Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-07-09

$50 feet, and the water power thu,
afforded is utilized to light all tn,
farm buildings with electricity ant
to do the churning, cream separat
ling, washing, ironing and wood saw
ing for the household. From tn,
1.-TWO reservoirs one hundred acres o.
lcrops, including several acres O,
fruit are irrigated. Last year oat.
yielded eighty-five bushels to the &C
re, machine measure alfalfa sever
tons to the acre, and the crops o.
vegetables and fruits were very fine
Mr.. Summers is an expert in dr.,
farming methods, as well as in ir
rigation and tho this is the dryest
season in ten years his unirrigatet
crops are admirable.
In buildings, water system, ant
improvements of every description
Mr.. Summers has expended $4,000
making the total cost of his farm ir
round numbers $4,000. 1t is not fol
sale, but has paid 7 per cent OF
$25,OOO and he could sell it for that
sum if he would say the word.
What is done in fruit growing on
this place proves that If the own.
er were interested in Wealthy ap-
pies instead of $3.50 colts, his sales
of fruit would amount to at least
$4,000 or $4,000 per year. What
Mr.. Summers has done could be dup
licated in its main features many
scores Of times in the Black Hills,
and a majority of those acquiring
and developing such properties
would feel that they could do moth
ing else that would pay them so
well as fruit growing.
There are hundreds of springs
similar to Mr.. Summers with hun
dreds Of fertile tracts that could be
irrigated by them. Further than
that, there are hundreds of draws,
the slopes of which drain sufficient
ly large areas, so that IL the draws
were damned, reservoirs acres in
extent could be formed for irrigat-
ing purposes. This method, while
not so cheap nor so satisfactory as
the utilization of springs, would
nevertheless furnish the nucleus for
many a beautiful home and lucra-
tive fruit farm.
There is no other fruit crop
grown in the Black Hills that pays
so large a profit, and requires so
small an outlay of capital and labor
as apples. 1t is safe to say that
nine-tenths of the fruit income in
this region will be from apples. But
the small fruits are as productive as
in any portion of the earth with
which J am acquainted, and merit
a share Of attention.
When l came to the Black Hills
twenty-five years ago, I endeavored
to learn thru observation and in
quiry whether small fruits would
thrive there, and what small fruits,
if any, were especially adapted to
this region; but fruit growing was
so neglected, and people knew so
little about it, that l was scarcely
able to get any light whatever on the
subject. A few years later, in the
early nineties, feeling that here was
an important field for investigation
that should not be longer neglected,
l resolved to institute an elaborate
and long continued series of expert
ments with small fruits. had in
mind the solution of three princi-
pal problems, viz: Determining
what small fruits, if any are adapt
ed to this region, what varieties of
these are most productive, and what
lines in fruit growing would pay
best commercially.
| began by putting out a strawber-
ry bed only thirty by fifty feet JUS
ing ten varieties, all of which are
famous in some localities. Two of
the ten sorts Bederwood and War
field, proved to be very fine, and
have ever since been popular thru
out the Hills. The other eight var
ieties were nearly worthless. The
first crop on this bed, however, was
exactly 400 quarts of beautiful and
perfect berries. l now rented five &C
res of Normal School land for term
Of six years at $50 per year. This
planted by degrees to about seven
ty-five varieties Of strawberries, a
dozen or more varieties each Of rasp
berries, blackberries, currants, and
gooseberries, and four varieties of
dewberries. Later l bought sixteen
acres of land, and put nine acres of
it into small fruits, aiming to in
clude in my settings every variety of
strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry,
"h'' oi"ShDoiiJ' anu uS"perly,
that had a good name anywhere.
1t is we'll known that small fruits
are very local in their behavior.
Some that do well in one place fail
in another. 1t is necessary for each
locality to experiment for itself.
And as the altitude and climate of
the Hills vary widely from those of
most fruit growing regions, careful
tests are doubly necessary here. Half
the failures in growing small fruits
are due to ignorance of this import
ant truth. AS was to be expected, l
met with some great surprises.