MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 211 



Twenty years ago there was not a pound of fruit shipped out of 

 this city or county, but during the last ten years we have seen yearly 

 from 10 to 40 car-loads of small fruits and from 100 to 800 car-loads of 

 standard fruits shipped from this county. 



Speaking of the shipments of fruits reminds me that horticulture 

 has had its influence upon the transportation question of our country, 

 but there is much room for it to exert a greater influence in that line 

 before justice is done those engaged therein. Owing to the large 

 quantities grown, transportation companies have been led to build 

 cars especially for that traffic, and in some sections special fruit trains 

 are run devoted exclusively to that business. 



Owing to the co-operation of fruit-growers in some sections, they 

 have secured reductions in rates, leaving them better profits for the 

 labor and capital invested; but as a rule, the railroads, and especially 

 the express companies, instead of carrying these products at prices 

 -which they could well afford, have taken all that the traffic would bear, 

 or the lion's share, leaving the producer to foot all losses of every 

 nature. 



While the fruitgrower is thankful for every convenience given, or 

 concession made by transpor1»ation companies, yet he is well aware that 

 until he can secure a better system and lower freight rates — a system 

 that will not compell him to help pay dividends on huge blocks of 

 watered stock by the freight rates he is compelled to pay — his business 

 cannot be as profitable as it should be. 



There is hardly a limit to the fruit that can be grown in this south- 

 western country, and from the red, ripe strawberry growing beneath our 

 feet in the month of May, to the apple whose rosy cheeks have been kissed 

 by the rays of the summer and autumn suns and moistened by the 

 gently falling dew and rain-drops, there is none better grown anywhere. 



Our location is not only favorable for the production of the choic- 

 est fruits, but we are fortunate in being in reach of the best markets 

 known in all the great West for these products. We are within reach 

 of all those northwestern states from the great lakes on the east to 

 Colorado on the west, where but little fruit can be grown, and in ad- 

 dition we have the great South lying at our feet, as it were, which will 

 readily take all the apples we have to spare, as they can not be grown 

 in that section of the United States. 



It can readily be seen then that with suitable transportation facil- 

 ities and reasonable rates, with railway and express systems run by and 

 for the people rather than those run by and for the corporations, the 

 influence of horticulture as represented in southwest Missouri would 

 l)ecome far-reaching in its influence. Instead of being purely selfish, like 



