THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
125 
WHERE FRUIT GROWS . 
The Fertile Region Along the Port Arthur Route from Kansas 
City to the Gulf—Fruit Business Yet In Its Infancy But 
Remarkable Results Have Been Achieved —Large 
Plantings Are made There Annually. 
A. F. Coleman, of Corning, read a paper at the annual 
meeting of the Iowa Horticultural Society, in which he said : 
Recently I took a trip over the Port Arthur route, a great 
trunk line, from Kansas City to the gulf, that passes through a 
beautiful region of fine farming country, great mining interests 
and vast lumber regions, a country noted for great springs of 
pure water, and a mild lovely climate. This country is com¬ 
paratively new, but is being settled by a class of thrifty people 
mostly from the northern states. The interests of that 
country are vast and varied, but we have only time to notice 
the fruit interests. Along the line the country is new, ?nd the 
fruit business is but in its infancy. In passing through the 
country we saw a few orchards that have been planted by old 
settlers and many of the trees are seedlings ; now they are 
planting more systematically. 
The Ozark Orchard Company was organized in 1895, and 
about 5,000 apple and a few peach trees were planted. This 
is near the little town of Goodman, where the company owns 
4,500 acres of fine orchard lands, the ground is well drained 
and fertile, the trees planted are healthy and thrifty, the 
country beautiful and well watered with fine springs. In the 
spring of 1896 about 1,000 acres were planted, mostly apples, 
of our standard varieties, where the land had been cleared, 
and the brush burned in the fall of 1895, and the ground 
plowed during the winter. In the spring of 1897 that com¬ 
pany planted over 200 acres that less than a year before was 
covered with timber. Here the company planted in 1897 
5,000 peach trees, 10,000 apple trees, 5,000 raspberries, 5,000 
blackberries, 5,000 strawberries and 1,500 gooseberries. Some 
of the peach and apple trees, planted two years, ripened some 
fruit, and the trees look as if they had been planted four or 
five years. At Lanagan, in the spring of 1897, in Southwestern 
Missouri, 350 acres were planted, consisting of 21,000 apple 
trees, 3,000 peach trees, 5,000 raspberries, 5,000 blackberries 
and 5,000 strawberries. 
Planting at Gentry, Arkansas, in 1897, this selection was 
made because of its being especially a high ridge and the head 
of a dry valley, peculiarly rich and well adapted to the pro¬ 
duction of all kinds of farm produce as well as fruits. No 
better ridge of land for fruit growing exists in Northwestern 
Arkansas, or any country, in my opinion. The dry valley just 
a little lower than the ridges will some day show the finest 
orchards in the whole Ozark region—just rolling enough to 
give good drainage to both water and air, and all underlaid 
with the peculiar red soil that is the fruit grower’s delight in 
the southern country. Here have been planted 12,000 selected 
trees of our best commercial varieties. Here you can stand 
and see the rows of trees two miles in length without a break. 
No fruit men could look on this orchard and see the healthy 
condition of the trees without falling in love with the country. 
At Gentry 17,500 apple trees were planted in the spring of 
1897, and all made a fine growth, This company has planted 
6,000 peach trees, 29,000 apple trees and 16,500 plants of 
small fruits. As a resume therefore, this company has planted 
about 1,380 acres of archard, consisting of 9,000 peach trees, 
78,500 apple trees and 31,500 plants of small fruits. This 
great orchard extends on both sidss of the railroad for miles. 
This is only the work of one company. Many others are being 
organized, and farmers generally are planting large orchards, 
along the line of the Port Arthur route. Many thousand trees 
were planted in the pring of 1897 and it is estimated by care¬ 
ful men treble this amount will be planted in the spring of 
1898. In my opinion the day is not far distant when you will 
see a continuous orchard from Kansas City to Siloam Springs, 
a distance of 230 miles, on both sides of the road. But little 
if any waste lands. The ridges and rough lands are their best 
orchard lands, the valleys and level lands are excellent for 
small fruits and farming. And thousands of northern and 
eastern people are eager to buy their fruits at remunerative 
# prices. 
But you say these are suppositions. So I will give you a 
few figures, obtained from the very best authorities along the 
line, where the fruits pay like gold mines. Three hundred car 
loads of strawberries were shipped in the summer of 1897 from 
one section and brought into one town $250,000. 
This gave employment to 10,000 people. Mr. Davidson had 
berries that paid $300 per acre. Mr. Speakman, of Neosho, 
Missouri, sold peaches for more than $350 per acre. Mr. 
McNaire, from four year old peach trees, sold from 160 acres 
$15,000 worth of peaches. Mr. Bardwell, of Gentry, Ark., 
sold peaches at over $300 per acre. Mr. Carr made over $100 
clear per acre off his berry patch. Mr. Leake sold forty acres 
of apple orchard nine years old for $2,400 on the trees. Mr. 
Sauther got $84 per acre for his apple orchard. Mr. Baylis 
has 400 acres of apple trees that brought him $30,000 on the 
trees, the trees being nine years old. 
All these things can be had by men of push, without loss of 
home and home pleasures, with none to molest or make afraid 
along the Port Arthur route. Many sold their apple crop this 
year for more than they asked for their whole farms a 
year ago. 
Only a few years ago the idea of commercial fruit growing 
in the Ozark region was ridiculed. Now millions of fine trees 
are growing, and hundreds of acres are producing crops of 
small fruits. 
And in the fruit season thousands of people find employ¬ 
ment in picking and packing these fruits, while special fast 
fruit trains go out daily, carrying them to the markets of our 
great cities, and furnish fruit for our export trade. 
THE PRUNE INDUSTRY. 
In his pamphlet on the fruit industry, recently issued by the 
Department of Agriculture, Assistant Pomologist W. A. Taylor, 
gives an interesting account of the development of the prune 
industry in this country. He says that in 1821, 125,300 
pounds of prunes were imported. The amount rapidly in¬ 
creased and, in 1888, 82,914,579 pounds were received. The 
greatest value of this importation of prunes was in 1882, when 
$3,084,304 worth were brought in. 
Over forty years ago, leading men recognized the fact that 
these prunes ought to be produced in this country. In 1854, 
the Patent Office imported scions of French prunes and dis¬ 
tributed them in the eastern and northern states. At that 
time it was thought that the state of Maine, where the curculio 
was seldom seen, would in time supply the entire Union with 
