Fi-uit- Growing in Nevada. 149 



Mr. Lewers, of Nevada, read the following }japer: 

 FRUIT-GEOWING IN NEVADA. 



BY ROSS LEWERS, OF NEVADA. 



3Ir. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the American Horticultural Society : 



Nevada for the first time asks of you the privilege to present some of 

 her claims to recognition as a horticultural state, having come as you did 

 from all over the union and the Canadas to our great neighboring state to 

 see and judge for yourselves of her justly far-famed agricultural productions 

 — this wonderland of the golden west, where an almost endless summer and 

 a fertile soil combine to produce a nearly perpetual vegetation, and in such 

 excellence and profusion that nature meets you more than half way in your 

 endeavors to promote the growth of everything that conduces to the happi- 

 ness of mankind. We can not lay claim to the almost uninterrupted vege- 

 table growth that prevails in southern California, but our winter season, 

 rather mild, but sufficiently rigorous to allow nature to rest, may be a bless- 

 ing in disguise, as evidenced by the excellence of our agricultural products, 

 which, in quality, rank among the first if not at the top of the list. The 

 territory of Nevada is so vast and the soils and climatic conditions so varied, 

 that it is impossible in a paper like this to convey any satisfactory idea of 

 her horticultural capacities in every part, so I will confine myself to that 

 portion with which I am most familiar — the western part of the state. 



Fruit culture in Nevada is yet only in its infancy, and what little is 

 planted has been done mostly near the Sierra Nevada mountains, on the 

 margins and elevated slopes of a chain of valleys which extend north and 

 south along their base. The great drawback to successful and extensive 

 fruit-growing in this part of the state is late spring frosts, which occur gen- 

 erally in May, when the trees are in bloom, or immediately after, but vary- 

 ing much in intensity in different years and in different localities. This 

 elevated belt before mentioned enjoys an immunity from frost much greater 

 than the adjoining valleys, owing, probably, to the cold air settling by gravi- 

 tation and forcing the warm air upwards. 



Various means have been tried to counteract these spring frosts, or to 

 prevent the trees from blooming until they are past, such as building fires 

 in the orchards at night, or packing snow around the trees in early spring, 

 but without any appreciable good results. The most effective remedy sug- 

 gested by the experience of the writer is, in respect to apples, at least, to 

 plant varieties that are known to succeed in a belt along the northern bor- 

 der of the southern states, such varieties not being very sensitive to heat in 

 early spring, and, consequentlj', not blooming till after all danger from frost 

 is passed. Nearly all kinds of hardy tree fruits are successfully grown in 

 this part of Nevada. Peaches, and even apricots, are here reasonably sure 

 of fruiting; besides most of the hardy berries are cultivated with success; 

 amongst these, strawberries and raspberries are deserving of special men- 



