142 Sfafc Horticultural Society. 



icrrows .so surely, yields so quickl}-, and is so productive and so profit- 

 able as the queen of fruits, the strawberr}-. Some parts of the State 

 are becoming noted as the greatest strawberry districts of the world. 

 Hundreds and even thousands of acres are planted to berries near 

 some of our Central Missouri towns, especially down in the southern 

 part of the State. Instances of such are Neosho. Peirce City, Sarcoxie. 

 Monett, Marionville, West Plains, Olden, with hundreds of places where 

 smaller acreage is grown. Car loads are shipped from many of these 

 berry centers each day and in some instances lo, 12 or 15 car loads 

 per day, while the total product from these centers will be 20 to 100 

 car loads each per season. Each car load will hold about 600 crates 

 and brings from $600 to $1,200 per car. This work jjrings many peo- 

 ple into the places, gives employment to thousands of them, returns 

 good money for the labor and makes many happy homes. 



Instances can be given where the sales from these berry planta- 

 tions run up into larger amounts, like $200, $300 and even $500 or 

 more dollars per acre, but they are ofttimes misleading because the 

 large amounts are the exceptions and not the rule ; $100 to $200 

 per acre is a good average crop. The advantage of the berry business 

 is its quick returns. Good, proper soil and porous subsoil planted to 

 the best varieties in April will the next year produce a beautiful crop, 

 and only a partial failure can come when the rains come too copiously 

 and prevent gathering, or it is too dry so that they will not ripen. 

 The very best of care and cultivation must be given them the first 

 year and after the ground has frozen in the early winter cover them 

 with straw. Among the best varieties are the Crescent, Warfield, 

 Aroma, Parker Earle, Bubach, Haverland. There are others probably 

 just as good, and the only thing to do is to study the adaptability of 

 varieties to the soil and location. 



All the other berries pay well when properly cared for and planted 

 in congenial soil and adapted to the location. Of the Black Caps, the 

 Hopkins, Ohio, Kansas, Evans and Cumberland are the best. Of the 

 Reds, the Cuthbart, Thwack, Louden, Miller. Of blackberries, the 

 Early Harvest, Snyder and Taylor, and among the dewberries, the 

 Lucretia. 



The grape along the Missouri river hills and in some parts of the 

 Ozark is as truly at home as it is on the borders of the Rhine or in the 

 Chautauqua belt in New York or the southern shores of Lake Erie in 

 Ohio. While the grape industry is not carried on as extensively as 

 are the other fruit industries, yet it might be, could be, and should be, 

 done just as profitably. No better grape soil in the world than the 



