354 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PUTXAM COUXTY. 



Xov. 26, 1889. 



Being asked to make a report on how fruit does in the county of 

 Putnam, I submit the following report: 



We have had no market only home use till this year to gWe any 

 encouragement to the cultivation of fruit. Theie were 15 carloads of 

 apples shipped from a little station on the Milwaukee, Chicago and St. 

 Paul railroad by the name of Powerville, in the northwestern end of 

 this county this fall. A great many varieties of apples do very well in 

 this county, such as Jonathan, Ben Davis, Jannet, Limber Twig, Sutton 

 Beauty, Roman Beauty, Roman Stem, "Winesap, Red Romanite, Golden 

 Russet, and a great many other varieties do well. There was plenty^ 

 of good fruit went to waste here this summer for want of a market- 

 Gooseberries and currants do very well. Blackberries and raspber- 

 ries do very well most of the years — that is, the hardy varieties, with 

 proper care and cultivation. 



Strawberries, by good cultivation and heavy mulching put on in 

 winter and left on in summer. Peaches don't do well here. Last year 

 was the first in six years — any tree that had any life was full last sum- 

 mer of very good fruit. To be certain of peaches here we would have 

 to lay them down in the fall and cover them with dirt or slough grass 

 like we do our tender grapes. Of grapes, Concord have done the best 

 of any I have tried — have not missed raising some Concord grapes in 

 the last 26 years. I have tried to get Moore's Early and Worden, but 

 they always send me something else. Plums once in a while bear very 

 full, but not very certain. Pears would do if we could get the trees to 

 live. About 20 years ago I planted 30 standard pears ; they all did 

 well till they got old enough to bear. Inside of three years, after they 

 bore a few pears they were all dead but one, and it bore a few pears 

 this last summer; it stands about 15 feet from the house on the west 

 side — in the shade about one-half the day. Mr. Runyon of St. John,, 

 has a few dwarf pears in his yard on the west side of his house, on 

 deep black loam soil, that has been full of very nice pears for the last 

 five years 



The coming Morello cherry and Early Richmond do very well — 

 only one total failure, to my recollection. I find it pays to cultivate 

 most all kinds of fruit well. You can nearly double apples in size and 

 quantiy, also the smaller fruits. In damper climates it doesn't make so 

 much difference, and I find the best location is where the ridges slope 

 to the north or east. I would not advise to set apple trees closer than 



