REPORTS OF COUNTY SOCIETIES. 357 



strawberries and raspberries, etc. ; other varieties of all our common 

 fruits does as well here as any where in southwest Missouri, except 

 peaches, which occasionally fail on account of fruit buds being frozen 

 in winter. Our soil here is varied and of all qualities of limestone and 

 sandstone, of timber and prairie. And land is exceedingly low in price. 

 Timber lands (which are best for fruit) can be bought for $1.50 to $5.00 

 per acre. I have never seen finer fruit any where than is grown in our 

 county. Our county is about half prairie and half timber. We yet 

 have no railroad cutting our county, though there is one or more under 

 contraction, and is expected to be completed soon. There are railroads 

 all around us, and our fruit is hauled out to those roads to be shipped 

 and other counties get the credit for its production. Our fruitgrowers 

 and agriculturists north and east do not know the advantages we have, 

 or else they would many of them come and make use of some of these 

 lands that are lying idle and make the wilderness blossom as the rose. 



I have been here upwards of twenty years, and can say by experi- 

 ence and observation that timber upland is best for apples and peaches 

 and that it must have more cultivation than prairie, and that all orchards 

 to bear good crops and to be long-lived, must be cultivated yearly; 

 and it is much more necessary to cultivate timber orchards than prairie, 

 and that we must wage a vigilant war on insects, rabbits, etc. We must 

 spray all large orchards after bloom drops. I am using Nixon's No. 3 

 pump with two hose put on farm wagon. Two men at nozzles, one at 

 pump and one to drive. Have water hauled and in open ended barrels 

 before hand, and we can spray many hundred trees in one day. I would 

 advise planting young trees and go yourself to nursery and see them 

 dug. Start the heads low, and at planting, cut off three-fourths of the 

 ends of each and every longer branch or limbs, thus shingling off the 

 ends of those branches causes them to throw out more laterals, and in 

 after years you can thin from among those laterals and proportion your 

 top as you wish and thereby not have any crotches or forks to cause a 

 split down when the tree is old. When the tree is fifteen or eighteen 

 years old, it is a heavy loss to have our trees split to pieces as seen in 

 other orchards all over our country, and such can be avoided by prun- 

 ing while young. My last planting on sandstone prairie two years ago 

 was Ben Davis, Winesap and Red Romanite. Persons planting on 

 timber land, other varieties may be added, and will do very well, par- 

 ticularly Jonathan and Minkler. Grimes' Golden, the tree is not hardy, 

 and Willow Twig, the trees split easily and the skin of the fruit is very 

 tender, easily bruised and is subject to speck while yet on the tree. 



Our shippers and commission men can tell us varieties that sell 

 best, though generally thev know little or nothing of the kind of soil 



