Wi7iter Meeting. 295 



butternut, mulberry, dogwood, sugar tree, elm, pawpaw, etc., while one 

 of our counties shipped out 70,652,000 feet of lumber. In many in- 

 stances when a man buys a home of 100 acres of land he can sell enough 

 timber off of it to more than pay the purchase price. We have the 

 finest building stone in the world scattered in immense quanties over our 

 section of the state as well as fine prospective marble. The immense 

 quarries of limestone are numerous, while granite is being quarried and 

 shipped out by the ear loads to different states for building and for 

 tombstones. Grindstone quarries are plentiful, too. Our copper mine 

 sold in Ste. Genevieve county last week for $100,000, and the silver 

 mines of Madison county are attracting capital thitherward, while our 

 lead mines are second only to that of the Joplin district. The great 

 number of people of different mining towns furnish us with the best 

 home market for all farm and fruit products west of the 

 Mississippi river. Irish potatoes are being shipped into these 

 mining towns now (last week in N^ovember) by the car 

 load and scores of people make a good living by peddling- 

 farm and fruit products into these towns each week. ISTew lead 

 mines are being found every week and last week 3,000 acres of land was 

 sold in Madison county for mineral purposes. Thousands of acres of 

 raw land with the finest of timber and granite can be bought in this, Ste. 

 Francois county, for from $2.00 per acre up, and where farmers have 

 settled on these lands and set out fruit trees they are as fine, thrifty and 

 fruitful as can be found anywhere in the state. 



Our railroad facilities are not behind those of any other part of the 

 state, and we are within three hours of St. Louis and nine hours of 

 Chicago, consequently we have the cheapest transportation rates possi- 

 ble to the great city markets ; and besides our great railroad facilities we 

 have the great Mississippi river with the cheapest freight rates in the 

 world, to St. Louis, Memphis, ISTew Orleans, and thence to the ports of 

 the world. Our schools are wideawake and on a level with those of any 

 other part of the state. We have a college or seminary in almost every 

 county seat, besides the great Normal at Cape Girardeau. In our own 

 "Athens of Southeast Missouri," Farmington, with her 2,500 popula- 

 tion, we have two colleges and one seminary, besides two private schools 

 and one of the best public schools in the state. Our church privileges 



