296 State Horticultural Society. 



are unsurpassed, all the denominations being well represented, and Sun- 

 day schools within the reach of all. Taxes are as low as can be, con- 

 sidering the immense amount of money expended annually on our 

 schools, rock roads and other improvements. The streams of water are 

 numerous and as clear as crystal, indicating the greatest purity. 



Our red soils are the finest in the state, yielding abundantly of all 

 the grains, fruits and vegetables. Wheat, with proper preparation of 

 land, good seed, etc., will yield from 10, 20, 30 and 40 bushels per acre, 

 and corn all the way from 25 to 100 bushels per acre, and Irish potatoes 

 from 100 to 300 bushels per acre. 



Stock raising is one of the most important branches of industry 

 now. Horses, cattle, mules, sheep, hogs and poultry are grown and 

 marketed in immense numbers, and the finest watermelons in the world 

 are grown and shipped out of southeast Missouri by the car and train 

 loads to all the large cities in the United States, east to Chicago, Cleve- 

 land, JSTew York, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Boston, and west to Kansas- 

 City, Omaha and Denver. 



But why enumerate the many advantages of our great southeast 

 section when we only wish to speak of them as a side issue, when com- 

 pared to the fruit growing possibilities ? As compared with other parts 

 of the state, apples grown in southeast Missouri are equal, and in many 

 instances superior, to those grown in any other part of the state. In 

 1889 I went to the great St, Louis fair and exposition and took with me 

 one dozen Ben Davis apples grown in my own orchard and to my great 

 surprise, there was only one lonely specimen of the apple kind there 

 that was equal to the ones I carried with me, and not a single apple at 

 either place that was equal to mine. 



The apple grows to the greatest perfection in our part of the state, 

 and takes on the highest color and finest quality. There is no land in 

 the whole United States that can sliow apple trees any older and still 

 producing annual crops of good apples. Ste. Genevieve is the oldest 

 town ia Missouri, being settled in 1755, and old orchards are still there 

 in and near the old French town that have been set out so long that no 

 one now living can give the date of their planting. 



Within one mile of Ulam, Missouri, there is an old orchard still 

 vigorous and fairly productive that was set out in 1845. I am very 



