Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1909-03-12
THE GROWING OF FRUITS.
Instructive Article by Prof. Thornbez
Of State College.

of Spokane. The growing of fruits
in the semi-arid districts in the north,
west as well as in other parts of the
United States and Canada is a phase
of horticulture which has received
little or no attention in the past, hence
it will be good news to many that by
system of careful cultivation and
rigid selection of varieties and care
in selection of trees and vines many
fruits can be grown in the dry dis
tricts. Professor Thornber Is argument
follows;
1t will be necessary to practice great
care in the conservation of moisture
to make it possible for a tree to grow
and produce fruit in these sections.
This is to be considered as a most
important phase. We must make uso
of all the moisture that falls, ana
make use of every practice that will
conserve this moisture.
A certain amount of well-rotted ma
nure added to the land will help hold
the moisture much better than where
no manure is used. Almost every
farmer and fruit grower is familiar
with the methods of tillage that con
serve moisture. Deep, thorough tillage
in spring and constant shallow tillage
during the summer will do more to
make fruit grow in these dry sections
than any other phase of cultivation.
Thus by the addition of well-rotted
manure, or the growing of cover
crops until the ground is in good con-
dition, and carefully conserving the
moisture that falls, or can be secured,
much fruit can be raised where none
has been raised in the past.
Following closely upon the manage
ment and care of these fruit planta-
tions we must select such varieties of
fruits as will mature before the very
dry part of the summer comes on, or
such varieties as will stand an un-
usual amount of drouth. This then
limits the number of varieties of ap-
pies to few winter kinds. The Rome
Beauty apple and WAGNER will stand
more neglect and produce fair sized
fruit on dry land than any other va
riety that we have thus far tested
in our large experiment station or
chard.
| Varieties like the Winesap, the yell
low Newtown, the Jonathan ana the
Spitzenberg, while they do remark
ably we'll where the conditions are
favorable, fail almost absolutely if
there is not sufficient water to supply
these later maturing fruits.
| Under no circumstances should they
be used in the dryer sections unless
/ plenty of water can be supplied. If
a person desires an early maturing
fruit, there is nothing better MOI
harder than the Yellow Newtown, OF
some of its close relatives.
| - IL n
hardy fruit are the Duchess of Old
enberg and the Glass Green. The Rec
June, the Early Strawberry and 6
number of other apples of this class
should not be planted where there II
not plenty of moisture, even though
they are early fruits, because they
cannot stand excessive drouth.
Besides apples, there are many othe
varieties of fruits that will do wei
if given excellent care in the dry sec
lions. In the case OF peaches, nothing
but the smaller fruits should be Sc
lected One of the best early and on
of the hardest peaches we have is tn
Alexander, or it's mate, the Amsdel
June. These two peaches, as teste'
: out at the station, are very valuabl
for the dry situation, or if places
where the conditions are unfavorable
: for general peach culture.
Another fruit that many people vii
be surprised at the way it grows i
the Glib apricot. While this is no
large, yet it is very hardy, even muc
! harder than the common Russian apr
cot and produces fairly large crop
of medium sized good fruit, even i
the dryer parts of the northwest,
Pears, as a rule, are not adapte
to the dry sections, even though yer
) good culture may be given to them.
Most varieties of sweet cherries wi
i do well where the winters are not to
9 severe for them, if they receive req
: sonable amount of moisture during tn
early part of the growing frui
. season.
As hardy varieties of sweet cherries
would name the Lambert, the Win
Sweet and the Hoskins. The Roys
Anne and Bing are not so well adapte
9 to these severe conditions as are tn
first named varieties.
: Almost any variety of sour cherr!
and particularly the Olivet, the Earl
Richmond and the Wragg will succee
. remarkably well in very severe an
= dry conditions.
!, Great di1iculty will be experience
in attempting to grow such small fruit
. as blackberries and late raspberrie
y particularly where these varieties mi
ture their crop late in the summe
The difficulty will be that the fru
dries up on the bush before it gel
f a chance to fully mature. By car
l. fully selecting early ripening yari
II ties of the red raspberry this difficult
can be avoided.
The Turner's Red, the Cuthbert an
the Philadelphia have given very sa
isfactory results on the very dry soil
- 1t will almost be useless to attempt
r grow the ld-fashioned blackberry, bu
the near relative of it, the Lucreti
,s dewberry, can be grown with gres
deal of success if reasonable care
given to it.
Currants and gooseberries of ii
standard hardy varieties will all d
well if they are cultivated and I'll
IS grass and weeds kept out of them du
ing the entire season. However, the'
plants will not do even fairly we
g if the weeds are permitted to choh
them down late in the season. I'll
:. early varieties of Strawberries, sue
~ as Clarks Seeding, Warfeld an