MONTANA 



MONTANA 



1029 



beet-culture. This starts on the Atlantic in the latitude 

 of New York city, extends nearly due westward to the 

 western line of Wisconsin, and no drunkard ever pursued 

 a more erratic course than it in making its way from the 

 Great Lakes to the Pacific at the head of the Gulf of 

 California. 



Horticulturally speaking, Montana covers the entire 

 scale of the limits of fruit production in the United 

 States, except the citrous and other subtropical fruits. 

 In no other state of the Union is there more need of the 

 scientific experimenter, not so much to determine the 

 species adapted to Montana as to wisely select the varie- 

 ties of species that will give best results. There is one 

 safe rule to observe in western fruit-tree planting, 

 avoid alkali soil. After an active experience of 15 years 

 of tree-growing in Minnesota and the Dakotas, the 

 writer is convinced that more failures in orcharding re- 

 sulted there from planting in alkali soil than from any 

 other cause. It is easy, however, to determine such 

 conditions ; very much easier under irrigation, as the 

 application of water brings the salts to the surface, 

 where they are easily noted, as they rapidly crystallize 

 when exposed to the air. Within the valleys and canons 

 leading out from the mountains it is rare that alkali is 

 found on suitable orchard locations. 



Montana owes much of its phenomenal success in 

 fruit culture to natural conditions; most important of 

 these is the abundant supply of water, easily available 

 for irrigation. Irrigation in orcharding places the tree 

 or plant under complete control. In the growing sea- 

 son, water can be supplied to supplement any existing 

 lack of moisture, and by withholding this artificial aid 

 in the latter part of the sea- 

 son, perfect ripening of the 

 wood is accomplished and 

 the tree placed in the best 

 physical condition to endure 

 sudden climatic changes. 

 Again, it is customary to 

 flood the orchard late in the 

 season, after the foliage has 

 fallen, with the result that 

 root killing is absolutely un- 

 known in Montana. So free 

 is the state from disasters 

 of this nature that budded 

 trees are succeeding re- 

 markably well wherever 

 they have been set in close 

 proximity to the mountains. 

 Another decided advantage 

 is in the physical formation 

 of the state ; the make-up 

 of the mountains is not, as 

 many suppose, a shaping up 

 of every range and peak to 

 a sharp rocky apex, but in 

 all ranges there are vast ex- 

 panses of open plateaus ex- 

 tending back onto lower 

 outlying spurs. Heading in 

 the mountains, usually near 



the summits, are deep canons leading down and out 

 to the open plains country at the foot of the ranges. 

 There is a constant movement of air from the upper to 

 the lower plateaus through these canons occasioned by 

 the superheating of the air of the lower levels during 

 the middle of the day. The heat, in rising, causes a par- 

 tial vacuum, and the cooler air of the upper levels flows 

 -*-down to occupy this. This is especially true in the ear- 

 lier night hours. So common is this as to give the name 

 "canon breezes" to these currents, which are plainly 

 to be felt miles away from every extensive canon's 

 mouth far out on the open plains. This constant cur- 

 rent of air, passing over the surface of the earth, wards 

 off frosts and gives fruit immunity from this great 

 cause of loss to those growing fruit outside of moun- 

 tain districts. 



Early orcharding was attended with almost prohibi- 

 tive conditions. In 1864, trees were set in Missouri 

 valley by John G. Pickering, who is still living and 

 planting. Some of the trees originally set are alive and 

 bearing. Trees then came in by way of Utah on pack 



horses, and were sold for from $2.50 to $5 each. The 

 next plantings were made near the present site of Ste- 

 vensville, in the Bitter Root valley, by Bass Bros. Their 

 apple crop for 1898 was estimated at 10,000 boxes. The 

 Bitter Root valley is in the southwestern part of Mon- 

 tana, and is about 100 miles in length, with an average 

 width of perhaps 10 miles. This valley has been the 

 scene of the greatest activity in orcharding to date. It 

 has an altitude of about 3,200 feet, and as it lies to the 

 westward of the main range of the Rockies, it possesses 

 marked advantages over the country to the eastward. 

 It also has a soil exactly adapted to apples, pears, cher- 

 ries, plums, grapes and small fruits. The soil is of 

 decomposed granite, with an almost total absence of 

 alkali. To the casual observer it appears to be light, 

 stony, gravelly and comparatively worthless, but quite 

 the reverse is the case. The main difficulty is to restrain 

 undue growth of tree and superabundant fruitage. It is 

 a soil that does not bake after irrigation, hence water 

 can be freely used, and in a way stored, as evaporation 

 does not occur from capillary attraction, as is always 

 the case when there is too great a preponderance of 

 clay in the texture of the soil. It is within bounds to 

 state that upon soils carrying a heavy percentage of 

 clay, fully one-half of the benefits arising from irriga- 

 tion are lost from the inability of the farmer to cultivate 

 immediately after irrigation. Bitter Root orchards range 

 from 100 trees set for home use to 500-acre blocks for 

 commercial purposes. The main difficulty there experi- 

 enced is in the selection of the best varieties for gen- 

 eral planting. 

 The pomologist can find in this one valley every variety 



"I 



1418. Montana. 

 The shaded parts show horticultural areas. 



of apple that is now growing in the combined nurseries 

 of New York state. The only bars there found to the 

 successful cultivation of all standard and small fruits is 

 the brevity of the growing season and the coolness of 

 summer nights; owing to altitude the air is rare and 

 does not retain heat after sundown, as is the case in the 

 lower-lying and more humid sections of the United 

 States. The clearness of the atmosphere and attendant 

 brilliancy of the sun gives to fruit such coloring as is 

 never noted, except in similar altitudes; and while ex- 

 tended experiments have not been conducted along these 

 lines it is believed that the proper use of water in irri- 

 gation does not necessarily imply that the fruit thus 

 grown carries an undue percentage of moisture when 

 compared with fruits grown without irrigation. 



In the phenomenally dry season of 1894, Early Rose 

 potatoes grown in Wisconsin were analyzed, as also 

 were Montana Early Rose grown under irrigation, and 

 the moisture content of the Wisconsin potatoes was 

 considerably higher than that of the Montana potatoes. 



What has been done in the valley of the Bitter Koot 



