COUNTY REPOBTS. 275 



as rapidly as ground can be prepared. Land at from one to six miles 

 of railroad can be procured at from $3 to $10 for raw, and from $10 to 

 ^30 for improved. 



Interest in horticulture is growing- rapidly, and it is bound to 

 become the leading- industry of the county. The Barry County Horti- 

 ■cultural Association comprises about 25 members, embracing most of 

 the fruit men of the county. It holds monthly sessions — quarterly at 

 the county seat, Cassville, and the intervening months at such points 

 as extend invitation — and it is doing much to extend both intereat and 

 knowlede in horticulture. The officers and their postofBce addresses 

 are as follows: President, U. B. Utter, Cassville; Vice-President, A. 

 B. Morris, Purdy ; Secretary, C. B. Elliott, Panacea ; Treasurer, T. J. 

 Elmore, Cassville; any of whom will willingly afford any information 

 they can. 



Seligman is situated in the southern part of Barry county, Mo., on 

 what is known as the Roller ridge, which is one of the best fruit ridges 

 of the Ozarks, not excelled by the celebrated fruit Pea Ridge, of Benton 

 county. Ark. ; in fact it is a continuation of that ridge. The soil is 

 sandy loam, underlaid by red subsoil and sand-rock, and flint ridges, 

 and water never settles under the roots of trees, even in the wettest of 

 weather ; the soil has been formed by the slow disintegrating process 

 of changing the upper rock to soil, supplemented by the results of cen- 

 turies of grazing of vast herds of wild animals and annual fires that 

 <;onsumed the vegetation that grew. 



This region was for centuries the home of the Indian and the 

 buffalo, and every year the burning of the wild grass supplied the soil 

 with potash, of which element about 57 per cent of the ash of the solid 

 matter of the apple is composed. The combination of the elements in 

 the soil here thus formed is well suited to the production of fruit. 



The climate is essentially the same as the Pea Ridge fruit land. 

 The elevation is from 1500 to 1560 above the sea level; this affords a 

 cool atmosphere at night, with heavy dews in summer and autumn, and 

 the bright sunshine gives a beautiful color to the fruit, and also 

 the quality of the fruit is superior, so that Ben Davis apples are 

 superior in quality to some of the better quality apples grown else- 

 where. 



The apple orchards never fail to bear at least a half crop of apples 

 even when a failure in other parts of the country', and if it was not for 

 the codling moth there would be a full crop every year: but other 

 years the codling moth is a blessing, for the trees set too full with 

 fruit — so much so as to break the trees if they are not thinned. 



