280 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



broaden off into high rolling prairies, formerly studded with hazel and 

 plum thickets and sumach. The whole face of the county, except here 

 and there, is now spread out in a succession of highly cultivated im- 

 proved farms, plantations enclosed by beautiful hedge and wire fences. 

 The products of a county so beautiful and well watered of course are 

 varied, but always bountiful. 



Tobacco for half a century was the principal crop, the product in 

 1872 reaching an aggregate of sixteen thousand hogsheads ; but the 

 farmers have given their attention to wheat, potatoes and fruit, together 

 with that king of all crops, corn. 



The cultivation of fruit, to which the soil is ^peculiarly adapted, 

 has of late mostly engrossed their attention. A favorable fruit year 

 is one of great prosperity, as every apple, peach, plum or pear finds 

 ready sale for cash. The entire orchard is sold generally as it stands, 

 and gathered by the purchaser at his own risk or expense. Grape 

 culture is very successful and profitable, and there are several vine- 

 yards which yield good profits. 



The culture of garden vegetables and small fruits is particularly 

 profitable about Brunswick and in the tract of made land on the other 

 side of Grand river known as Oklahoma. Potatoes, which now sell 

 at 80 cents a bushel, and onions, which bring a dollar, are sold at the 

 patch. The yield of onions is enormous, reaching 250 to 300 bushels 

 to the acre. 



The facilities for market are excellent. The Wabash railroad runs 

 centrally through the breadth of the county east and west, and its 

 Omaha branch spans it north and south, from Brunswick to Sumner. 

 Besides these there is a Glasgow branch from Salisbury, 13 miles long, 

 connecting with the Chicago & Alton. iSTearly parallel with the 

 Wabash, about midway the northern section of the county, the Santa 

 Fe crosses to Marceline. 



Chariton county, situated on the most northern bend of the Mis- 

 souri river as it flows from Kansas City to St. Louis, contains an area 

 of somewhere near 800 square miles. It is well watered and healthy 

 for man and beast. Its population is about 30,000, and at the last 

 assessment its taxables reached nearly $6,000,000. It is admirably 

 adapted to the culture of all the staples of the Middle states ; well 

 adapted for the breeding and feeding of stock of all kinds, and par- 

 ticularly suited for the growing of all kinds of fruit. The land is 

 valued according to the improvement and situation, but good farms 

 and lands adapted for opening fruit farms can be bought for from $25 

 to $50 per acre. Very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



Thos. E. Gilliam. 



