2G6 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



now necessary in a commercial orchard, no fear now of having too many- 

 apples in any one place. 



Our business is becoming systematized so that a fruit-grower has 

 one or two or three varieties of strawberries, one or two of raspberries, 

 one or two of blackberries, peaches to run through the whole season of 

 four months, grapes all to come in early, pears to ripen late, and apples 

 of only such varieties as will fill up the spaces made vacant by the 

 others. 



And what a wonderful awakening ifc this! How contagious it has 

 become, how surely, but quietly the people of the East and Xorth are 

 realizing the advantages offered them, and are filling up the vacant spots 

 in our grand and glorious State ! 



And what of the future of this work 1 Shall it be as continual a 

 growth and as sure a development for the next fifty years that it has 

 been in the last fifty years ? We have every reason to expect as much 

 if not more. 



I wonder if we people even begin to comprehend the wonderful 

 possibilities of this great State. If I should tell you that the last few 

 years has seen the fruit interests grow from a few hundreds of thousands 

 of dollars up to millions, you will scarcely appreciate the value of the 

 statement. But when I tell you that men from all over the iSTorth are 

 now daily seeking every apple he can find, at prices beyond our asking' 

 you will see that we hare had some fruit to sell. 



Did you ever see such fine peaches, pears and apples as have 

 grown this year in South Missouri ! Here among the hills of the 

 Ozarks we find some of the best fruit lands in the United States — not 

 only apple lands, or peach lands or small fruit gardens, but fruit lands 

 embracing all of these. 



Well, these cheap, poor, neglected, stony red lands are worth much 

 more than the lumberman thinks, when he is cutting off all the timber 

 fit for lumber, ties or posts. He is taking the first crop off of it, but 

 there will be another crop to be taken off in a few years which will 

 enrich the people instead of making them poorer. 



Do you know that the peach region of Delaware and Xew Jersey 

 and Maryland is fast being hemmed in on all sides, until there is but a 

 small portion, a very small portion of the original lands now left of the 

 famous peach region. 



But right here, we are in the midst of what is destined to be the 

 greatest and grandest peach region of all the country. 



This red soil, these high hills, the rocky, mountainous, flinty 

 lands, rich in all which will make tree growth, has been hidden away in 

 this southern land long enough. 



