HORTICULTURE IN EASTERN NEBRASKA. 293 



tion. Few home gardens are without a strawberry patch. 

 The strawberry is grown coniniercially to soiiui extent over 

 the whole of eastern Nebraska, but in the vicinities of Omaha, 

 Fort Calhoun, and Blair it is grown quite extensively. A 

 number of instances may be cited where returns of from |70() 

 to |S00 per acre have been received in one season. A Blair 

 grower reports the sale of one day's picking from four acres 

 for |561 last season. 



Plums, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, and other fruits 

 are doing well where propeii}- cared for and are important 

 horticultural crops in this section. 



The returns mentioned above are not an average by any 

 means for this section. Many home orchards as well as or- 

 chards of larger proportions have never given profitable re- 

 turns, but on the other hand the owners of these unprofitable 

 fruit plantations in most cases are to blame. They do not 

 know the business or are negligent. Nature, with the proper 

 assistance of the owners, will produce returns equally as good 

 in almost all parts of eastern Nebraska, and if she is assisted 

 in growing these things, as the orchardist of the much adver- 

 tised fruit sections of the West assists her, she will even do 

 better by them. Although most of the plantations from which 

 the indicated returns were received have had far better care 

 than the average in this section, the care given them is very 

 limited compared with that given commercial orchards in the 

 West. 



The writer is of the opinion that if the truth was known, 

 with the same amount of intelligence, labor, and expense ap' 

 plied to the orchards and fruit business in this section, that 

 returns would compare quite favorably with those of some of 

 the far-famed fruit districts of the Pacific coast. The attain- 

 ment of the very best results, however, requires special horti- 

 cultural knowledge and even to succeed fairly well in this 

 section the grower must keep himself well informed on new 

 horticultural ideas and put into practice those that will be of 

 advantage to him. 



