66 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I am sure that trees on the upland stand the sudden changes 

 of our climate better than do those in the valley. Another thing, 

 those who have cultivated their orchards without cropping the ground 

 have the soundest and most fruitful trees and no mice to burrow and 

 eat the roots. Our people should be very careful about making har- 

 bors for field mice. They are getting here, and now is the time to 

 take measures to prevent their increase and extension over the state. 

 This is one reason why I do not advocate mulching; another one is, 

 that there is no mulch so good as fine loose earth. 



The crabs that do best here are Blushing Maid, Soulard, Hyslop, 

 Hewes' Va. and Whitney No. 20, also Minnesota ; I saw some others 

 in fruit, their names I do not know. The Blushing Maid heads the 

 list for home use. Mr. Geo. Smith, on Wood river, has eight or ten 

 trees of this kind in his orchard that were, as he says, delivered him 

 for Maiden Blush apple, which bore a heavy crop and he sold the 

 surplus to grocers in Kearney at $2 per bushel. Mr. Smith has 

 given his orchard good cultivation the last two years without crop- 

 ping the ground and was rewarded this season by a good supply of 

 very fine fruit. His trees are protected on the north, east, and west 

 by belts of Box Elder, which he has planted and allowed to grow 

 without pruning or thinning out. On the south is the public road 

 with a row of large Cottonwood on each side of it. His apple trees 

 were very much broken on the north side, two years ago, by drifting 

 snow which would not have happened had his belt of forest trees been 

 four, or better, six rods wide instead of two. 



Cherries do well here. Those of fruiting age that have given good 

 crops are English Morello, Early and Late Richmond. 



Plums— Weaver, Miner, and Wild Goose. Have seen but one 

 apricot fruiting, which I took to be Large Early, but am satisfied 

 they will succeed, as there are many young trees that are growing 

 magnificently and do not appear to be injured by winter. 



Pears — Standards only will succeed and not many kinds of those. 

 Dwarfs might do in the hands of a skillful grower. The Flemish 

 Beauty gives great promise; I know of a bearing tree of this kind 

 twenty or twenty-five feet in height and six to eight inch trunk that 

 looks to be and I believe is perfectly sound, that has borne last season 

 and this full crops. The owner says of this tree that it has never 

 been affected by blight in the least, not even when it was making such 



