814 



lONOPSIS 



IPOMCEA 



pans, with plenty of small broken coal cinders for drain- 

 age, covered with the fine particles of fern root and 

 chopped sphagnum gathered from the upland meadows. 

 Plenty of heat and moisture during the growing season 

 are essential. Rest them in winter at a temperature of 

 50° to 55° F. William Mathews. 



IOWA, HOETICULTUKE IN. Pig. 1165. Iowa is 

 nearly a rectangle, about 200 miles north and south 

 between the parallels 40° 36' and 43° 30', and 300 miles 

 east and west, bordered on the east by the ]\lississippi 

 and on the west by the Wissouid and tlie Big Sioux riv- 

 ers. Its extreme elevatioos are 444 feet in the southeast 

 corner, aud 1,604 at the highest point near the northwest 

 corner, the average elevation being about 800 feet above 

 the sea. TIjo surface is a gentle, undulating, grassy 

 plain, well drained by numerous streams discharging 

 into the rivers on its borders. All these streams are 

 bordered more or less broadly with belts of native tim- 

 ber, often many miles in width along the larger ones. 

 The divide between the streams falling eastwardly and 

 those falling westwardly is a line running from a little 

 east of the northwest corner southwardly to about the 

 middle of the state at the Missouri line, draining three- 

 fourths of the state into the Mississippi and one-fourth 

 westwardly. The entire surface, except a short and nar- 

 row belt along the Mississippi at the northeast corner, 

 is found deeply covered with glacial drift, the depth 

 varying from a few feet to 200 feet or more. In about 

 half the state this drift is overlaid more or less deeply 

 with the peculiar deposit called loess, this being mainly 

 in the south, extending farther north on the west, as 

 shown by the map. 



There are no regions the size of Iowa which contain 

 fewer acres unfit for agriculture. Agriculture is as profi- 

 table in northern Iowa as in the southern part. Horticul- 



1165. Iowa. 



To show horticiUtural regions. 



ture, however, has had a greater development in the 

 southern and southwestern counties, the region of the 

 fruit-bearing loess. It is not attempted to draw a hard and 

 fast line below which fruit-growing is easy and above 

 which it is difftcult, but only to indicate, in a general way, 

 that in the north and increasing with the dista.noe, greater 

 care must be used in selecting situations and varieties 

 in culture and in protection. 



If safe conclusions may be drawn from the native 

 fruits and nuts found in Iowa, the state has great horti- 

 cultural adaptabilities. The native nuts, the walnuts, 

 black and white, the hickories and hazelnuts, are aliun- 

 dant and of high quality, and the pecan is found along 

 the Mississippi. The fruits, especially the currants, 

 raspberries, apples and plums, will compare favorably 

 with the natives found in Europe, and the plums greatly 

 excel. Itcannot be doubted that they will soon bedevel- 

 oped into varieties fit to satisfy the most exacting tastes. 

 Many hybrids have been secured between the native and 

 the cultivated apples descended from Europe, and this 

 line of work, hitherto neglected, is believed to promise 

 a race of apples entirely adapteil to the inter-continental 

 climatic con<litions of the region 



The apples of Europe, and their descendants, origi- 

 nating along tlie eastern seaboard, have not been found 

 entirely successful over the region of broader prairies, 

 but have succeeded best in the southern half of the 



state, ana especially on or near the timbered lands. 

 Here, commercial orcharding has had its greatest devel- 

 opment. This industry is so young that statistics 

 have not been systematically gathered, but in the most 

 favored localities apple crops to the value of .$100 a year 

 per acre are not uncommon. Fruit, to the value of more 

 than $350,000, has been reported as the product of a 

 single county in one year, this being mainly of winter 

 apples, the surplus finding markets in the Northwest, 

 in the East, and in foreign countries. 



In isolated localities, commercial apple-growing ha.s 

 been fully as successful in the north, but has neces- 

 sarily been confined to a few sorts, chiefly two, the 

 Oldenburg and the Wealthy. It has always been found 

 that the long-keeping sorts of highest quality h»ve been 

 fastidious in choice of location in the south, and still 

 more so northward, where early maturing sorts are 

 more successful. 



Pear-growing is everywhere diflicult. Much time 

 and money have been spent with eastern and foreign 

 varieties without satisfaction. This fruit is profitably 

 grown in a few localities only, and under management 

 of exceptional skill. A race of prairie-born seedlings 

 must, apparently, be grown to insure success. 



With plums, the reverse is true. A generation of men 

 tried to acclimatize the plums of Europe, and lately the 

 effort has been extended to the Japanese, but without 

 satisfaction ; in fact, no others succeed in competition 

 with the natives of the soil. These, aud especially the 

 Americana types, are so well adapted, so profusely pro 

 duetive of such handsome and good fruit, that even as 

 they came from the hand of nature, they have taken sub- 

 stantial possession of the nurseries and orchards of the 

 state. Sueh flattering successes have followed the first 

 attempts to grow them for market, that the industry is 

 fast assuming large proportions. New and improved 

 varieties of larger size and finer quality are offered 

 every year, and a bright future for that fruit is assured. 



Of cherries, only the sour sorts succeed, and little 

 effort has been made to breed sweet varieties better 

 adapted to prairie conditions. Commercial cherry-grow- 

 ing is successful in the southern half of the state, and 

 is rapidly increasing. 



Peaches have been grown in limited quantities in the 

 southeast since the first settlement of the state. By 

 seedling selection, the limit of success is gradually 

 extending northward and now reaches to the middle of 

 the state, but only for home use, as yet. 



The quince and the apricot cannot be said to succeed 

 in Iowa. The former is liable to root-kill. 



The grape flourishes and ripens in profusion, espe- 

 cially in the south, whence it is shipped in large quan- 

 tities. 



The currant, the gooseberry, the raspberry, the black- 

 berry and the strawberry flourish in every part of the 

 state, requiring more favorable situations and greater 

 care in the north. In some localities the native goose- 

 berry has been cultivated in preference to the best east- 

 ern varieties, while European sorts have very limited 

 success. The greatest difficulty the fruit-grower of Iowa 

 has had, and still has to contend against, is that he has 

 been compelled to choose between varieties all of which 

 had originated far from his place of fruitage, and usu- 

 ally under conditions of soil and climate so different that 

 the chances have been strongly against success here. 

 It is only of late that those who have insisted that 

 prairie regions should breed and select for themselves 

 races of fruit from seeds planted and grown under their 

 own peculiar conditions, have found a patient hearing. 

 With intelligent effort along this line, the future is full 

 of promise that the horticulture of Iowa may be brought 

 to the high level now held by its agriculture. 



An account of the introduction of the Russian fruits 

 into Iowa and other parts of the North, will bo found 

 under Pomology. q ^ Watrous. 



IPECAC. The rootof Ccphneli!: Ipecacuonlm (now re- 

 ferred to Pi^ijchofria), a Brazilian plant not cultivated in 

 N. America. For wild or American Ipecac, see GillenUi 



slipulacea. 



IPOM(EA (according to Linn, from ips, bindweed, and 

 /?"/i/'»/r/,s-, like, because of its resemblance to Convolvu- 

 lus ; but ips is a worm). Including Batatas, Calonyc- 



