100 Nebraska State Horticultural Society, 



APPLE ORCHARDING IN NEBRASKA. 

 By E. F. Stephens, Crete. 



"With the help of his windmill and to some extent, by A'ery careful 

 cultivation, almost any farmer can grow a sufficient amount of apples 

 for his own use, but commercial orcharding will be almost entirely 

 confined to the valleys and to the areas that can be brought under 

 irrigation. 



There are within the state some 2,500 miles of irrigating canals. 

 Nearly all of these are in the western half of the state; a large propor- 

 tion being in extreme western Nebraska. The Platte river alone sup- 

 plies about 1,200 miles of irrigating canals, watering some 560,000 

 acres. This area is being increased by the work of the United States 

 in the construction of the Pathfinder i-eservoir and the system of canals 

 supplied therefrom. This reservoir is expected to supply water to large 

 areas in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. 



The soil in northwestern Nebraska is usually fertile and well 

 suited to orcharding. Chemical analysis has shown that in many places 

 soil in semi-arid regions contain three times as much potash, six times 

 as much magnesia and fourteen times as much lime as the average soil 

 of the middle states. This is doubtless due to the fact that plant food 

 has been stored for countless ages and has not been leached away by 

 heavy rainfall. 



Doubtless elevation, producing cool nights with sunny days, 

 coupled with the native fertility of the soil, which is unlocked by irri- 

 gation, explains the beautiful color and excellent quality of the apples 

 grown in Colorado, Idaho and the semi-arid regions of Washington and 

 Oregon. 



In eastern Nebraska our older orchards are now troubled by 

 fungus diseases. We also have insect enemies. In the semi-arid cli- 

 mate of far western Nebraska the aridity of the atmosphere is such 

 that fungus spores are not readily disseminated. Since very little fruit 

 has so far been grown in that section, there are yet comparatively few 

 codling moth. No doubt the shipments of wormy fruit into western 

 Nebraska will ultimately disseminate them, yet at this time the orchards 

 in the extreme western portion of the state have not been sprayed and 

 are very nearly free from wormy fruit. 



Northwestern Nebraska is liable to waves of 40 degrees below 



