FRUIT FOR THK HOME. 193 



FRUIT FOR TUFj HOME. 



VAL KEYSEl!, LINCOLN. 



Every farmer is interested and anxious to grow a sufficient amount 

 of good fruit for the home supply. The fact that the business of success- 

 ful fruit growing incurs a few technical problems such as, prevention of 

 killing frosts during the blooming season, the necessary warfare against 

 injurious insects and destructive diseases, and the fact that all fruit 

 grown in Nebraska, except apples, is by nature so quickly perishable 

 after ripening, has discouraged many farmers from trying to provide 

 these luxuries for the home. In some sections of the state an occasional 

 visitation of hail has also added to the discouragement of the farmer 

 growing fruit. These are problems which require experience with careful 

 thought and study to overcome. A few Nebraska farmers, assisted by 

 the experience of the nurserymen and fruit growers and the Experiment 

 Station and State Horticultural Society, have had the courage to master 

 these problems sufficiently to make Nebraska recognized as one of the 

 leading fruit growing states in the corn belt.- 



There has never been a season in the last quarter century so un- 

 favorable that it would not produce an abundance of fruit of certain 

 kinds and varieties, where the grower applied his knowledge and gave 

 his trees, vines, bushes and plants a fair chance to show what they could 

 do. There have been seasons that most varieties of apples failed to pro- 

 duce, but some varieties were sure to bear at least a light crop of choice 

 specimens. This occurs even in the best fruit growing sections of the 

 country. A failure of the cherry crop is a rare exception in Nebraska. 

 Grapes and strawberries are absolutely reliable and can be grown as a 

 profitable commercial crop on nearly every farm in the eastern half of 

 the state. Peaches have come to be considered too uncertain for com- 

 mercial planting except in the southeast corner of the state, but every 

 farmer can afford to keep a dozen trees of mixed varieties for the crop 

 which comes occasionally. Plums, pears and apricots are also rather 

 uncertain producers except in certain localities or when given special 

 care. There are a few localities where certain varieties bear nearly every 

 year. These can only be ascertained by experimenting. 



The different steps necessary in growing fruit are about as follows: 

 The choice of site or place to plant the trees, vines, etc., which naturally 

 would be on well drained land and as near the house as possible, the 

 preparation of the soil, the x;hoice of varieties, the planting, cultivation, 

 pruning and spraying. A two acre apple orchard is as large as any 

 farmer should attempt to plant. This will give a nice collection of va- 

 rieties, as the apple trees may be planted thirty-three feet each way, which 

 would require about forty trees i>er acre. Cherry and peach may be 

 used as fillers between the apple trees, filling the rows north and south, 

 leaving a wider space between the rows east and west. This affords 

 more room and better conditions for cropping between the rows with 



