutes. If one-fourth of our working hours were 

 devoted to brain work (reading and finding' out what varieties of fruit 

 are adapted to our soil, and how to cultivate them ), they would be 

 profitably spent. A mistake in grain can be remedied in one season, 

 but in fruit it is a lifelong disappointment or a lifetime treasure and 

 pleasure. 



Fourteen years ago I grew only one acre of strawberries, and about 

 the same of raspberries and blackberries, which about summed up the 

 fruit culture in Vernon county at that time. When I begun to urge 

 the merits of berry culture I was called the " berry crank." Since, 

 over 200 acres have been grown in the vicinity of Nevada. 



Some years the producers fail to realize paying prices, not know- 

 ing where to market. We have learned how to grow small fruits, now 



