BOARD OF HORTICULTURE 143 



The difference in the acreage is accounted for by the fact that the last State- 

 ment from the assessors is more thoroush than the one the year before. Even the 

 hist Statement does not inelude quite all of the acreage as shown by the fact that 

 the Oregon Growers Cooperative Association has more acreage signed up in 

 several of the oonnties than are actually listed. Added to the above acreage 

 a total of about 3,Ü00 to 3,ö00 bearinix acres and probably 2,000 to 2,500 non- 

 bearing acres in Clarke County, Washington, we will have a total of approxi- 

 mately 27,000 bearing acres and 15,000 nonbearing acres in the State of Oregon 

 and Clarke County, Washington, which is the ouly county in Washington which 

 does much evaporating. 



The crop dnring the past season, which shortly before harvest was estimated 

 at betweeu fifty and sixty million pounds, was cut by rains to approximately 

 twenty-five million pounds or slightly less, while the crop In California is now 

 estimated at around 155,000,000 pounds, a total for the Pacific Coast of about 

 180.000,000 to 185.000,000 pounds, and counting the carry over from last season's 

 crop the total to be consumed will probably run around 200,000,000 pounds. 

 As near as can be definitely ascertained the domestic consumption of prunes in 

 the United States last season was 210.000,000 pounds so it is evident that unless 

 there should be heavy unemployment throughout the country, thereby making 

 a heavy decrease in purchasing power of the cousuming public, there are hardly 

 any more than enough prunes to go around provided the consumption is as large 

 as last year. 



During last season approximately .$250,000 were spent for advertising prunes 

 and this money was used by the California Prune and Apricot Growers Associa- 

 tion in establishing their Sunsweet brand. This season there will probably be 

 around $400.000 spent by the California, Oregon and Washington associations for 

 advertising prunes and this should have a considerable effect upon the trade. 



The prune industry at present is confronted with slow sale due to the 

 tightest financial condition that the wholesale grocery trade in the East has seen 

 for many years. With the gradual clean-up of the canned goods pack, which was 

 much shorter this season than last year, the very much lower sugar prices 

 as against the high sugar prices last year and the gradual cleaning up of the 

 1919 prune crop carry-over, many Eastern factors predict a good demand for 

 prunes after the first of the year. 



AN ALL-STAR PRUNE ORCHARD 



By Earl Pearcy 



County Fruit Inspector Washington County 



This being the open season for all-star aggregations, I thought it would 

 perhaps be appropriate to attempt to pick out an all-star prune orchard. When 

 your secretary asked me to give my observations as a fruit inspector on the 

 subject of prune growing I thought he was joking for it would seem that no 

 sane man would attempt to feature prune growing on the annual program of the 

 Hortieultural Society, after such a disastrous harvest season foUowed by a fall- 

 ing market. The average prune grower in the Willamette Valley is just now in 

 a State of flux — not knowing whether to go ahead vigorously with his work 

 or to mark time, so to speak. 



A fruit inspector in his official capacity has ample opportunity to observe 

 this tendency because he sees what the growers are doing in the various districts. 

 In one place there may be a grower who is doing one thing well — say cultivation ; 

 in another district another thing, gay pruning, while a neighboring grower, because 

 of good spraying and fertilizing practices, may be obtaining much better results 

 than either of the others. 



