AJJitiotta] Papers. 119 



held to celebrate Missouri Peach Day at the Exposition, and all that 

 was necessax}' to obtain an invitation to join the banqueters was to 

 clinib tlie Horticultural hill. The combination of Children's Day 

 • and -Missouri Peach Day was viewed with some anxiety by the emer- 

 gency hospital corps, but no serious cases were reported. 



A carload of ruddy Eiberta peaches from Howell county had 

 been collected for distribution by L. A. Goodman, superintendent of the 

 -Missouri exhibit, and were the best that could be found in the famous 

 Ozark mountains fruit districts. The announcement that one peacfi 

 was to be given every visitor brought the largest crowd that has ever 

 visited the Horticultural building in a single day. Although children 

 appeared to predominate in the long line that stretched from the dis- 

 tributing point in the Missouri section to the east wall of the building, 

 there were thousands of mammas, papas and big brothers and sisters 

 present, and they enjoyed the feast as heartily as their tiny charges. 

 At 5 o'clock in the afternoon the estimated supply of 50,000 peaches 

 was exhausted, with several hundred disappointed visitors still in line. 

 The peaches distributed were donated by the Missouri State Commission. 



The ^[issouri exhibitors were so delighted with the success of 

 their first Peach Day that they are considering the announcement of 

 another similar day for the near future. Superintendent L. A. Good- 

 man stated that \\hile the day had been appointed primarily to afford 

 a popular demonstration of the quality of goods delivered by the peach 

 trees in Howell county, it had been found a very effective medium 

 lor attracting larger crowds to both the palaces of Agriculture and 

 Horticulture. 



"Tn the latter building there are 430 varieties of products on 

 ■exhibition all the time," said he. "Before the season closes there 

 will be 500 varieties of fresh fruits to be seen here. 



"In the past five years the State of Missouri has climbed from 

 tenth to lirst place in the list of Horticultural states. She has five 

 times the acreage of orchard land to be found in any other state. 

 The Ozark mountains fruit district is conceded to be the tinest in 

 the West; not only for the production of apples and peaches, but for 

 the growing of strawberries. Two thousand carloads of strawberries 

 were shipped from that section this season. 



"Along the Missouri river are tliousands of acres of Loess lands — 

 glacier formation, and the finest fruit land in the world. Now. in the 

 course of plantation in this district are orchards of from 500 to 1,000 

 acres each, and witlnn a short time J^Iissouri will be first in horti- 

 cultural value as well as in scope. ]\Iissouri now has 24.000.000 apple 



