WINTER MEETING. 157* 



left for labor to compete single-handed and alone. For a generation past we have 

 seen the restless tide of emigration from Europe and the Atlantic sea-board roll 

 westward like a mighty wave, spreading over and settling down on all our fair 

 rich lands, and far out over the arid plains of the great American desert and when 

 a few months ago the Strip was thrown open to settlement, men and women made 

 one mighty rush, bearing down and trampling each other to death in their mad- 

 dened frenzy to secure a home. But now, after this great tidal wave of struggling 

 humanity has spent its force— and much of it has been sadly disappointed — tens of 

 thousands are rolling backward, seeking and tinding better and more genial homes 

 In our own beautiful Missouri, the best of all states— not alone the land of the big 

 red apple, but a land where we grow all fruits in great profusion, from the "blush- 

 ing strawberry queen'' 



TO THE BIG RED APPLE KING— 



A State with millions of acres of the finest fruit lands that God ever made, 

 whose virgin soil has never yet been turned by the plow of the husbandman to 

 kiss the sunlight of heaven— a State with inexhaustible mineral resources, a State 

 with great rivers and vast motor power for manufacturing, with broad and inex- 

 haustible bottom lands, with rich rolling prairies, with timbered hills and moun- 

 tains, with beautiful sequestered valleys— a State with room for hundreds of thou- 

 sands of unfortunates to find a safe retreat from the blizzard-stricken and sun- 

 scorched plains of the west, and from the over-crowded cities of the east, and make 

 beautiful, happy, luxurious homes, where they may rest from the din and strife of 

 city life, free fiom the fear of soulless corporations, and where their happy dreams 

 will not be marred by the landlord's bill for rent. I would say to all those of small 

 means within our borders to remain in Missouri, and to the same class in other 

 states, come to Missouri. To hunt for a better land, one offering greater oppor- 

 tunities, and one of grander possibilities, is a waste of time ; and now is the time, 

 embrace the golden opportunity, and secure a home in God's highly favored land, 

 and while you can do so at a trifling cost, secure a spot for yourself and family, 

 build a home, surround it with fruits and flowers. Stock up your library with 

 wholesome literature, especially such as pertains to your own calling.be ambi- 

 tious, energetic, faithful, earnest and cheerful. Bury your sorrow, look on the 

 bright side of life, remember that both God and man will help those who make an 

 honest, earnest effort to help themselves. 



MISSOURI A FRUIT STATE. 



While Missouri is known as one of the foremost fruit states, aud the sale of 

 her fruits amounts to $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 annually, yet our fruit area is so 

 great that we may truly say that fruit-growing in Missouri is yet in its infancy. 

 Much of our choicest fruit-producing land is, in a great measure, unknown and 

 unappreciated ; the people of Missouri annually pay hundreds of thousands of dol- 

 lars for grapes, peaches and other fruits, grown in distant states on land that sells 

 at $100 to $300 per acre, while we have millions of acres of better fruit-land that can 

 be bought at $5 to $20 per acre, with a good home market— the prairie farmer and 

 stock-grwer who don't care to grow fruit, and the towns and cities, at home, buy- 

 ing all good fruit offered at prices in general much higher than is obtained for fruit 

 in the famous fruit centers of the East or on the golden shores of the far-famed 

 California. Surely with all these great advantages and grand opportunities, fruit- 

 growing in Missouri is the poor man's forte. Then take new courage, and with 

 faith in God and country, strike for a home for wife and children ; remember there 



