290 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the owners and there are many more home orchards not so 

 well tended which do not only fail to justify their existence, 

 but are a source of grief to the owners and an eyesore to the 

 farm and community. Lack of information on the part of the 

 owner in the selection of varieties and the management of 

 growing trees and plants which tends toward neglect is 

 largely where the cause for the last mentioned conditions lie. 

 He becomes somewhat discouraged and gets the idea that the 

 growing of good trees, fruits, and flowers is sometliing which 

 is too difficult and expensive for him to undertake. And be- 

 cause of the fact that he can grow corn, wheat, and stock in 

 sufficient quantity to enable him to live without making a 

 very deep study of the principles governing the gro\\ing of 

 these things he turns his attention almost entirely to them 

 and horticulture suffers. 



Tlie conditions just described exist not only in eastern Ne- 

 braska but iu almost all of what is known as the grain belt. 

 But a change is taking place. As land becomes more raluable 

 and farms grow smaller more attention is paid to horticul- 

 ture. People are awakening to the fact that unless trees and 

 plants receive as much attention and in some cases more at- 

 tention than field crops that it does not pay to plant them. 

 It is also being demonstrated by the more progressive and 

 wideawake farmers and fruit growers that with the proper 

 care and culture every farm home may be made homelike and 

 attractive and an abundant supply of fruit for the home may 

 be supplied with a small outlay of money. 



Commercial fruit growing is also being looked upon with 

 more favor in this section. From fifteen to twenty years ago 

 manv orchards of from five to twentv acres in extent, and a 

 few covering as many as forty and eighty acres, were planted. 

 The majority of the owners expected large yiehls of good fruit 

 with little or no attention and expense in connection. They 

 were disappointed. Adverse weather conditions at blooming 

 time followed later in the season bv increased numbers of 

 codling moth and curculio and more scab and other funsrous 



