HORTICULTURAL CONDITIONS IN THE BITTER 

 ROOT VALLEY 



By P. T. Baden, District Inspector, Fifth District 



Horticultural work in the Bitter Root is gradually settling down 

 to business. The prospects for a sane and progressive growth along 

 horticultural lines have never looked brighter to the real orehardist 

 than now. 



During the past year some hundreds of acres of young trees 

 have been pulled. No doubt this was a \n&e move on the part of the 

 owners. ]Many of the orchards were set without regard to the proper 

 location for an orchard site, and without proper thought as to whether 

 or not those conditions were present which go to make up a good 

 orchard location. In many cases there was not enough water to 

 supply the trees with the proper amount.. Many orchards were 

 planted on poor soil. Then, too, the late spring frosts coming year 

 after year in these unfavorable situations resulted in the pulling of 

 the orchards. This is particularly true in the lower parts of the 

 / valley where frosts have periodically destroyed any chances there 

 might have been for profitable production. The largest percentage 

 of these orchards was owned by non-residents who depended upon 

 others for the care of their property and, though at first the tracts were 

 well cared for, gradually as the expenses of keeping them up mounted 

 higher aad higher, the owners began to lose interest in their ventures 

 and the orchards were neglected. The trees became stunted and many 

 died, and now these young orchards are hopeless cases. 



It is these young orchards which are being pulled and the land 

 is being used for general farming. During the next few years many 

 more of these neglected and dying orchards will be done away with. 



Many orchardists in first starting out believed that the thing to 

 do was to put every foot of land into trees. They did not realize that 

 an orchard must have a specially adapted location and that near-by 

 conditions of soil, slope, water and air drainage were so different as 

 to make good or poor orchard sites, and that trees could not be well 

 grown everywhere within a certain area with the same facility as 

 other crops. Consequently when the trees grew older and the care 



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