A FEW ITEMS FOR SETTLERS. 487 



Twenty to thirty acres planted to the various berries, are in full fruiting 

 and could not be better. This Olden Fruit Farm at its present youthful 

 state, in bloom or under a crop of fruit, is a lovely picture — a grand 

 show of success demonstrating the fact of all I have stated and more 

 than I could say of the wisdom, of the selection just here, and the ad- 

 mirable adaptation of all the adjacent country in this southern slope of the 

 Ozark Mountain to profitable fruit culture. These gentlemen of the 

 Olden Fruit Company, with ample means, business skill and horticul- 

 tural knowledge, as a matter of paying business, have invested wisely; 

 but a plant like this has a much larger utility for the general horticul- 

 tural public-^it is a benefaction for all Howell County and all the hill 

 country of South Missouri, so without the aid of a prophet, it may be 

 now safely guessed that in a few years, as mineral regions are given up 

 to furnaces, smoke and cinders, so will these Ozarks of South 

 Missouri be given almost wholly to fruit farming, whose pro- 

 ducts will find quick transit and a ready market in the west- 

 ern cities of the plains, in the hungry, sunny south and in the 

 cold, fruitless regions of the north, while by car loads whole pack- 

 ages ot the best shippers will go to Europe and elsewhere. The 

 canneries and evaporators will exist in numbers ruled by the amount 

 of surplus fruits to be worked into best keeping shape for long voyage 

 and sure sale when wanted most. 



The practicability of fruit growing in South Missouri has ceased to 

 be a problem. That is fully solved, and the rapid growth of this in- 

 dustry into very large proportions is only a matter of short time. 



D. S. HOLMAN. 



Mr. L. A. Goodman: 



Your request to state the advantages possessed by the counties in 

 Missouri traversed by the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & 

 Texas Railways has been received. In reply will state that I am poorly 

 qualified to do this subject justice, which I regrtt, but by the assistance 

 of the gentlemen whose names will be found below, together with per- 

 sonal observations made from time to time, I think I can point to some 

 of the advantages possessed by this section. Hannibal, the northern 

 terminus of the "Katy," lies exactly in the southeastern corner of 

 Marion county, on the Mississippi river, and, therefore, very close to the 



