92 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



county, one of twenty the other of thirty acres. They were 

 planted with Missouri and Arkansas varieties. The behavior 

 of those two orchards has been such as to lead people in the 

 neighborhood to doubt the possibility of growing fruit in com- 

 mercial quantities in Lincoln county. . 



Turning now from this dark picture to the other view — con- 

 sider what to plant in central and western Nebraska. The ele- 

 vation of the extreme western portion of the state leads up to 

 obout 4,500 feet, and we should study the experience of success- 

 ■ f ul growers in Montana and Idaho, Dakota and Minnesota. We 

 learn that there is a very narrow list of fruit trees which through 

 long generations of production in trying climates have 

 acquired the habit of being ready for winter in September. In 

 Scotts Bluffs county I have seen apple and plum trees heavy laden 

 with their crop of fruit, bendingto the ground with an addition- 

 al weight of four inches of snow in the middle of September. 

 In a climate where such conditions are possible, we need vari- 

 eties which will have completed their growth by the first of 

 September, and should j)lant summer and early autumn vari- 

 eties rather than the later maturing winter kinds. 



We should do all in our power to conserve moisture by fre- 

 quent cultivation rather than induce late and rank growth of 

 wood by the free use of water. David Hunter of Sutherland, 

 Lincoln county, visited California last winter. He was so much 

 interested in their intensive system of frequent culture that he 

 has already cultivated his orchard of forty acres seventeen 

 times this season. This orchard has been irrigated only once, 

 the water being applied about the last of March. His trees 

 have made as much growth as can be safely carried and his 

 outlook for a fruitful, productive orchard is very bright indeed. 



Mr. Hunter estimates that single apple trees will yield as 

 high as eight bushels each. One tree gave one bushel and 

 three pecks of apples the fifth fall after planting. 



FINE SPECIMENS OF APPLES. 



The finest Jonathan apples I have ever seen grown in this 

 state were produced by Mr. Myers, six miles south of Kearney. 

 The oldest peach trees with which I am acquainted in the state 



