158 



NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTUllAL SOCIETY. 



Many of the old orchards in Nebraska have been in sod for twenty 

 years or have been used for calf or hog pastures until they are not making 

 more than an inch or two growth each year. Pruning will tend to invigor- 

 ate them some, but if the land is not too rolling they should be broken up 

 and given clean cultivation for a few years. If the sod is too heavy to be 

 worked up with a disc, a shallow plowing followed with a disc and harrow 



Fig. 3. 



will get them into shape to take in and hold the moisture. Clean cultiva- 

 tion should not be practiced until the soil is so depleted of its humus that 

 it will wash. What we want is to keep the trees growing, hold as much of 

 the moisture as possible, and see that the soil is not robbed of all its 

 humus and plant food. 



POSSIBILITIES OF THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN. 

 Frank G. Peilett, Atlantic, Iowa. 



Many of our finest wild flowers are in danger of extermination. It is 

 very unfortunate that the present generation should have been so madly 

 in pursuit of wealth, as to have no time or interest to preserve the most 

 desirable things with which a virgin country was provided. Our wild 

 birds have been slaughtered mercilessly and thoughtlessly, until a number 

 of species have been extirpated and several more are threatened with 

 extinction unless the public shall promptly recognize the importance of 

 their protection. Our forests have been sacrificed to the greed of men 

 for gold. And now the wild flowers are threatened with a similar fate, 

 though they can not be directly turned to cash. In the case of the flowers, 

 the fact that men think that land must pay dividends is putting every 

 available acre to the production of some cash-returning crop, and crowding 

 the wild flowers off the earth. 



