FRUIT GROWING ON THE TRUCKEE-CARSON PROJECT. 1 



By F. B. Headley, Farm Superintendent, and Vincent Fulkekson, Scientific 



Assistant, Office of Western Irrigation Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



No commercial orchards have been planted on the Truckee-Carson 

 Project. Most of the first settlers along the Carson River made small 

 plantings, chiefly of apples and pears, with a few trees of plums, 

 apricots, and peaches. These orchards were small, seldom exceeding 

 an acre in area, and were intended merely to supply the families 

 with fruit. 



The new settlers who have come in since the opening of the Truckee- 

 Carson Project have planted small orchards, the largest of them con- 

 taining only 3 or 4 acres. As these orchards are young and have 

 only just begun to bear, our present knowledge of the fruit-growing 

 conditions of the project rests chiefly on a study of the older orchards. 



During the last four years the horticultural assistant at the experi- 

 ment farm has been taking notes on these old orchards. Some of 

 these have been surveyed and mapped and the varieties identified as 

 far as possible. Notes have been taken on the behavior of the varie- 

 ties, dates of blooming, and effects of frosts, diseases, insect pests, and 

 of the high water table. 



In the four years of observation there have been two full crops of 

 apples and pears, one partial crop, and one failure. The failures that 

 occur are due chiefly to late spring frosts. 



LOCATION OF ORCHARDS. 2 



Temperature observations have been made for several years to 

 record the minimum temperatures on high lands and on adjacent low 



1 Issued Mar. 22, 1913. 



2 For more complete information in regard to methods of fruit growing, see 



Waite, M. B. Commercial pear culture. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook 

 for 1000, pp. 369-396. 



Gould, II. P. Fruit growing for home use in the central and southern Great Plains. 

 IT. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 51, 1910. 



Brackett, G. B. The apple and how to grow it. I". S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Farmers' Bulletin 113, 1909. 



The pear and how to grow it. U. S. Department <>f Agriculture, Farmers' Bul- 

 letin 482, 1912. 



[Cir. 118.] 17 



