A FEW ITEMS FOR SETTLERS. 4'?9 



L. A. Goodman: 



It seems to me a little difficult to appreciate your request for a re- 

 port on the adaptability of any part of our state to fruit growing; it 

 should be self-evident to any casual observer. Nevertheless, we can 

 hear men in any part of it complaining of want of success. Whenever 

 a short crop is realized the country or the climate is blamed. Such 

 men would sing the same old tune anywhere they might be located, and 

 would plant still less if they knew such complaints would be frowned 

 down by all their neighbors. Hence, we find the least interest in fruit 

 growing in the most favored localities, excepting some limited localities 

 where commercial growers have demonstrated the wisdom of planting 

 extensively. Then everybody will plant for an immediate fortune, tak- 

 ing but little further care of it, and when an occasional crop year oc- 

 curs, like the last, the markets are soon glutted and broke down with 

 second and third grade stuff. 



But this need not be any discouragement to planting by considerate 

 men. The market for potatoes is about as demoralized now as that of 

 apples, while in a few previous years there have been millions of bushels 

 imported. Skillful farmers are said to make more money in a hard crop 

 year than when crops grow almost of themselves. I never expect to 

 see even half the orchards taken reasonable care of, but I expect to see, 

 as I have often seen before, the orchard and fruit garden pay a larger 

 dividend than any similar part of the farm. 



Perhaps the main question you want answered from this part of the 

 state is: What has been the effect of recent test winters on our or- 

 chards.'' And I am free to confess that where trees were in thrifty grow- 

 ing condition in the fall of 1884, they were all more or less damaged that 

 winter, and a small proportion permanently injured. The far larger por- 

 tion seem to have entirely overcome the injury, and made a splendid 

 growth the last two years, especially where they were not too heavily sod- 

 bound. The older orchards that were uniformly in this sod-bound con- 

 dition during those test winters, seemed to me not to have suffered 

 nearly so much from the sudden cold, being more in a dormant state 

 when this occurred, and even they seem to have recovered some thrifti- 

 ness of late. 



In obedience to your hint of brevity, I would say, in short, that if 

 I were prospecting for a location now for fruit-growing, I should not 

 care to go much further north, nor would I sacrifice anything to get fur- 

 ther south, unless my object were to grow peaches. I believe we can 

 grow as much of any other kind of fruit here as any where, unless it be 

 in the Ozark Mountains or beyond, and we are as near to an extensive 



