PREFATORY NOTE.

For a long time the Labor Bureau has been in receipt of numerous inquiries from homeseekers as to where they might locate to best advantage in Missouri, and as to just what portion of the State is best adapted for the particular industry or line of agriculture which they desire to pursue.

Hitherto, no department of the State Government has been able to supply this information; the report herewith given is a condensation, a synopsis of reports received by the Bureau from Missouri's 114 counties. With a view to placing the Bureau in position to at least partially answer the inquiries of intending settlers in our State, I solicited reports concerning local conditions from a number of well-informed citizens in each county. In some cases the market prices of products quoted in the different counties seem high, but on further inquiry the Bureau was informed that in the particular instances the quoted prices, though high, were correct as in those instances special circumstances had conspired to make the special prices. It is believed, therefore, that the following showing concerning conditions in Missouri's 114 counties is substantially complete and correct.

LEE MERIWETHER.

Labor Commisioner.

GRAND OLD MISSOURI.

This is not a mere figure of speech; Missouri is grand-grand in resources, grand in size, grand in its intelligent, progressive, law abiding population. The old saw," A Jack of all trades excells in none does not apply to Missouri. Missouri's men of brain and brawn have reached out into scores of industrial fields and the results of these efforts have been as great in all these fields as have been the results of the special efforts in States which develop some one particular industry. For instance, Missouri makes no claim as a lumber state, yet Michigan and Wisconsin, lumber states though they are, need to look to their laurels when they see Missouri not only proudcing lumber for her own population, but in one year shipping to her neighbors 300, 000,000 feet of lumber in addition to millions of cross ties and 40, 000,000 feet of uncut logs.

Texas may be great in agriculture but Missouri is great not only in agriculture but in mines of lead, zinc, coal, iron and manufactures and lumber-products in which even the imperial state of Texas is lacking.

Pennsylvania may vie with Missouri in coal and iron, but even the great key-stone state cuts a sorry figure when compared with Missouri's enormous yield of wheat and corn and watermelons and hides and lumber, and hundred other products that make her known not only as a "Jack" in all trades but as a "Jack" that excells in all.

All but 20 of Missouri's 114 counties make not only enough butter for home consumption, but enough to furnish their neighbors with 3,000,000 pounds a year.

The same warm sun that ripens the watermelons of Georgia also ripens the melons of Southeast Missouri; but the hot sun that make s the Missouri melon rival those of Georgia does not prevent in winter the freezing of our lakes and rivers; and whether the homeseeker is an ice cutter or a grower of semi-tropical fruits, Missouri can afford him a welcome and an opportunity to pursue his vocation.

One hundred and seven of our 114 counties ship poultry to the extent of nearly 50,000,000 pounds a year. Not another State in the Union