186 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



tiiity of soil, abundance of available water, care of application, low cost 

 per acre, these lands compare very favorably with any in the union; 

 moreover the principal valleys are near important lines of communication. 

 The Platte valley is contributary to the Union Pacific and the Burlington 

 systems and contains within its own borders an immense area of fertile 

 soil. The Platte river affords more available water for irrigation than 

 any other one system in the union, and with its superior advantages of 

 transportation, being much nearer the principal markets of the country' 

 than Colorado, and in a marked degree nearer than California, Washing- 

 ton, Oregon and Idaho, the development of these lands must be very 

 rapid as its advantages become known. The attention of all the horti- 

 cultural public is directed thereto and capital and labor, hand in hand 

 will develop its waiting resources. 



The ditch in Keith and Lincoln counties, under which the David 

 Hunter orchard is located, 34 miles in length, was constructed at a cost 

 of less than $1,.jOO per mile, and. perpetual water rights were sold there- 

 under at $10.00 per acre. Compare this with $35.00 to $60.00 per acre a 

 cost considered not unreasonble, in the Interior Basin and on the Pa- 

 cific slope. 



It seems to me that the advertising now being given to fruit of the 

 ■Interior Basing and of the Pacific slope, will have a tendency to call 

 attention to the irrigable laiKls of western Nebraska. 



Coming now to the question of soil fertility, the soil in western Ne- 

 braska compares in fertility very favorably with the soil in eastern 

 Nebraska. 



We come to climate conditions. Our older branch orchards in west- 

 ern Nebraska have now been planted 12 years. Some of our customers 

 planted trees away back in the timber claim period and have been grow- 

 ing fruit, that is their orchards have been in actual bearing for a space 

 of 14 or 15 years. During this time, we have found that the orchards of 

 western Nebraska did not lose their crop of fruit by spring freeze any 

 oftener than our orchard in eastern Nebraska. Apparently elevation re- 

 tards the blooming period, as we notice in the orchard of Ed Scriven, 20 

 miles from the Wyoming line, that his trees bloom from ten days to 2 

 weeks later than our own here at Crete. Now, since the cold waves of 

 late spring which reach them, usually reach clear down into eastern 

 Nebraska, and since their trees are oft times dormant at the time of the 

 late April cold wave while ours are in full bloom or have set fruit, it has 

 seemed to me that the orchards up near the Wyoming line, have a little 

 bit tjhe advantage over our own in Saline county, that is they have lost 

 their fruit from spring freezing a less number of times than we have in 

 Saline county. 



We shall next consider the question of planting in the elevated 

 regions of western and northwestern Nebraska. Ben Davis and Winesap 

 suffer serously from sun scald and from unripe wood. It is necessary 

 to select varieties which by heredity have the habit of remaining dormant 

 as late as possible in the spring and being ripe and ready for winter at 

 the earliest possible date. 



