of lingering moisture, that otherwise remaining would brew the germs of sickness and general unhealthfulness. The altitude and rolling surface of the State is also favorable to good health. Only a small portion of the State can be designated as swampy. The remainder is of a character which would be called decidedly broken or rolling. In some sections the hills rise to the dignity of mountains, and at no point in the State is there a lack of diversity of surface sufficient to hold in check any amount of rainfall and prevent the most thorough drainage consistent with the best sanitary conditions.

The home seeker may know, that in making Missouri his home, he is not coming in a State where he will endanger the most priceless possession of himself and family, their health, but on the contrary, he may be assured that the chances are vastly in favor of a decided improvement, not only pecuniarily, but also in the conditions of health.

We have then to sum up, a soil of the highest grade of natural fertility, abundance of rainfall to produce the greatest results in all kinds of grains and fruits, a climate unsurpassed, and the other conditions of health almost perfect. Now we are to see how all these natural conditions are being utilized. What are the present conditions of agriculture and the opportunities offered to the home seeker and the future outlook of this industry in Missouri.

AGRICULTURE.

ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE.

ISSOURI is essentially an agricultural State. The present status of this industry, however brilliant of itself, is but a promise of the future While ranking among the foremost States in the production of the staple cereals as to amount and value, it is comparatively a new agricultural State, with a large amount of land that has never been brought under cultivation, and a still greater quantity which is only made to yield an iota of what it is capable, owing to its cheapness, the large

tracts in which it is held, and the lack of improved methods and systematic culture, such as are characteristic of the older and more thickly populated East.

In 1889 the population of Missouri was 2,568,380 of all ages. Of this number 792,959 were engaged in the various occupations, whereby men can make an honest living and support those dependent upon them. Of

this latter number, 375,297 were engaged in agricultural pursuits, and making their living from the soil of the State of Missouri. Nearly half were thus engaged as against those of all other occupations. Thus it is seen that agriculture outstrips any other industry and indeed preponderates over them all combined in regard to the number of inhabitants engaged in them.

These 375,297 people produced in 1889, of the leading cereals as

follows: corn, 213,500,000 bushels, or more than the total product of the whole United States in 1860, making her third in the yield of corn.

Wheat, 23,350,000 bushels, and eighth in the yield of this staple.

Oats, 38,666,000 bushels, standing sixth in this cereal.

Rye, 535,426 bushels, again standing eighth.

The value of the potato crop of the same year was $4,689,694.

The milk products were valued at $4,173,017.

The butter yield was worth to the farmers $33,572,124.

These are a long way from being the entire agricultural products of the State. No figures are here given for the stock industry, sheep and wool growing, the large quantities of fruit, including the immense business done in grapes and wine growing, and various other smaller products which bring millions into the pockets of the farmers annually.

The above products were raised on 29,177,990 acres of land, which has an assessed valuation of $395,633,307. These figures show conclusively that Missouri ranks among the first great agricultural States of the Union. It is in the lead in the leading products of the soil. It is the geographical center of the Mississippi valley, the geographical center of the United States, and of the North American continent. It is in direct communication by water with the ocean and the commercial centers of the world. It is the center of the commerce of the great Mississippi valley and is in direct communication with the Atlantic seaboard by means of all the east and west through railway lines. It is central in point of latitude, thus avoiding the long cold winters of the North, as well as the dry hot summers of the South. It affords a great diversity of pursuits to the tiller of the soil-greater than almost any other State. All the cereals are grown in the greatest perfection and yield the greatest returns. All the fruits, grains and vegetables of the North as well as those indigenous to the South attain the greatest perfection in Missouri. The wheat grown in Missouri makes the best flour and is eagerly sought in European markets. If properly sown in fair soil the yield ought to be in an average year, thirty bushels per acre, and indeed many farmers often obtain that yield on their entire crop. The Eastern farmer with his improved methods could even increase this large yield. Corn nowhere attains greater perfection than here, and the soil and climate are perfectly adapted to growing all kinds of fruits. Large areas of the finest pasture lands are found in different parts of the State, and stock, sheep and wool growing are by no means the least of her industries.

The preceding may serve to give a brief idea of the agricultural interest of the State of Missouri. But these are figures of a State only partially developed, and are just a suggestion of what may be accomplished when all her agricultural resources have been developed and made to approximate their greatest perfection under prevailing conditions.

There are vast agricultural opportunities still undeveloped in Missouri. There is still a large opening for the farmer who is intelligent, industrious and economical.

The State of Missouri contains 42,625,600 acres all told. Of this there are still unimproved 14,480,610 acres. This is of course not all adapted to agricultural purposes, much of it being mountainous and broken to such an extent as to make it available, at its best, only for grazing purposes. Some of it is covered with a dense growth of valuable timber. But a large quantity of this area is excellent farming land and as productive as any in the State. In addition to this there is considerable land in southeast Missouri still owned by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway which is of excellent quality for general farming, and may be purchased at low rates for cash, or may be obtained on time payments on easy terms and long extension of time.

But the greatest inducements to home seekers lie not so much in the unimproved lands of the State, as in the low prices of the semi-cultivated and improved lands to be found in all parts of the State and in some of the most favorable localities. There is no State having such excellent soils, superior railroad facilities, close proximity to markets and with all the advantages of schools and social privileges where farms are so cheap as in Missouri. For years the stream of western immigration has passed through Missouri to the so-called cheap lands of the West, where they paid nearly as much for the bare prairie without a stick of timber or a board set up on the end to keep off the howling winds or shelter them from the blizzards. They have been contented to live for years in a dugout, when, with no greater cost in the long run, they might have been the possessors of improved farms with snug homes, where their families might live in comfort, within a short distance of ready markets, with good schools for their children and churches where they might worship with their families and accumulate a compentence for their old age without undergoing the discomforts of a home in the wilderness.

Missouri offers no lands to the settler for pre-emption. The chief inducement, as we have said before, is the cheap, improved, rich farming

lands of the State. On account of large holdings and unimproved methods of farming, the State's capacity for production has by no means reached its limit. There is no reason why Missouri should not produce double her present harvests of all crops and become the leading agricultural State of the Union. In size, point of location, fertility of soil, proximity to consuming centers, transportation facilities, climate, etc., it has all the promises of a glorious future. A man with moderate means can come here and buy a good farin with all the advantages enumerated for no more than it would cost to prove up on a government claim in the West and erect suitable buildings for his family and stock.

To the home seekers of the Eastern States and to the traveler from across the seas, Missouri has been a comparatively unknown land and an unfamiliar name, while widespread advertisements have made other less favored sections, with their attractions, real and assumed, household words in immigration centers. For years these facts have been commented upon and the apathy of Missourians relative to immigration criticized. But this is a thing of the past, and now through the efforts of a number of public spirited men, Missouri is to be advertised as she has never been before, and the quickening into new life that is now beginning to be felt through all the avenues of trade, through the efforts of these enterprising gentlemen, is to be pushed to the very flood tide of prosperity and activity that will place Missouri in the position she is entitled to by virtue of the advantages with which nature has endowed her.