REPORTS OF COUNTY SOCIETIES. 333 



The apple crop of the county was 60 per cent of a full average, and 

 yielded gbout 60 barrels of marketable fruit over a home supply. The 

 surplus was mostly sold to dealers on the trees or delivered at the 

 various shipping points in the county. The prices obtained were satis- 

 factory and remunerative generally. While all the leading sorts bore 

 more or less fruit the Maiden Blush, Northern Spy, Kambo, Pennsylvania 

 Eedstreak, Ben Davis and Bawles' Janet (the latter a very full crop) 

 yielded fullest crops. In but few instances apple-growing is regarded 

 as the principle object, and is more of a side issue (wheat and corn 

 being our staple crop), in consequence of which orchards very often do 

 not receive the attention they ought. In all cases where orchards re- 

 ceived proper or only fair attention, the returns were by far the most 

 satisfactory of any crop grown on the farm, comparing ground and time 

 occupied in producing them. 



Taken altogether, it appears that fruit-growing in the county is on 

 the increase ; more attention being given the selection of varieties as 

 well as better care bestowed upon the trees. 



Apple-growing in St. Charles county is most successful as to yield, 

 size of fruit and length of time that trees live to produce good fruit in 

 the point of land lying northeast of St. Charles forming a wedge-like 

 strip or peninsula, between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, extend- 

 ing about 25 miles in length. This land is of alluvial character and in- 

 exhaustible fertility. Besides the two rivers there are two lakes, many 

 miles in length, extending lengthwise through this tract, and a failure 

 in apples here is an exception. The growth of trees on this land is 

 wonderful, and as a rule, their productiveness is also. While the color 

 and quality of the fruit grown there, is not as good as those grown on 

 upland the greater size obtained is more than equivalent in salableness. 

 In the lower portion of this point, the potato and onion find a soil 

 especially suited to their development, and are grown to the extent of 

 many steamboat cargoes with very satisfactory returns generally. 



In this part of the county, in fact in the bottoms bordering these 

 great rivers, the pecan nut is indigenous, and groves of it are numer- 

 ous. Their yield of nuts amounts to many bnshels annually. The groves 

 are being cared for lately, and quite remunerative to their owners. 

 The upper or western portion of the county is mostly rolling upland of 

 great diversity of character. The divide between the Mississippi and 

 Missouri rivers runs westward from the city of St. Charles to the boun- 

 dary. On this ridge, and toward the Mississippi, timber and prairie 

 alternate about equally, while on the Missouri slope nearly all is timber 

 land becoming very hilly, and the extreme southwestern part almost 

 mountainous. All of this land is well adapted to horticulture, and the 



