274 ANNUAL REPORT. 



THE FUTURE OF ORCHARDING IN THE PRAIRIE 



STATES. 



By Prof. J. L. Budd, Ames, Iowa. 



The apple, pear, and most of our cherries and plums, are not na- 

 tives to our continent, and their introduction into the states west 

 of the great American lakes has not been guided by the scientific 

 skill in selection which characterizes such work in the colonies of 

 all the governments of Europe. 



Without exception, the scientific observers connected with the 

 early surveys of the illimitable prairies of the west, interpreted the 

 absence of the conifers, the rhododendrons, the mosses, and all the 

 characteristic trees and plants of the more equable regions nearer 

 the coasts and lakes, to mean an intercontinental climate of ex- 

 treme changes in temperature and humidity. 



In those early days of prairie settlement, such men as Judge 

 Knapp, Dr. John A. Kennicott, Robert Russell, and J. G. Cooper, 

 unitedly expressed the opinion that the world had no counterpart 

 of our plains, in soil and climate, except on the great plain which 

 covers, like a blanket, fully three-fourths of Europe on the north- 

 east. These men, in connection with Arthur Bryant, Hon. G. P. 

 Marsh, and many others, also predicted, in those early days, that 

 unless systematic timber planting was commenced and carried for- 

 ward, to offset the destruction of the dense growth of prairie grass, 

 and the effects of opening the clogged drainage centers of the 

 primitive prairies, consequent upon occupation and cultivation, 

 the already fickle and extreme climate would change for the worse 

 as the years went on. 



With such clearly exprejBsed views as to the real nature of our 

 climate, it seems passiug strange to the people of Europe so long 

 accustomed to well equipped and endowed experimental stations, 

 that we have never attempted to row our own horticultural boat, 

 but have permitted the nurseries of the eastern states to do our im- 

 porting of trees and shrubs, from the mildest portions of southern 

 Europe, mainly, indeed, from the nurseries of Thomas Rivers, in 

 England, and Andre Leroy, in southern France. Our plan really 



