Winter Meeting. 257 



would have seen his prophesy of twenty years ago come true, not 

 merely in the southwest, but all over the commonwealth. Missouri 

 is, indeed, the land of the big red apple. 



CROP WILL BRING MILLIONS, 



The apple crop this year will bring Missouri fruit-growers 

 $10,000,000. This, again, is Secretary Goodman's estimate. Apples 

 are grown for commercial purposes and for home consumption. 

 Commercial purposes, where the Missouri apple is considered, 

 means the pleasuring of many people and incidentally the profit- 

 ing of him who grows the apples. Home consumption permits the 

 fruit grower to see "the apples sputter in a row," as the phrase 

 of the New England poet has it, to be stored in dry cellar, as the 

 actual Missouri practice is, and all the year to have their joyous 

 juices translated into flesh and blood. 



After reading the reports from his correspondents over the 

 State, Mr. Goodman said: 



"From the reports from my corespondents, from interviews 

 with apple growers and from my own personal observation, I am 

 convinced that this year's apple crop in Missouri is to be a record 

 breaker. It will certainly exceed any crop, both in value and 

 quantity, that has been grown in Missouri since the great crop of 

 1901, five years ago. The 1901 crop yielded large immediate re- 

 turns, but it was not in the long run such a blessing as might have 

 been anticipated. It exhausted the soil and injured the trees. 

 Many trees died that year because of the big crop of apples accom- 

 panying the drouth. This year no such results are to be expected. 

 The apples this year are of the finest quality. They are smoother, 

 better finished, freer from defects and flaws. The crop is especially 

 good on the uplands or hills. Down in the bottom lands there 

 has been damage by late frosts. Counting for probable contingen- 

 cies, the present year's crop will be in extent from 7,000,000 to 

 10,00,000 barrels, and should sell on the trees or picked in pile or 

 barrels at $1 per barrel." 



Missouri does not now lead in the value of the apple crop, 

 though she does lead in the acreage of her apple orchards. New 

 York is the first in this regard, Michigan's apple crop is second in 

 value, Illinois' crop third and Missouri's fourth. This is not be- 

 cause of the apples produced in Missouri is less than the value of 

 the same number of apples produced in other states, but it is be- 

 cause the yield is smaller. The yield is smaller because the trees 



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