1886 



URS1NIA 



dissected into linear lobes and yellow or orange fl. - 



f 2 in across: rays about 22, 3-toothed spotted 



SurphJ-brown at base: stem glabrous, branched: Ivs. 



alternate: scapes nearly leafless, about five times as 



nJ as Ivs : involucre 4-rowed ; scales increasing in 



S from the base, outer rows with a brown sca^ 



border, inner with a white scarious border. P.O. - </. 



PM 6:77. G.C. III. 4:356. Gn. 44, p. Zli. K.H. 



1843:445. w - M - 



URTICA (Urticacece) is the genus containing the net- 

 tles For U. Varacasana, see Urera. U. nivea is 

 Ramie or Silver China Grass, properly Scehmena nivea < 

 Sh see. As Ramie is a fiber plant not a horticul- 

 tural subject, it is not fully treated here the student 

 being referred to the publication of the office of fiber 

 Investigations, U. S. Dept. Agnc., Washington, D. C. 



UTAH, HORTICULTURE IN. Fig. 2623. While the 

 area in Utah devoted to fruit-growing is very small 

 compared to the area of the whole state, there are few 

 states in the Union which surpass Utah in the number 

 of kinds grown. Beginning in the northern part of the 

 state in the vicinity of the agricultural college at Lo- 

 gan, the fruits of the cooler temperate regions flourish, 

 most varieties of apples and pears succeeding well, 

 many sorts of plums and cherries thriving and even the 

 hardier peaches giving a fair number of crops as com- 

 pared to the years of failure. The chief difficulties here 

 are, first, the short season, which does not admit of the 

 ripening of fruits that require more time for their de- 

 velopment than the Concord grape, for example, and 

 second, the great liability to late spring and early au- 

 tumn frosts. 



Throughout the entire state the annual rainfall is 

 very light, and what little precipitation there is falls for 

 the most part during the winter season in the form of 

 snow, so that practically no fruit is grown within the bor- 

 ders of the state without irrigation, and this is a factor 

 which determines to a very great extent the sections 

 and even the particular localities devoted to fruit-grow- 

 ing. The conditions in the Cache valley illustrate this 

 point. This region is a mountain valley lying in the 

 heart of the Wasatch range of the Rocky Mountains in 

 the northern part of the state, and is some 60 miles 

 long by 12-18 miles wide. The soil of this entire valley, 

 with the exception of a few alkali areas and some boggy 

 districts, is well suited to fruit-growing, but the rivers 

 which furnish the water for irrigating all enter the val- 

 ley from the eastern side, and as the land slopes from 

 both sides to the center of the valley it is impossible to 

 -conduct the water on to much land that might otherwise 

 be profitably used for fruit. Artesian wells supply 

 water to some lands to which the river waters cannot 

 be brought, but here again the difficulty is that com- 

 paratively few sections of the state are blessed with the 

 possibility of having artesian wells. 



The earlier Mormon settlers of the state inaugurated 

 a system of irrigating canals, which, considering the 

 means at their command, were wonderfully effective. 

 More recently, the Bear River Canal Company of the 

 northern part of the state and several other large cor- 

 porations have expended great sums of money in putting 

 in dams and digging canals, by means of which large 

 areas of land which had previously grown nothing but a 

 good quality of sage-brush have been changed into good 

 farms. In order to increase the sale of these lands 

 many orchards have been set. These operations have 

 served as a wonderful stimulus to the fruit-growing 

 industry. 



In all the northern portions of the state where late 

 frosts are likely to occur and injure the fruit crop, what 

 are known as the "canon winds," become very import- 

 ant factors in the success of fruit plantations. These 

 winds begin blowing daily about eight o'clock in the 

 evening and continue all night and until six to nine 

 o'clock the next morning. They are almost as regular 

 as clockwork. They come from the canons and blow 

 with such force as to necessitate thick wind-breaks to 

 protect all orchards within a mile or two of the canon's 

 mouth. But gradually they spread out over the lower 

 lands in a fan-shaped area, their force lessening as the 



UTAH 



distance from the canon increases, though still suffi- 

 ciently strong to prevent the cold air from settling and 

 producing frost. So marked is their influence upon the 

 occurrence of frosts that it is no uncommon thing after 

 a cold night in the spring or autumn to find that while 

 the plantations in the districts influenced by the canon 

 winds have come through without injury, yet just 

 around a spur of the mountain out of reach of the wind, 

 the blossoms have nearly all been injured. Perhaps in 



J623. Map of Utah. 

 Shaded parts show horticultural areas. 



time satisfactory varieties may be developed which will 

 bloom late enough to avoid this danger, but as yet the 

 problem of frosts is even more difficult to solve than 

 that of water. 



Another factor which has contributed in the past 

 toward restricting the areas devoted to fruit is the 

 manner in which the early settlements in the state were 

 located. The pioneers settled in villages, each man 

 being allotted a small piece of land on which the home 

 was built and the garden and small family orchard 

 established. Then on the outskirts of this village, and 

 extending sometimes as far as ten miles from it, were 

 located the farms proper, which were allotted to the 

 residents of the village, so that even in what may be 

 called the strictly farming districts of the state the peo- 

 ple lived in villages and drove out to cultivate their 

 farms. Naturally the fruit plantations which needed 

 the personal and constant oversight of the owner to in- 

 sure a crop or at least a harvest, were confined to the 

 plantation in the village and the farm was given over 

 to grains and hay crops. It is only in the comparatively 

 few districts where the village system did not obtain, or 

 within more recent years when it has been somewhat 

 abandoned, that the larger available areas of the farms 

 have encouraged the planting of larger orchards. 



So far as most insect pests are concerned, the Utah 

 fruit-grower is neither more nor less fortunate than his 

 brothers of other states. It is true there was a time 

 when the somewhat isolated position of the state seemed 

 to warrant the belief that it would escape from the in- 

 roads of many of the pests which troubled growers else- 

 where, but with the advent of better transportation. 



