It matters not from what state the prospective settler may come or what method of farming he may prefer to pursue, he will find growing in Missouri crops with which he is familiar and conditions conducive to comfort and contentment. Semi-tropical plants or those that require more than an average amount of moisture are successfully grown in one section, while such as demand a higher altitude and a lower temperature and that thrive with only an average amount of moisture do equally well in other parts. Strawberries to the amount of more than 800 carloads have been shipped in a single season from a group of less than a dozen counties of this state. Ordinarily the strawberry season is short - from about May 15th to June 20th. Shipments are made to Denver, Salt Lake City, Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Sioux City, Des Moines, Kansas City, Chicago and other points within the United States.
Some shipments also go to Canada.
Practically all shipments are made in refrigerator cars, which are carefully iced and cooled several hours before being loaded. Entire trainloads of berries are often shipped from Sarcoxie, Neosho, Anderson and other centers. An ordinary yield is from 100 to 200 crates per acre, but very much larger yields are not uncommon. The cost to the grower of a crate is figured at eighty-five cents. Tobacco growing in Missouri is as old as the history of the state.