Miscellaneous. 167 



Gasoline and kerosene are high in those sections, because they are 

 remote from the petroleum fields. It is especially fortunate, there- 

 fore, that conditions for the production of cheap alcohol are ex- 

 ceptionally favorable in those localities where the price of petro- 

 leum products is high. 



APPLE CULTURE IN THE OZARKS. 



(By Prof. L. R. Taft, Agricultural OoUege, Michigan.) 



The Ozark region of Missouri and Arkansas is commonly 

 spoken of as the land of the big red apples. That it is not a 

 misnomer was very evident to the 100 members of the American 

 Apple Grogers' Congress, who last summer accepted an invitation 

 of the Frisco railroad to make a tour of inspection through that 

 section. 



Most people have heard of the Ozark mountains, and have the 

 idea that Southern Missouri is really a mountainous country. The 

 Frisco railroad, which runs southwest from St. Louis through the 

 heart of the Ozarks, gradually climbs to the top of the table-land 

 whch forms the Ozark region, and at the end of 200 miles has 

 reached an elevation of 1,300 feet. 



For the most part, the surface is somewhat broken by a 

 series of ridges, but it is seldom that the summits are more than 

 100 to 200 feet above the neighboring valleys, so that, at best, they 

 should be called hills. While there are places in the extreme 

 southern and central part of Missouri where a considerably greater 

 altitude is reached, the elevation of the counties in which fruit 

 growing has been taken up ranges from 1,200 to 1,800 feet above 

 the Gulf of Mexico, or perhaps 800 to 1,400 feet above the Missis- 

 sippi river at St. Louis. In some sections, notably in the vicinity 

 of Springfield, where for 50 miles much of the land is quite level 

 and relatively low for fruit growing, one could hardly ask for 

 more favorable conditions for the production of ordinary farm 

 crops, but, for the most part, the ridges and hillsides are used for 

 fruit and grazing and the valleys for com, wheat and grass. 



CHARACTER OF THE SOIL. 



The soil, which has magnesian limestone as its base, also 

 varies widely. In Phelps, Pulaski and Laclede counties it is some- 

 what light and thin upon the ridges, as the underlying rock comes 

 quite close tg the surface. The natural growth is black jack oak. 



