AN APPLE DISTRICT INVKSTIGATION. H)l 



A wind-break is the main essential to success in raising horticultural 

 crops. But then there are also other ways in which we can lessen 

 the elTect of the strong winds. Api)le trees and other fruit trees should 

 be headed low. About twenty-foui' inches is a good height. Prune or 

 trim all trees so that there will be a main central axis and no weak 

 joints. Avoid crotched trees. 



As our section has been settled for only a very few years by 

 actual home-builders, information concerning varieties is scarce and 

 scattered. But the following list will give a few varieties of the dif- 

 ferent fruits that will be found valuable in the North Platte Valley: 



Apples — Duchess. Hibernal. Patten Greening and Wealthy. 



Crabs — Whitney, Transcendent, Hyslop. 



Plums— DeSoto, Wolf, Wyant. 



Grapes — Beta (does not require covering), Concord, Moore's Early. 



Raspberries — King, Sunbeam. 



Blackberries — Ancient Briton, Eldorado. 



Currants — Long Bunch Holland, Pomona, Perfection, White Grape. 



Gooseberries — Houghton, Downing. 



Strawberries — Bederwood, Warfield, Dunlap. 



AN APPLE DISTRICT INVESTIGATION. 



G. S. CHRISTY, JOHNSON. 



For years my desk has been piled with literature describing the 

 ihe wonderful profits of Western horticulture. With a love for horti- 

 culture and desiring the greatest returns for the least outlay of energy 

 and capital. I determined to go and investigate for myself. After dis- 

 posing of 20,000 bushels of Nebraska apples last fall I bought a ticket 

 •with unlimited stopover privileges and calling for 6,000 miles of travel 

 and started out. I aimed to visit the best advertised, and the districts 

 from which I have so often seen apples at the big frtiit shows. To get 

 the information I wanted, I planned to visit in each of these sections 

 first, the land agent: second, the officers of the shipping associations: 

 third, the growers who were reported to have the largest yields: fourth, 

 the fellows who were not succeeding; fifth, men engaged in other voca 

 tions; and last the chronic kicker with which evei-y community is sup- 

 plied. In this article I can only give conditions, and I have the following 

 as a summary of the trip. 



The right man is making a good living and some for luxuries every 

 where, and vice versa. Nebraska methods anywhere west of the Rocky 

 mountains would not pay taxes on their water rights. The land agents 

 stories can be verified generally. Their stories figured as they do can 

 be duplicated within 40 miles of my home. At no place in my trip 

 did I find apples equal in flavor to the apples of Nebraska. Some of 

 the stringent laws against the sale of wormy or infected fruit if applied 



