270 
Cass county: 
Splendid fruit country ; apples most plentiful. Last season (1866) was an average crop, 
E. P. West, from 20 fifteen-year-old trees, gathered 300 bushels. Several orchards’of from 
120 to 150 trees, of about the same age, produced upwards of $1,000 each at home. The 
Union Pacific railroad will give us an unlimited market. Peaches bear three years in five. 
In Livingston, one gentleman gathered from 100 trees 1,000 bushels of apples, 
worth 75 cents to $1 per bushel ; peaches do not succeed so well ; pears grow large 
and delicious; many persons are putting out vineyards, but the business is yet 
new. In De Kalb, one small orchard of 27 trees, set nine years, yielded 117 
bushels of apples, worth 75 cents per bushel; peaches yield about once in three 
or four years; pears, cherries, &c., do well. Our Pike reporter says that 
50,000 bushels of apples are annually shipped from that county. In Lincoln, 
an orchard of 1,200 trees, 14 years old, yielded $1,500 worth of apples last 
year, at $3 per barrel. Our Miller county reporter says: 
I have never known any place to exceed this for fruit. Apples and pears receive most 
attention, but pears, grapes, and all the small fruits do well. I have one apple tree (Wine- 
Sap) only six years old from the seed, which last season yielded one bushel of good, well- 
grown fruit; the tree is three inches in diameter. A dwarf pear tree, only four years from 
the bud, ripened 70 pears of the Seckel variety. Beat that anywhere else, and let us hear 
of it. 
In Cooper county, apples rarely fail, and our correspondent says that 10 acres 
set out in good winter varieties will be a fortune to a young man; he can set 
40 trees to the acre, which will bear in about five years, when he can get $5 
per tree for his fruit standing, $200 per acre, $2,000 for his orchard. Our Cole 
reporter says: . 
All our uplands, ridges, and hills are specially adapted to the growing of peaches, apples, 
and grapes. We have already varieties of apples which are a sure and profitable crop. 
Early peaches, except chance seedlings, are still on trial; the Karly Crawford has failed for 
two years past on account of ice in March, or perhaps from neglect. Late peaches do well. 
Cherries, pears, plums, &c., grow well. One pear orchard of several thousand trees is a fail- 
ure, either from an unlucky choice of varieties or from want of proper cultivation. Grape 
vines do exceedingly well in soil which was at first thought sterile. Strawberries grow 
luxuriantly. 
In the western and southwestern portions of the State fruit culture promises 
to become a profitable branch of farming operations, a number of counties report- 
‘ing the setting out of orchards of apples and peaches on an extended scale. Our 
La Fayette reporter writes as follows: 
I think we can beat the world in fruit culture. We export north of the river to Kansas, 
Nebraska, Iowa, and to all the Territories. Last year (1866) the crop was short but still 
enormous. Fyrom all the data at hand, I should estimate the crop of 1867 at not less than 
- $500,000, besides home consumption. 
The culture of the grape is encouragingly spoken of from various quarters. 
‘Our Dade reporter says : 
As to fruit our soil is wonderfully adapted to the growth of all kinds of fruit, especially 
ithe grape, apple, &c. The grape grows here spontaneously in astonishing quantities, and 
-of quality almost equal to the imported varieties. Your correspondent could any day during 
the grape season fill his wagon bed with grapes that grow spontaneously on the brush-land 
of his premises, and might repeat it for many days. 
Jefferson county : 
Fruit is our specialty, including grapes, apples, peaches, pears, and all the small 
fruits. The grape vine grows wild all through the woods, the fruit hanging from our 
largest forest trees. The vines grow from 10 to 20 feet the first year, and bear almost 
a full crop the second year. A peach bud will grow an inch in diameter and eight feet high 
the first year on a two-year old root. Our soil, climate, and elevation combine to make Jeffer- 
son the great fruit and wine county of Missouri. Our grapes and strawberries are 10 or 12 
days in advance of any in the market. The grape and apple crops never fail; peaches have 
failed but once in 33 years, viz., in 1865. Peaches yielding $500 per acre, apples $300, 
pears $750, and grapes $900 to $1,000, are considered average crops. There are 350,000 fruit 
trees and 250,000 grape vines now planted in this county, with room for ten times the num- 
ber. : 
