American Minister to England, sent to the late Queen 
Victoria, that so pleased her that she caused the 
import tax on apples to be removed. This marked the 
beginning of our export trade to England, which was 
in the future to play so important a part in furnishing 
a market for our surplus apples. 
It was during the eighties that the commercial 
plantings in the Missouri River and Ozark Regions were 
made, continuing through the nineties. This region 
for many years had the largest number of trees in the 
United States. The late spring frosts occuring during 
the period 1900-1910 caused a very heavy loss of trees 
in this region materially affecting its importance as 
a commercial apple section. Included in this section 
are the Loess Apple Belt along the Missouri River in 
northwestern Missouri, southwestern Iowa, southeastern 
Nebraska, and northeastern Kansas, and the Ozark region 
in southern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas, The 
Ben Davis apple grows to perfection in the Ozark Mount¬ 
ains anu until within recent years was produced almost 
exclusively. In recent years the Winesap and Jonathan 
varieties have become important in the new plantings. 
The first section in the far west to take up 
apple growing on a commercial scale was the Pajaro Val¬ 
ley in California. Several commercial orchards were 
set out in 1858 by Isaac Williams and Judge R. F. Peck- 
man. Mr. Williams offered his first fruit on the San 
Fraud soo market in 1867. From this date the demand 
