The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-13
OZARK APPLES ARE TREAT ID TRAVELER Orchards Along Railroad
 for Scores of Miles NUMBER OF VARIETIES Other Fruits Do Wonderfully We'll In This Section of Missouri But
 There Is Scarcely Any
 thing Else Grown
NUMBER OF VARIETIES
Fly A. c. HOLT

One of the most rugged, and at the same time picturesque. countries in the near west is through the Ozark noun
 tains, "the apple garden of the west
 The Frisco road traverses its way
 through the heart of the mountains, and
 for about D miles the clear waters of
 Spring river wind their way along par allel with the railroad, rarely, if ever,
 being hidden from view from the car
 window.
 Many pretty little villages and fishing clubhouses are scattered along this
 scenic route. and for over 15O miles out
 between Memphis and Springfield, Mo, where the real mountain region is encoun-
 tered, when the country becomes more sparsely populated and all civilization ap-
 pears to have been left far behind the
 traveller, it is then that you have reached
 the great apple and peach orchards which
 are noted far and wide, and which carry commercial bearing upon the fruit
 market of the country.
 Unless you were to happen along dur
 ing the harvest season, and see the fruit
 being loaded into cars on spur tracks at
 short intervals you would never know
 that you was passing through one of the
 largest fruit growing sections in the
 United States, for these mammoth or chards are all located far on top of the Ozarks, and it is only occasionally that you get even a passing glimpse of them or even a tree.
 It is a very gratifying as well as inter esting sight to be passing one of these tracks, and look out and see long strings of wagons piled high with these large red apples as they are being loaded into the cars.
 Most, if not all, of the apple crop Is shipped in bulk to some large point where they are barreed and reconsigned to their final destination or to some cold storage plant. While apples are the prln- cipal fruit grown on these mountains other fruits are also to be seen in abun- dance, including peaches, pears and strawb erries in large quantities. In some parts the mountains are cov- cred with wild strawberries which are claimed by no one, and can be had for the picking These wild or volunteer berries, while not so large as the cul- tivated fruit, are in every way as nice and contain all the excellent qualities of the latter berry. Nothing but fruit is
 adaptable to the soil and climate in this section
 No successful attempt has ever been made in the way of diversified farming in these regions, presumably on account of the long droughts and excessive heat due 1 to the rocky and metallic condition of the soil
 1 Some of these apple and peach orcards 1 are on a very extensive scale, one orchard alone containing 75,0O0 acres in one con- 1 tinuous orchard
 l It is an endless proposition as all va rietes and classes of the fruit are grown, l includig spring, summer and winter ap-
 ples, and when a successful fruit crop is
 on, it requires quite small army of help | to prepare the shipments for the market, not to mention the amount of labor neces- | sary to keep such a huge orchard up to the standard of proficiency and yield. Re