University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-11-07
MISSOURI---ONE VAST ORCHARD
Her Big Red Apples and Other Fruit
Worth Millions Each
Year.
Year.

What plant we in this apple tree
Fruits that smell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop. when gentle airs come by
That fan the blue September sky"
Bryant.
In the production of apples. big
red and luscious, Missouri stands al
the top. Estimates of this years cror
place the yield at not less than twenty
million barrels, worth at a very con-
servative estimate ten million dollars
The state has not yet reached its
highest mark in apple production,
however, for the reason that our
orchards are yet young. When trees
now planted come into full bearing
Missouri undoubtedly will take first
place in apple production, which rank
she has already taken in the number
of trees.
Advance sheets of the last census
report show that Missouri now has
in round numbers twenty million ap-
pie trees. of which only fourteen mil
! lion are of bearing age. Her closest
two competitors, New York and IIli-
nois, have fifteen million and thirteen
million trees, respectively, of which a
slightly larger per cent are of a bear
ing age. The same report shows that
Missouri has increased more rapidly
in apple orchard planting than any
other state. Next to her comes Illi-
nOis, Arkansas and Kansas. This
shows that Missouri is located in the
center of the apple growing activity,
which is shifting from the older
states to the Middle West. The fact
that New York still leads in apple
production is due to the fact that hor-
ticulture as a science is comparative
ly new in Missouri, whereas in New
York and the older settled states the
growing of fruits has long been an
important industry.
The unparalleled development of
apple orchards in this state has had
its advantages and also it's disadvant-
ages. 1t has been the means OF map
ping the soils adapted to apple grow
ing as well as those not adapted. In
the early days of fruit growing in
Missouri many orchards were planted
in regions not adapted to apple pro-
duction. This has been the means of
informing the planter of today as to
where and where not to plant, and
has also been the means of showing
the special adaptation of varieties in
the different localities. For example,
the Ingram apple. late blooming and
frost resisting, has fruited more fire.
quently than any other variety in the
regions where the frosts Of the past
decade have killed the blossoms of
other varieties.
The varieties of apples which seem
most adapted to conditions in Missouri
at the present time are: Jonathan,
Grimes Golden, Delicious, King David,
York Imperial, Winesap and Ingram.
In the growing of peaches Missouri
is first. The greatest acreage of
peach orchards of any state is pos
sessed by Missouri The south half
OF the state is the great peach ship
ping district. Here peach orchards
comprising hundreds of acres are
common and during a good year the
crop yields four million five hundred
thousand dollars.
The Missouri strawberry, unusually
large. red and tempting, is now in
such demand that shipments are made
as far away as Winnipeg. St. Paul.
Baltimore. Boston, New Orleans, Den
YER and Omaha, as we'll as all inter-
vening cities of Importance. These
wide shipments of so perishable a |
fruit as the strawberry are made pos
sible only by the recent improved
methods of packing and refrigeration.
The first picking in this state is sent !
north, east or west, depending upon
the demand: near the close of the
season the fruit is shipped south, |
after the southern crop has passed.
Southwest Missouri is the leading !
shipping center in the
world. The town of Sarcoxie, located
in this district, bears the distinction
of shipping annually a larger num-
Der of strawberries than any town in
the United States; from two hundred