208 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



ORCHARDING ON THE OZARKS. 



15Y A. NELSON, LEKANON. 



Mr. Pj-esidenty Ladies and Gentlemen of the Missouri State Horticul- 

 tnral Society : 



Your worthy President has assigned to me the subject of "Orch- 

 arding on the Ozarks." In this [ am fearful he has made a mistake, as 

 it is known to a few of you at least, that I am only a newcomer on the 

 Ozarks, and to grand old Missouri, yet I am proud to-day in saying that 

 so far as truit interests are concerned, I made no mistake in locating on 

 the Ozarks. 



Six years ago I commenced cutting out bush and timber clearing 

 off land to make me a home. In this time I have cleared up and put 

 in cultivation about three hundred acres of land. During my six years 

 here I have not been idle by any means. I have tried to be a close ob- 

 server of what I thought was for the interest and prosperity and bet- 

 tering the condition of those in my locality, and have, I believe, proved 

 beyond a doubt, this fact, that for general fruit growing,' the Ozarks 

 stand at the head, and before I close this paper, I will try and give my 

 reasons for this belief. 



First, be it known to you that the Ozarks or the raw lands of the 

 Ozarks are to-day covered with a growth of timber. This with her soil 

 so well adapted to orcharding and other fruits, attracted my attention 

 as well as the attention of other fruit growers who have visited our part 

 of Missouri and examined her orchards and her fruits. I have come to 

 this conclusion in making examination of different fruit grounds in dif- 

 ferent localities, and soils; that for long-lived trees giving good crops 

 of first-class fruits, we must select the elevated localities, and if a 

 northern or easterft slope, so much the better, for I find that for fruits 

 grown on our uplands, which are all thin soils, such fruits are equalled by 

 few and excelled by none; and all that is now wanting to make South- 

 west Missouri the leading fruit growing locality of the world, is live, 

 wideawake, energetic and progressive men, who will force the old fogy 



