COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING IN NEBRASKA. 91 



We now feel sure that with suitable care and the plant- 

 ing of the right varieties, fruit can be grown in commercial 

 quantities in central and western Nebraska. Our attention 

 was first called to the lack of fruit in those districts and to the 

 great expense of shipping fruit in from other localities. We 

 pay $1.50 per barrel on apples from Crete to Bridgeport, Neb- 

 raska, with proportionately higher freight to other and more 

 distant points on the Guernsey division. 



FREIGHT RATES A PROTECTION, 



The orchardist who can successfully grow apples in western 

 Nebraska has a freight protection of forty to fifty cents per 

 bushel in his favor as compared with the grower in eastern 

 Nebraska. Should he grow small fruits, to the production of 

 which the soil and water supply is peculiarly suited, he has the 

 protection of heavy express charges on incoming fruit. Last 

 summer I found summer apples retailing at ten cents per pound 

 at Fort Morgan, Colo. At the present time they are worth six 

 cents per pound in western Nebraska. Autumn apples sell at 

 four cents per pound and winter apples are usually worth in 

 car lots $1.25 to $1.50 per bushel. 



In seeking to overcome the difficulties connected with any 

 new enterprize, it is well to make a careful study of the causes 

 which led to previous failure. First and foremost, unsuitable 

 varieties. The farmer living in western Nebraska naturally 

 thinks of the varieties of fruit to which he was accustomed in 

 his eastern home, forgetting the difference in altitude, soil and 

 climatic condition. He is easily persuaded by the traveling 

 salesman to purchase varieties of fruit, valuable no doubt in 

 other locations, but unsuited to western conditions. The pic- 

 tures of Japanese plums are very showy and attractive. He 

 purchases and plants trees of this character, and also varieties 

 of domestic or European varieties of plum. He plants varieties 

 of apples better suited to Iowa or Missouri than to western 

 Nebraska. He reasons that if a little water is good, a large 

 amount is better. He uses so much water that growth con- 

 tinues until winter. The trees are unripe when winter sets in 

 and suffer severely. 



I have in mind two large commercial orchards in Lincoln 



