PRESENT POMOLOGICAL STATUS OE THE OZARK REGION. 23 



this is done the orchards will pass through many adverse climatic 

 conditions without serious injury and will therefore be more regularly 

 productive. That successful and profitable orcharding generally 

 throughout the Ozarks may be possible in the future, as it has been 

 at periods in the past, there does not seem to be adequate grounds 

 for doubting. Nevertheless, some sections of the Ozark region appear 

 to be better suited to a type of general farming than to specialization 

 under methods which have prevailed in many instances in fruit 

 growing:. Some growers who at one time devoted their entire atten- 

 tion to fruit have already realized this to be a fact and are brandling 

 out into other lines of farming. 



In this region there is very little stock raising or dairying: condi- 

 tions seem to be exceptionally favorable for development in either 

 direction. Many kinds of grass, clover, and other crops suitable for 

 forage can be grown in abundance. In regions suited to both, 

 dairying or stock raising and fruit growing make an admirable 

 combination, provided properly arranged systems of crop rotation 

 and farm management are in operation. 



With a reduction in the size of the orchards wherever it may seem 

 advisable, as suggested, and the establishment of well-proportioned 

 stock and dairy interests which might be expected with a wisely 

 planned cropping system to furnish a fairly regular source of income, 

 it i- believed that the agricultural conditions in general throughout 

 the Ozark region would be greatly improved. With orchards of 

 such size that they could be properly maintained even should there 

 be successive crop failures for several years, the chances are that 

 they would still provide a fairly satisfactory source of income which, 

 though perhaps irregular, would represent a fair annual average. 



In anv diversified type of farming:, however, where fruit growing 

 enters into the combination, there is an almost inherent tendency 

 among the majority of farmers to neglect the orchard if there is 

 conflict between it and other crops that require attention. It is 

 therefore especially pertinent in the present connection to emphasize 

 what has already been said regarding the adjustment of the cropping 

 system so that no serious conflict in the requirements of the several 

 crops shall occur. The reduction in the size of the orchards here 

 suggested is solely with a view to making possible an intensive 

 management of the smaller ones, where it is practically an impossi- 

 bility so to manage the large ones of the present time. To reduce 

 the size and still continue to neglect them would be to defeat entirely 

 the object of making them smaller, as far as the success of fruit 

 growing is concerned. This may result in the elimination of some 

 crops commonly assumed to be essential to stock raising of any kind. 

 But if close attention to the orchard results in its being profitable as 



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