OUTLOOK FOR COMMERCIAL ORCHARDL\G IS.' 



I remember not many j-ears ago that I visited the Scriven orchard 

 above noted about the middle of September. I came down through tiie 

 hills from Alliance, looking far up the Platte valley, I could note that it 

 was covered with snow as far as the eye could reach, and when I 

 reached Mitchell and drove out to the Scriven orchard. I found the 

 plum and apple trees laden with fruit and to this was super-added a 

 burden of heavy wet snow, bearing the branches to the ground; about 4 

 inches of snow having fallen in this storm. Apparently the fall of 

 snow protected the fruit from harm, the snow melted with an east wind, 

 no harm was noted to the apple or plum. In an acquaintance of from 20 

 to 25 year^ in this district, I must say that this is the only time that we 

 ever knew of the snow coming at such an earlj' date in autumn. 



Varieties. In the elevated regions of western Nebraska experience 

 has demonstrated that the best results are secured by planting a different 

 list of varieties from those we would regard as most commercially profit- 

 able in southeastern Nebraska. We discard the Ben Davis, the Gano, the 

 Winesap and many othei's of that degree of hardihood. We secure the 

 best results from planting such varieties as Yellow Transparent, Duchess, 

 Wealthy, Northwestern Greening, Patton's Greening, Rawle"s Janet, Long- 

 field, Iowa Blush and others of similar type of hardihood. 



we notice mat unuer western conditions orchards commence bearing 

 much younger than in southeastern Nebraska. In the Scriven orchard 

 the Yellow Transparent yielded a common wash tub full the fifth sum- 

 mer from plantng. In the same orchard the Northwestern Greenng bore 

 fruit at the age of three years from planting, and the zfth year from 

 planting single trees bore a bushel of apples. In the David Hunter orch- 

 ard a single tree gave a bushel and three pecks the fifth fall from 

 planting. 



The cherry maintains its healtli and vigor in western Nebraska and 

 is found to be much more profitable than in the eastern portion of the 

 state. The trees bear very young and in the orchard of David Hunter 

 there has not been a single failure of the cherry crop since the orchard 

 was planted. 



Mr. Hunter had a full crop of plums in the year 1908. Apparently 

 the comparative freedom from rain and unfavorable weather at blooming- 

 season is favorable to the profitable production of plums in western Ne- 

 braska. We note that plum trees bear very young and in our branch 

 commercial orchards they give a much larger percentage of profitable 

 crops than in eastern Nebraska. In one of our orchards within a mile 

 of the Wyoming line where we planted some 400 plum trees, sixteen 

 months later 250 of those plum trees were reported in bearing, and some 

 of the trees bore a quart or more each. 



Apparently the strawberry is well suited to the conditions of western 

 Nebraska. In the W. H. Kortz plantation at .lulesburg, Colo, one mile 

 from the Nebraska line, from a plat of ground 2 5feet square 148 quarts 

 of strawberries were picked, and this plat likewise contained four cherry 

 trees. In the Otten strawberry plantation near North Platte they showed 



