A FEW ITEMS FOR SETTLERS. 489 



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Moberly has the largest shops on the Wabash line, employing 

 about a thousand men. We have water works, electric lights, sewerage 

 and the best schools in the state outside perhaps of St. Louis, Kansas 

 City and St. Joseph. It is a railroad town and you will see by this that 

 we have as good a market as any in the state; as to prices, the best. 



The demand for fruit and produce has never been supplied, except 

 with apples ^nd green vegetables. In 1887 I sold my pears very readily 

 lor $5.00 per bushel, and the past season, while everything was plentiful, 

 I got for the bulk of my pears $3.00 per bushel wholesale; for many to 

 private families, $4.00, Cherries are very scarce in this market, except 

 the common Morello, which always sells at 25 and 30 cents per gallon 

 wholesale. Good cherries, such as Ostheim, English Morello and Bell 

 would sell for 40 and 50 cents. These three, with Late Duke, are the 

 boss cherries for this section, being very hearty and bear heavy crops 

 every year. 



All small fruits are a success. Gooseberries and currants always 

 wholesale here for 25 and 30 cents per gallon. I always get 60 cents 

 for raspberries per gallon. Strawberries bear enormously, and apples 

 are always of best quality. 



Our soil, both prairie and timber, is a clayey loam with clay subsoil. 

 We have fine sand and lime rock adjoining town. 



Our shipping facilities are extra good, having five roads centering 

 here, giving us straght lines to St. Louis, Chicago, Omaha, Ottumwa, 

 Kansas City and south, clear through to Denison, Texas. All without 

 changing cars for both passengers and freight. 



This section is as healthy as any in the universe. Society is the best^ 

 being of a cosmopolitan caste. Churches we have two German, one Meth- 

 odist and one Lutheran. English speaking churches are three Metho- 

 dist, two Baptist, two Cumberland, one Christian and two Catholic. 



Four public schools and two Catholic. 



Good well improved farm land within three miles of town sells from 

 twenty to fifty dollars; further off, twenty to thirty dollars; unimproved 

 from ten to twenty dollars. 



Climate good, being exempt from blizzards they are enjoying 

 farther west. 



I forgot to mention the peach, which has failed for several years, 

 owing to some severe spells in winter. 



Altogether, this is about as good a territory for the horticulturist 

 and agriculturist as can be found anywhere. Yours very truly, 



CHAS. P. BAKNUER. 



P. S. All varieties of grapes do well. 



