214 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Plant rows north and south. Have a small hot bed in northeast corner, 

 well protected from north winds. Suppose you all know how to make one, 

 if not, find out of a friend who does. The grape vines will pay well for a 

 south windbreak in Nebraska, for be it known that the south winds in 

 summer and winter are the winds that do the damage and frequently mean 

 success or failure. Allow ground to settle for one week or more after 

 plowing before planting, but rake as soon as plowed. Cultivate often when 

 dry, never when wet. Neither should you tramp over garden when wet. 

 Plant and grow this garden yourself and do not ask your wife to do it. 

 You will be well paid for your time. Never let weeds start. Use rake 

 often; so much faster than hoe. Grow two crops on most of ground, but 

 no weed crop. Let me impress it on you never let a weed go to seed. 

 Ground thus taken care of will yield at the rate of $1,000 per acre, after a 

 few years" care. I know men who work in a garden only when too wet to 

 work on the farm. These fellows usually buy their truck. 



It takes such a short time to take care of a garden, for we all know 

 how easily weeds are killed when just coming through ground. A garden 

 of this kind will prove a blessing. To name varieties to plant is unneces- 

 sary. Ask your nearest gardener. Take mulching from grapes in spring 

 and cultivate. Take enough off strawberry plants so they can come 

 through. Leave mulching around currant, gooseberry and stock on end. 

 Avoid presence of trees if you court success. 



JOHN F. BARR. 



Hastings, Adams County, Nebr. 



A COMMERCIAL ORCHARD IN EASTERN NEBRASKA. 



C. G. Marshall. 



In March, 1911, the waiter, in partnership with Val Keyser, then super- 

 intendent of farmers' institutes, leased the" thirty-acre orchard owned by 

 A. A. Lasch, near Weeping Water, Cass county, on a term contract. Nine 

 hundred trees (about twenty acres) of this orchard were twenty years old 

 and were composed mainly of the following varieties: Ben Davis, Wine- 

 sap, Jonathan and Genet, with a few trees each of Pewaukee, Maiden's 

 Blush, Walbridge and Whitney. Four hundred trees (about eight acres) 

 were seven and nine years old, and composed chiefly of Jonathan, Black 

 Twig and Gano. 



This orchard had had somewhat better care than many orchards in 

 eastern Nebraska of the same age. Its management had been left largely 

 to hired help, however, Mr. Lasch's interests in Michigan having kept him 

 outside of the state the greater part of each year, and it had been neglected 

 to Its detriment. Cultivation had been discontinued a number of years ago 

 and a stiff bluegrass sod had formed in a greater part of the older orchard. 

 The pruning also had been neglected until there was a surplus of wood in 

 the head of almost every tree. It had been sprayed a few times during its 

 existence, but with machinery of insufficient capacity to do efficient work. 



Experiments and demonstrations had caused us to believe that the 



