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FORREST KEELING NURSERY 
Our nursery-farm is located on the high hills 
and bluffs of northeast Missouri overlooking the 
majestic Mississippi river, and comprises some 
252 acres of loess (windblown) soil which has 
proven to be ideal for growing evergreens and 
other trees and shrubs. Here you will find nursery 
fields interspersed with lush fields of grass on 
which graze cattle, hogs and geese. There is a 
purpose to this odd arrangement: we believe the 
best possible way to fit soils for growing strong- 
rooted nursery stock is to grow deep-rooted grass 
and livestock on them first. 
Hugh Steavenson, then employed by the U. S. 
Soil Conservation Service, started the nursery in 
1938 with the help of his father-in-law, Dr. For- 
rest Keeling, a great lover of plants and for whom 
the nursery was named. Steavenson’s whole back- 
ground has been plants. He secured his B. S. 
in Forestry at lowa State College and later took 
graduate work in horticulture and forestry. He 
worked in nurseries in Missouri, Nebraska, lowa 
and Connecticut and for the U. S. Forest Service, 
U. S. Bureau of Plant Industry, and U. S. Soil 
Conservation Service. 
You are always welcome at Forrest Keeling 
Nursery, whether to select larger plants than can 
be shipped by express or whether you wish to 
climb about over our hills, appraise our livestock 
or study our water management system that fun- 
nels water from a dozen hillsides into a series of 
irrigation ponds. 
MISSOURI 
GROWN 
IS HARDY --- 
It isn’t necessarily the extreme cold that tries 
the hardiness of a plant. Nor the extreme heat. 
It is more often the weather freaks. And we have 
ACRES and ACRES 
of Seedbeds and 
Transplant Beds 
at Forrest Keeling 
Nursery 
Copyright 1953 
Forrest Keeling Nursery 
‘em. A balmy, Georgia-like February may be fol- 
lowed by a howling March with sub-zero Minne- 
sota-type blizzards. Last summer was as dry as 
Arizona and June was a monotonous 100° F. 
day after day. Other summers the fields are too 
wet to work week on end. Our temperatures bang 
around with careless regard to the calendar. Last 
winter the mercury plummeted to -21° F. and yet 
we frequently dig trees and make seedbeds in 
January. 
All this means that our plants are climate- 
tested. We often envy the growers in the more 
equable regions, but we do know that our custo- 
mers benefit by our climatic vagaries. If it grows 
with us, it will thrive in most parts of the country! 
