The Mena weekly star., 1916-11-09
@n tbe 0Aing

This quiet Sunday morning iindi
 me sitting out on a blue grass lawf lin front of a big two story private tresidence that stands in the north part of the little town of 'seligman ] Mo-. which nestles on a nigh spur of the Ozark Mountains, that runs
 down toward the southwest corneI
 of Barry county, and from where tsit l can see a large scope of line
 farm and fruit lands stretching
 away to the north, and on the south and east l can see the purple crests
 of distant mountains that fade into
 the autumnnal haze of the NoveIn- Der sky. It is indeed peaceful and entrancing sight, and can
 hardly write for gazing out over the 1 landscape Tn order Co get away 1 from the noise and confusion of ho- tel life, and the incessant disputation of politics. l sought and found en- l tertainment in a private home.
 also wanted to stand aside for a 1 few days and see the political pro-
 cession go by, and it has sure been
 going by with a vengeance up here
 in this corner of Missouri. But be- fore taking up the political question 1 will write a few more words about
 Seligman and it's evironments. The town has a population of about 300
 and is located at the junction of the ] Frisco and Missouri and North Ar kansas railroads, and is one of the
 noisiest little towns l ever saw
 Four regular passenger trains on the Frisco stop here during the twenty four hours and the M and N. A. runs two passenger trains and motor car each way, the latter as an ac- commodation service between Har- rison and Joplin. Besides the pas senger trains, innumerable freight trains go screeching and dangling by at all hours of the day and night. A tremendous amount of travel passes thru town one way and an- other. but aside from two hotels and several lunch counters. I fail to see much benefit derived There are two hotels here, but only one seems to be doing good transient ness. There are two good banks in the town. one newspaper. several large department stores. two drug stores. two produce houses. two physicians and one real estate man. The town is supported by agricul- tural and fruit industries, and is
 also an important shipping point for stock, horses. poultry and mules. II
 is an ideal fruit country, with an el- ovation of 300 feet, red clay sub- soil and limestone formation Blue
 grass and white clover grow spon- taaeously and I have never seen ] finer blue grass pastures this side of the hills of Kentucky. In fact find blue grass growing everywhere 1 along the highways and by-ways, in ! old abandoned fields, and along hol-
 lows in the woods Yet the farmers
 do not seem to appreciate this great i natural resource as a forage plant and fertilizer Altho this part of 1 the country has suffered from q very severe drouth during the sum-
 mer and fall. blue grass is growing fresh and green everywhere. Speak ing of drouth reminds me that l noticed the trail of it all the way i from Fort Smith. In fact cotton and
 corn stalks showed the effects of the
 dry season all the way from Spiro However, when found orchards and i berry fields taking the place of cot ton fields I began tO feel at home once more. and when we passed ar orchard near Springdale that wa. bending with big red apples, I could hardly stay on the train. Coming UT 1 to Fort Smith I bought a big rec
 apple from the newsboy. paying 2 nickle for it, and if was a beautiful ] apple to look at but it was a Wash i lngton or Oregon apple. and had nc more flavor to 1t than a gourd. Al | Springdale l bought three big apple, l from a boy on the platform for { l nickle. and they had the deliciou! 1 Ozark flavor As I have remarked before in these columns. all there i. to an apple or any other kind 0i
 fruit is size color and flavor. anC ! the last quality is the most impor- tant of the three. If the apple pro- ' ducers of Southwest Missouri ant l Western and Northwestern Arkansa.
 would take half tho pains in culti-
 vatine, spraying and packing theil
 apples as the growers do in th,
 Western states. they would put tn,
 latter out of business.
 On the train coming up I fell 1T with man from Springdale wht
 had taken a carload of apples to De Ridder. La. and also with man wht
 was on his way to Snringdale to buN a carload of apples. The crop. how. lever in the apple helt was not a,
 good as usual. the yield being ha- \ low the average and the dry wea4h.
 or interferine seriously with th,
 keeping qualities of the fruit. lind some beautiful specimens o apples here at Seligman. altho lh,
 crop was not as good as in Arkan. sas. This morning walked ont about a mile. and helped myself tt some biz red apples. I also saw
 some small fields of strawberries
 whleh l have seldom seen erowins la' this time of the wear. Like tn, ! hlue grass that grows everywhere i they do not seem to be affected hN tho dry weather.
 l There are some curious thing, about this town. For instance ths i business part of it and a large part Of the residence nortion get ths
 water supply from cisterns. 4
 well was drilled near the denof at "a depth Of $50 feet without lndins lswaser. About a mile south of town However. a monster sprine hurst, out of the foot of the mountain, anc numerous springs are to be founc in the ravines on all sides of tho l town. A pumping station supplies l the Frisco company with vaier anf from the tank near the station 2 pipe leads to a large concrete tank