The Western news., 1909-03-10
THE GROWING OF FRUITS.
Instructive Article by Prof. Thornber
of State College.

Conservation of moisture as one of
the essential factors to successful hor-
ticulture is urged by w. S. Thornber
professor of horticulture in Washing
ton State College at Pullman, south
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 S argument
follows:
1t Will be necessary to practice great
care in the conservation of moisture
to make it possible for tree to grow
and produce fruit in these sections.
This is to be considered as Il most
important phase. We must make usv
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
i'll 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 a few winter kinds. The Rome
Beauty apple and Wagener 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 Vel
low Newtown, the Jonathan and the
Spitzenberg, while they do remark
ably well 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
person desires an early maturing
fruit, there is nothing better nor
harder than the Yellow Newtown, or
some of its close relatives.
Other varieties of early maturing
hardy fruit are the Duchess of Old
enberg and the Glass Green. The Red
June, the Early Strawberry and a
number of other apples of this class
should not be planted where there is
not plenty of moisture, even though
they are early fruits, because they
crrnot stand excessive drouth.
/ Besides apples, there are many other
varieties of fruits that will do well
if given excellent care in the dry sec
IlOAo. LII lhS CdSt VI pCdCHtb, hoJhlbS,
but the smaller fruits should be Sc
lected, One Of the best early and one
of the hardest peaches we have Is the
Alexander, or its mate, the Amsden
June. These two peaches, as tested
out at the station, are very valuable
for the dry situation, or if placed
where the conditions are unfavorable,
for general peach culture.
Another fruit that many people will
be surprised at the way it grows is
the Gibb apricot. While this is not
large, yet it is very hardy, even much
harder than the common Russian apri
cot and produces fairly large crops
of medium sized good fruit, even in
the dryer parts of the northwest.
Pears, as rule, are not adapted
| to the dry sections, even though very
good culture may be given to them.
Most varieties of sweet cherries viii
do well where the winters are not toe
severe for them, if they receive rea
| sonabe amount of moisture during the
early part of the growing fruit
| season.
As hardy varieties of sweet cherries
| / would name the Lambert, the Wine
Sweet and the Hoskins. The Roya
Anne and Bing are not so we'll adapted
to these severe conditions as are the
first named varieties.
Almost any variety of sour cherry
and particularly the Olivet, the Early
Richmond and the Wragg will succeed
remarkably well in very severe anc
dry conditions.
Great diriculty will be experienced
IN attempting to grow such small fruit
as blackberries and late raspberries
particularly where these varieties ma
ture their crop late in the summer
The difficulty will be that the frui
dries up on the bush before it get
chance to fully mature. BY care
fully selecting early ripening varie
ties of the red raspberry this difficult,
can be avoided.
The Turner's Red, the Cuthbert an'
the Philadelphia have given very sat
isfactory results on the very dry soils
1t will almost be useless to attempt t.
grow the old fashioned blackberry, bu
the near relative of it, the Lucreti