FLYING WEDGE OF BANKERS AND FARMERS 



591 



of the home-gardening and home-canning movement, 

 that they will not be doing their duty to themselves or 

 to their country if they do not do their share in 1918 — 

 and they will do it. 



The food problem is one of the vital issues of today. 

 It is a problem from which none of us may escape. Each 

 of us has his individual responsibility in the situation. 

 To win the final victory in the great war, America must 

 feed not only herself and her fighting forces, but she 

 must help to feed the people of England, France, Italy 

 and Russia. To do this with the highest measure of effi- 

 ciency is the real ])roblem. There must be no lost mo- 

 tion. Every move must be made to count. Every act 

 must be a blow for liberty in our work for Democracy 

 to save and redeem civilization. It is not enough that 

 we should all be alert to the food needs of America and 



her Allies ; we must back that alertness with construc- 

 tive skill and real industry. 



The necessity for all this is well expressed by Lord 

 Rhondda, the English Food Administrator. He said 

 last week, "I hope the exportable surplus of American 

 primary foodstuffs will be much larger than the present 

 estimates, as the result of food economics by which the 

 United States and Canadian homes are helping to win 

 the war, just as surely as in the production of munitions. 

 Every American woman is in a position to bring nearer 

 the inevitable atonement for the brutal outrages in Bel- 

 gium, Armenia and Serbia — the sinking of the Lusitania 

 and other horrors, by her day-by-day economies. There 

 need be no fear that the sacrifices will be wasted over 

 here. Unless the Entente Allies are able to import 

 the supplies necessary for the army and the popu- 

 lations, victory may slip from our united grasp." 



FIRST APPLE TREE OF THE NORTHWEST 

 By H. E. Zimmerman 



In the Vancouver Barracks, State of Washington, 

 there stands an apple tree of more than ordinary interest. 

 Its history is very interesting and Bancroft, the noted 

 historian, tells the following little incident in regard to 

 it: "At a lunch party in London, about 1825, given in 

 honor of some young gentlemen who were about to em- 

 bark for Fort Vancouver, in the employ of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, seeds of the fruit eaten were slyly slipped 

 by some young ladies into the waistcoat pockets of the 

 young men, and upon their arrival at their destination 

 the young men, in overhauling their wardrobes, discov- 

 ered the seeds and gave them to Bruce, the gardener at 

 the fort." Mrs. Mary Whitman, wife of Marcus Whit- 

 man, also wrote an interesting history of this tree, Sep- 

 tember 12, 1836. 



It is said that the seeds planted by the gardener, Bruce, 

 produced several trees, three of which lived for a long 

 time, and were pointed out as the only apple trees in the 

 northwest. In the course of time two of them disap- 

 peared, leaving the present tree alone. Even the exist- 

 ence of this tree seems to have been almost entirely for- 

 gotten by the general public, not even the commander of 

 the Barracks knowing that such a tree stood on the very 

 ground which he controlled. It was largely through the 

 horticultural inspector of this district, Mr. A. A. Quarn- 

 berg, that the tree was discovered and identified. In 

 1911 Mr. Quarnberg wished to have a gavel made of 

 wood from this apple tree for the Washington State 

 Horticultural Society, and, upon examining the same, 

 found it badly infected with San Jose scale, half its 

 branches dead, and in a bad condition generally. On 

 January 13th that year he called upon Col. G. K. Mc- 

 Gunnigle, Commander of the Barracks, and got the nec- 

 essary permit to prune, spray and do anything necessary 

 to preserve the life of the tree. On January 25th, by 

 direction of the Washington State Commissioner of Hor- 

 ticulture, he took measurements — the same year — and 

 found the tree to have the following dimensions : One 



A TREE WITH .\X INTERESTING HISTORY 

 It is ail apple tree and stands in the Vancouver Barracks in Washington, 

 the sole survivor of several planted about 1825, the seeds having been 

 brought from London. 



foot from the ground, IJ/2 feet in diameter; height, 33 

 feet, and spread of crown, 33 feet. On February 20-21, 

 this year, the tree was pruned, and all dead branches and 

 brush removed, the rotten wood in the trunk and 

 branches cleaned out and filled with plaster-paris and 

 cement, and all cuts painted. Later it was sprayed and 

 a good coat of manure applied at its roots. 



In 1915 the Department of Agriculture at Washington 

 requested Mr. Quarnberg to send them specimen apples 

 for making wax forms. 



