FRUIT GROWING ON THE NORTHERN 
GREAT PLAINS. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. Page. 
Horticultural experiments at the Orchard or tree fruits—Continuwved. 
Mandan field station___________ = Breeding desirable hardy varie- 
Climate of the northern Great Plains_ 3 ELE Se ee eee 5 
SHTAILE sieht ase te tyes Ee ee ee 4 Methods of propagation_______ 6 
OLECHALCH OLMELee ruts =e 5 Planting and cultural systems__ 9 
Recommendations for practice__ ial 
HORTICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AT THE MANDAN 
FIELD STATION. 
XPERIMENTAL WORK in horticulture was begun at the 
Northern Great Plains Field Station, Mandan, N. Dak., in 
1913. The nature of the problems is such that the definite conclu- 
sions that can be drawn from the evidence of the experiments are 
as yet limited. It is not the intention in this circular to report 
on the experiments in detail, but merely to call attention to certain 
problems of fruit culture in this area and to point out some of the 
experiments being undertaken for their solution and those phases of 
experimental work that from the evidence at hand appear most 
promising. 
CLIMATE OF THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS. 
The northern Great Plains is an arbitrary division based on 
natural conditions that, generally speaking, may be said to include 
the western half of the two Dakotas and those portions of Mon- 
tana and Wyoming east of the Rocky Mountains. 
From a horticultural standpoint the climate of this area is the 
most severe found in any of the agricultural regions of the United 
States. Some of the factors that make the climate horticulturally 
severe are low winter temperatures, often of long duration; sudden 
and extreme changes of temperature; cold and drying winds in 
winter and spring; lack of a snow cover in winter; a short summer 
season, with late spring and early fall frosts; hot days and cold 
nights in summer; hot winds in summer; scanty annual rainfall; 
a dry atmosphere and a high rate of evaporation; and hailstorms. 
126948°—19 . 3 
