The Green Forest tribune., 1904-01-23
PAPER BY E. s. FOREMAN.
Fruit Growing Along the St. L..
 & N. A. Railway.


 THE TRIBUNE is pleased to pulp fish some extracts from the paper ''Fruit Growing along the St. L.. & N. A. R. R., which was read by our townsman B. s. Foreman be- fore the State Horticultural So- ciety at Van Buren last week. In part the paper was as follows: |:
 'sI do not come before this meeting as a real estate broker. I d. not present this paper as an advertising medium in the com mon acceptation of the term, yet in 8 sense it is, for I hope through no selfish motives, but for the common good of my fellow horti- culturists, as 1 shall later on show, that until very recently the section of country through which the St. Louis 6 North Arkansas railroad passes has been shut out from the outside world. Our neighbors knew but little about us. We had our own home and market. We were a little king dom of our own, but now the walls are battered down and we have thrown our gates wide open, and are crying to you horticultur- alists to come over into Macedonia and teach us how to grow fruit on large scale. It is true you have told some of us but we live close to Missouri and would like to be shown. ***
 The surface of North Arkansas cannot be designated under one general name. We have hills and valleys, plateaus, uplands, lowlands, farm lands, orchard lands, mineral lands and timber lands. In short, the Creator of the world was so partial to North Arkansas and desired to adapt this country to so many things that some of the land had to be stacked up edgewise.* ** He also arranged the surface so as togive us different attitudes, varying from 1900 to about 2000 feet above sea level, admirably adapting it for growing all kinds of fruits as well as cereals and vegetables. ***
 As to the quality of fruit grown in Carroll, Boone and Searcy counties, through which the St. L. 6 N. A. runs, believe it will compare favorably with fruit grown anywhere in the United States. The first time any Of our fruit had been placed on exhibi- tion was at the St. Louis fair in 1902. The Green Forest Horti- cultural Society sent a few apples there. Though they come in competition with apples from perhaps a dozen different states, they captured more premiums than were taken by those from any other four states, save Missouri, and more than she did in proportion to the size of the ex- hibit; and the same thing was re- peated again last fall. These apples were for the most part grown in orchards that had re- ceived no care; orchards in which a spray pump had never been used. Carroll and Boone eoun- ties now have in cold storage over 800 barrels of apples in St. Louis, awaiting the opening of the Worlds Fair, more in pro- portion to the number of their bearing trees than any other part of the state. ~%*
 Since the opening of the coun- try by the St. L. d N. A. road thousands of acres have been planted in fruit. If the coming season IS favorable for peaches many of the towns along this road will be able to ship Elbenta peaches by the car load and few years hence by the hundreds of car loads.
 There being no longer any lack of transportation facilities and the adaptibility of our soil and climate for the growing of fruit having been thoroughly demon strated, there is still another great advantage this country possesses especially for the man of small means which is cheap land. In fact, in many instances, believe nl1r lands are held too chean.