48 HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



but prepare the ground thoroughly and plant the trees, be it fall or 

 spring ; mark the rows eighteen by twenty feet apart, set the tree about 

 three inches deeper than it grew in the nursery, after trimming all broken 

 roots with a sharp knife. Fill in finely pulverized earth around the roots, 

 firm well, making good use of your feet while planting, prune severely 

 and irrigate directly after planting. Give good cultivation. Potatoes or 

 other low growing hoed crops may be grown between the rows, but the 

 branches need the sunlight. The shade of growing corn will injure the 

 trees. We do not usually irrigate during the growing season later than 

 the first week in September, giving the wood a chance to mature, but 

 always irrigate for winter after the middle of November. Among the 

 many desirable varieties for planting we would specially recommend the 

 Crawfords, Arkansas Traveler, Alexander, Foster, Hale's Large, Early 

 York, Old Nixons, Wheatland and Wager. For apricots, Breda, Moore- 

 park and Early Golden. The Russian varieties will no doubt prove 

 desirable in higher altitudes. 



Much loss and dissatisfaction is caused by planting inferior varieties, 

 or such as are untrue to name. Buy only from responsible parties. Send 

 your order to some reliable nursery direct (Colorado preferred) or through 

 some party whom you personally know to be trustworthy. One-year-old 

 trees are to be preferred for transplanting. The area of the profitable 

 culture of fruit may be greatly extended, and to the Mesa County horti- 

 culturist the future is specially full of promise. 



CHERRIES. 



The chief points to be regarded in the culture of the cherry are to 

 avoid all conditions that are calculated to force a Ftrong growth, and to 

 plant on sites that will tend to retard development in the spring. Fruit 

 buds are often destroyed by late frosts, when the tree itself is quite hardy. 

 Another difficulty with the cherry tree in the West is bark bursting. 



This suggests the desirableness of branching the trees near the 

 ground. In fact this seems to be the better form of growing the cherry 

 tree in all localities subject to severe changes. The bush form is adopted 

 with great success in different parts of Russia, where extremes of temper- 

 ature are often violent and cold intense. The cherry is one of the leading 

 fruits of that country. We are heading many of our trees near the 

 ground, but testing several varieties in different ways. 



