Winter Meeting. 259 



SOIL ADAPTED TO APPLE CULTURE. 



Apple growing is increasing in Missouri, because the character 

 of the soil is specially adapted to orcharding. Not every county in 

 Missouri is equally adapted to growing apples, but in every county 

 are found some sections adapted to the cultivation of the apple. 

 Broadly speaking, there are three great apple regions in Missouri, 

 each with its peculiar and distinct advantages — the Ozark region, 

 the Missouri river loose lands and the northwest. From the north- 

 ern slope of the Boston mountains, in Arkansas, to Southern 

 Iowa and Nebraska is a section of country nearly all of which is 

 suited to the profitable growing of apples. To the eastward the 

 apple belt slips further north and takes in Michigan and New York. 

 Missouri, of course, with Illinois and Northern Arkansas, is in the 

 very heart of the apple land. 



"Does it pay to grow apples?" The question was asked of Sec- 

 retary Goodman, who has a bearing orchard of 2,300 acres in 

 Southwest Missouri. His answer was quick and emphatic. "Ap- 

 ples at 25 cents a bushel are more profitable," said he, "than wheat 

 at $1 a bushel. A price of $1 a barrel is a low price. It is a con- 

 servative estimate to place $1 a tree for a return for a good crop of 

 apples. That would be $70 an acre. Is there any other branch of 

 farming that, from a financial standpoint, pays so well? 



"But doesn't the tipple crop fail sometimes?" 



"Not more than other crops. You can count a fine crop of ap- 

 ples in Missouri with certainty three years out of five. And there 

 is never an absolute failure. Even the single year when it was 

 popularly said there were no apples in Missouri, the crop was about 

 20 per cent., and the apples grown that year sold at about three 

 times the average price." 



Missouri's apple market is north, east, west and south. But 

 little fruit has been shipped to foreign countries. The eastern ap- 

 ple states have the best of the foreign market. Aside from the 

 home consumption, which is larger and growing larger, Missouri 

 apples are mainly marketed in Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, Texas, 

 Louisiana and other near-by states. The apple crop is sold to buy- 

 ers who purchase it in the orchard. The grower sometimes sells 

 the apples on the trees and the buyer picks them. Oftentimes the 

 grower sells the apples on the trees, but picks them himself and de- 

 livers them to the buyer in piles on the ground or in barrels, the 

 buyer having a representative in the orchard to see that he gets a 

 square deal ; for even apple packers sometimes put the best of their 



