SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 165 



affording favorable competition to distant markets. The six or seven 

 counties located on the upper Mississippi, and embracing a magnifi- 

 cent fruit region, are equally favored in the matter of transportation, 

 and ship annually an immense quantity of apples. In this territory we 

 find the town of Louisiana, which ships annually 30,000 barrels, aver- 

 age crop. Clarksville, only ten miles away, 20,000. Further up we 

 find Hannibal, which ships a larger quantity, and a dozen more river 

 towns could be named that ship almost as freely. On the lower Mis- 

 sissippi we find four or five counties that contribute considerable ap- 

 ples, peaches and pears. 



Passing to the western part of the State, adjoining Kansas, we find 

 Bates, Vernon, Barton and Jasper counties all actively and extensively 

 engaged in the culture of small as well as large fruits, and will, I learn 

 •on reliable authority, have 3,000 acres in small fruits, bearing the com- 

 ing season. They are also planting, freely, apple and peach trees, 

 grape vines, etc. Tn the southwest we find Newton, Dade, Crawford, 

 Laclede, Lawrence and Greene counties planting liberally peach and 

 apple trees, fruits that have brought considerable money to that sec- 

 tion of the State. Howell county, away down below the Ozark moun- 

 tains, was unknown to fruit growers until a few years ago, when a trio 

 of the most intelligent horticulturists in the State discovered the many 

 favorable condi ions existing there, especially for peach culture. Hav- 

 ing ample means and practical experience, they embarked in the busi- 

 ness on a large scale, and already peaches have been shipped from the 

 •county by the car load that netted the owners nearly a dollar a box. 

 It has to-day the finest peach and apple orchards in Missouri. The 

 peaches, protected as they are by the Ozark range on the north, rarely 

 fail. Even if devoted wholly to canning, or used for evaporating or 

 •drying purposes, peach raising there would be profitable. Howell has 

 over 1,000 acres in peaches and a similar area in apples. 



The most northern tier of counties too we find a fertile fruit region. 

 Mercer county would hardly be thought of in this connection, yet she 

 has 4,000 acres in apple orchards, and for outside markets had 12,000 

 barrels apples of the past season, Princeton alone shipping nearly that 

 many. Adair county, with Kirksville as the leading fruit center, makes 

 an equally favorable showing. Further along toward the northwest 

 we strike the territory directly tributary to St. Joseph, a fine market 

 and distributing center. Here we strike the Missouri river again, a 

 valuable outlet to the far north for the several counties that are located 

 along there and near valuable Nebraska markets. 



Down in the swampy lands of Southeast Missouri we find the 

 most extensive watermelon fields in the United States. Mississippi 



