THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
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LOUISIAI 
IV/ from PA< 
THE “OLD STATE OF PIKE.” 
[From t.lie St. Louis Republic , January 7th, 1896.] 
The County of Pike is older than the State of Missouri 
itself, having been laid out by the Territorial Legislature 
in 1819. before Missouri was admitted to the sisterhood 
of states. The town of Louisiana was laid out in the 
same year the county was organized by Shaw & Caldwell, 
the proprietors of the land upon which the town now 
stands, so that Louisiana and the “State of Pike” came 
into history at the same time. 
At that time the dividing line between the Spanish 
and French possessions was claimed by Spain to run 
along the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the 
forty-ninth degree of north latitude, while France 
claimed the whole of the territory now embraced by 
the states of Oregon and Washington. This question 
was finally settled between the United States and 
Spain by the treaty of 1819, which was not made and 
ratified at the date of the passage of the act creating this 
county. 
If the French claim was correct, then the County of 
Pike extended to the Pacific ocean on the west and to the 
forty-ninth degree of north latitude. The wonderful area 
of the county the Territorial Legislature was creating 
struck one of the early day Solons so forcibly that, rising 
in his seat while the bill was up for consideration, he ex¬ 
claimed: “The County of Pike! Why, gentlemen, it is 
not a county we are creating; it’s the biggest State in the 
Union.” And so Pike County has gone down in history 
as the “State of Pike.” 
One of the biggest institutions in the city of Louisiana 
is the Stark Bros. Nurseries and Orchards Company. The 
trade of this firm extends not only throughout the 
United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary 
and other foreign countries, but it has a number of 
customers both in New Zealand and Australia. 
Eighty years ago there came from Kentucky to Pike 
County the late Judge Stark, then a young man fresh 
from Old Hickory’s New Orleans campaign. He started 
the nursery and planted the first grafted orchard in the 
state, having brought the scions on horseback from Ken¬ 
tucky. The business has'descended from father to son, and 
is now conducted by the third generation, ass sted by the 
fourth. This firm has more than 1,000 traveling solicitors 
on the road, and employs more people in its offices than 
would be necessary to run a large manufacturing concern. 
The extensive packing-houses of the company are adjacent 
to the city, connected with the railroad by special track. 
From these packing-houses hundreds of carloads of trees 
are shipped annually. The nursery grounds embrace a 
number of farms convenient to the city, and even extend 
to Rockport, Ill., where there is a plant of sever 1 million 
trees. The peculiarity of the concern is the establishment 
of large orchards. These orchards in 24 states aggregate 
nearly 50,000 acres, and more than 3,500,000 trees on the 
partnership plan. The firm is also interested in about 
as many more trees on the co-operative arrangement. 
* * * The nurS eries have been beneficial not only 
to their home, but Missouri owes no little of her 
prestige as a fruit-growing region to the progress 
and work of development of this firm. 
The exhibits of this firm whenever made, attract great 
attention, and do much to advertise the State. The firm 
pays large amounts for new varieties of fruit, and con¬ 
ducts the largest business of the kind in America, if not 
in the world. 
Louisiana firms have more traveling men upon the road 
for them than travel out of any other city of the world of 
its size. This, of course, is largely due to the large number 
of men employed by the Stark Bros. Nurseries. * * * 
A piece of nursery ground a few years ago was pur¬ 
chased for $2,000. It was platted not long ago and 
sold for over $14,000. This is but a sample of return upon 
investment that is made by a solid, substantial Missouri 
town as Louisiana is. 
