1992 



WYOMING 



last decade the sentiment of the people in regard to 

 cultivating the soil has changed in a marked degree. 

 They are turning their attention to a better agriculture 

 and the production of horticultural crops, both for 

 profit and for greater home comfort. 



The state will not reach great commercial importance 

 through her horticultural products, but the people are 

 beginning to appreciate the value of the home-garden 

 and some are raising hardy apples, cherries, grapes, 

 small fruits and vegetables to supply local markets. 

 At the present rate of increase the production of fruits 

 for home consumption will soon be of great importance. 



The agricultural land lies along the watercourses, 

 and naturally the first areas to be brought under culti- 

 vation were the bottom-lands along the smaller streams 

 where the canals necessary to bring water to the soil 

 could be easily and cheaply constructed. The bench 

 areas, or uplands, have better drainage both for water 

 and air, and are more likely to be free from injurious 

 late and early frosts, than the lowlands near the 

 streams. With the extension of agriculture to the 

 higher bench lands horticultural plants can be raised 

 with more success. The modifying influence of wind- 

 breaks makes it possible to grow fruits in a way that 

 was not dreamed of when the country was first settled. 

 Many early plantings of fruit trees failed because of 

 drying winds or late frosts, and in some instances be- 

 cause the plants were drowned by over-irrigating the 

 lowlands where first attempts were made. 



Because of the varying conditions, the kinds and 

 varieties of fruits which can be successfully pro- 

 duced vary in different parts of the state. The high 

 plateaus are characterized by frost every month in 

 the year except July, and only such crops can be 

 grown as will stand a degree of frost in the spring 

 months. In the warmer valleys, even up to 5,000 feet 

 altitude, such tender vegetables as tomatoes, melons, 

 sweet potatoes and peanuts have been successfully 

 raised. Where the season is short because of the alti- 

 tude, plants grow very rapidly, reach maturity in a 

 short time and do not seem to be so seriously affected 



WYOMING 



by light frost as they do where the season of growth is 

 long. 



In those portions of the state which are below 6,000 

 feet in altitude (see map) many varieties of apples, 

 Morello and Rocky Mountain dwarf cherries and plums 

 (varieties from Primus Americana) are fruiting, and 

 hardier kinds are successful at much higher altitudes 

 in protected locations. The Wealthy apple has been 

 successfully fruited on the Laramie Plains at an alti- 

 tude of 7,400 feet. Tree fruits have been most success- 

 fully raised in Fremont, Sheridan, Natrona and Lara- 

 mie counties, which also produce all the varieties of 

 small fruits usually grown in this altitude. 



Above 7,000 feet the only small fruits that succeed 

 well are currants, strawberries, dewberries and goose- 

 berries, named in the order of their apparent hardiness. 

 Because there is not sufficient snowfall to cover the 

 ground and keep it covered during the winter, it is 

 necessary to give winter protection to raspberries, 

 blackberries and grapes by laying down and covering 

 with earth to prevent their parts above ground drying 

 out and dying in the dormant season. Under unfavor- 

 able conditions such treatment becomes necessary with 

 strawberries ami gooseberries. 



Under irrigation the kinds of fruit suitable to the 

 climate produce large crops. Years of failure are rare, 

 and when they do come are traceable to sudden unsea- 

 sonable changes of temperature, such as late spring 

 frosts or early fall storms before the plants are mature 

 and ready for winter. The first trees were set out in 

 Wyoming between 1882 and 1885. Planting began in 

 earnest in 1892, and every year there is good increase 

 in the area devoted to fruits. 



Following is a list of apples which have fruited in the 

 state, arranged as nearly as possible in the order of 

 their apparent hardiness and present abundance : 

 Standard— Wealthy, Oldenburg, Antonovka, Gideon, 

 Fameuse, Wolf, Tetofsky, Ben Davis, Transparent, 

 Pewaukee, Pippin. Crafts — Siberian, Montreal, Whit- 

 ney, Martha, Van Wyck, Soulard, Transcendent. 



B. C. Buffum. 



