COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING IN NEBRASKA 195 



despair because the consumer does not come to the orchard for the fruit 

 when it is ripe. On the ccntiary, this man has studied the conditions 

 of trade in his particular line of production. He has based all his re- 

 lations to the world, in this respect, upon supply and demand; he has 

 employed business methods in his work of producing fruits; he realizes 

 that he must meet the consumer half way; he must put his produce within 

 easy reach of this class of people; he must co-operate with his fellow 

 man in this work. He finds transportation facilities convenient and 

 reasonable, and he finds commission men at the other end of the road 

 ready and willing to handle his shipments and to hurry bis produce on 

 and into the hands of the consumer and all this assistance at a reasonable 

 cost, when all things are considered. 



The commercial orchard industry in Nebraska, handled under system- 

 atic, business methods in the care of the orchard, and the marketing of the 

 product, is just as successful, just as permanent and abiding and just as 

 remunerative as it is anywhere on the continent, when all features of 

 the enterprise are considered. Cost of land, adaptability of soil and cli- 

 mate to all kinds of crop uses, cost of putting orchards into bearing, 

 nearness to centralized markets, etc. 



One Successful Orchardist. 



As an illustration of what can be done in Nebraska, in commercial 

 orcharding, we will review briefly what is being done in one particular 

 orchard right in the center of a district in the state where commercial 

 orchards have been planted and permitted to drift back into nonproduc- 

 tion. This orchard is known as the E. F. Stephens orchard of Crete, Neb., 

 and has gained some notoriety by being associated with a big nursery 

 industry carried on by Mr. Stephens for many years. This, however, 

 does not necessarily give this orcharding enterprise any advantage over 

 any other orchard in the state, similarly handled and managed for fruit 

 production. The questions at issue and which we desire to bring out in 

 this article are: Can commercial orcharding be made a success in Ne- 

 braska? Why are people skeptical as to their ability to grow fruit profit- 

 ably in Nebraska? 



It should be understood in the outstart with all persons who engage 

 in any work or enterprise that there are obstacles and hindrances con- 

 stantly coming up to check and interfere with one's plans and progress, 

 and until we properly understand how to turn aside these interruptions 

 we will be handicapped in our progress, but not necessarily defeated. 

 Just so with the commercial orchardist in Nebraska; he has met the 

 enemy and been able to conquer him. In the first place, the insect pest 

 had to be headed off, exterminated, when established in the orchard. 

 This Mr. Stephens, in the management of his orchard, has been able to 

 do, and so perfectly has this work been carried out that in all this 

 great orchard of more than eighty acres, after traveling miles through 

 its broad avenues, up one row of apple trees and down another, closely 



