Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-10-10
A NEW INDUSTRY.
The Annual Drouths More Favorable
than Too Much Rain.

The Annual Drouths More Favorable
than Too Much Rain.
A new industry is growing the
finer Plums, prunes and tart cher
rles. The president of the Stark
/ Nursuries, of Louisiana, Mo-, lately
/ returned from a western trip and
! speaking of their Denver orchards
! grown on the plains without irrigation
! water, simply by intense cultivation,
the wonderful crops of plums and
/ prunes and hardy tart cherries
grown there, he said: after
close observation and some years
experience l am quite con-
WINGED there is great future for west
ern Kansas, southwest Nebraska, and
the Cherokee strip, as well as Colorado,
New Mexico and further west, in grow
ing plumbs, prunes and cherries; of
the latter such varieties as Montana,
Ord, Suda Hardy, German Ostheimer,
etc, and the Lombard plumb. the
cages, prunes, etc. Some of the ad
vantages are favorable climate.
suitable soil 1,500 miles
nearer the market than the
Pacific coast, cheap land, cheap
rates, cheap labor, and, greatest adj
vantage of all, in shipping green fruit,
1T may be allowed to come to maturity
instead OF picking green as they must
do on the coast; this fruit will, there
fore, sell one-third higher on the Chi
cago markets, just as Colorado peaches
for the same reason sell one-third
higher on the Denver markets than
California sorts.
The plum, prune and cherry need
little water comparatively; it is too
much rain, causing rot, as well
as curculio, etc, that makes grow
ing these finer sorts hazardous
and uncertain in the east. The
country named belongs to the arid and
semi-arid region, but sufficient rain
falls to insure crops and the thing to
do is to plant on commercial scale
and cultivate as the Stark Bros, Den
yer, orchards are cultivate! success
will follow. Half way work and
neglect will not bring success there
nor elsewhere. What has been done
on the plains of Colorado can be done
in western Kansas.
The apple may also be grown in the
same belt if enough work is done, but
not so successfully, for more water is
required than for stone fruits which
come to perfection in dry seasons. This
year Lombard and other finer plums
Kansas, in the rain belt, matured, and
choice specimens were received to be
named. Had there been the usual
summer rains the fruit would have
rotted.
''Struggling farmers of western Kan
sas trying to grow corn but burnt out
with the usual annual drouth should
know and realize the possibilities in
the culture of these fruits. If they get
a crop of corn it may net them SO per
acre; the right sorts of cherries and
Plums will net them several hundred
dollars per acre, and a ten-acre orchard
more than a quarter section devoted
to general farming. Think of it; try
it. But start right, cultivate right and
be sure to plant the best sorts. The
majority of failures are from planting
wrong sorts, mistake to be avoided.
Mind you the annual drought that burns
out corn is just the weather needed for
maturing these crops. Seeing is believ
ing; if you want to see more, some
thing on large scale, go a little far
Their west to the Stark Bros Denver
orchards, which can scarcely be
equalled in California or elsewhere. -
Nurseries and Orchards.