20 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



tion elsewhere. Pests may thus be introduced into new sec- 

 tions where otherwise they might be kept out for many years. 

 I would urge that you give this matter a great deal of atten- 

 tion during the coming season and see that all your inspectors 

 are fully posted. 



Fruit that is fit only for the vinegar factory should, just 

 as far as possible, be converted into juice at the point of pro- 

 duction. Such fruit should not be shipped unless there are 

 absolutely no facilities near at hand for caring for it, and 

 then only under special permit, and direct to a factory. 



I would also urge that you give every assistance in your 

 power to the formation of local fruit-growers' organizations. 

 With all that has been said and written on this subject there 

 are still important fruit-growing districts in the State that 

 have no Organization. We must keep hammering away on 

 the importance of every fruit-growing Community providing 

 its own facilities for marketing its crop in the most profitable 

 manner. 



For many years, ever since Prof. Cordley worked out the 

 problem of fighting the apple tree anthracnose, we have been 

 advocating the importance of early fall spraying of the apple 

 tree, and every year's practice shows more strongly the im- 

 portance of this spraying. And now Prof. Lawrence, employed 

 as a special investigator by the Hood River growers, and at 

 this time also county inspector for that county, has been 

 investigating this problem still further and has become con- 

 vinced that the larger part of the premature rotting of fruit 

 that has been giving so much trouble of late is due to the 

 action of this most obstructive fungus. It therefore becomes 

 of still greater importance to apply this early fall spray in 

 order to kill the spores on the fruit as well as on the branches. 

 Prof. Lawrence advises the application of 4-4-50 Bordeaux or 

 1-30 lime-sulphur just before the apples are ready to pick. 

 Red apples should be pretty well colored before spraying. 

 Apples so sprayed will of course have to be carefully wiped 

 before marketing, but that will be a small item compared with 

 saving it from rotting prematurely. This will make the spray- 

 ing most effective for the disease on the branches also. 



I am glad to be able to report that the question of Standard 

 packages and grades for fruit is at last in a fair way to be 

 settled amicably and to the advantage of all concerned. This 

 question, under the guise of the "Porter Bill," the "Lafean 

 Bill," and the "Sulzer Bill," has been agitated for a number 

 of years, and the northwest growers have feit that the pro- 

 posed legislation was very unfair to them, in that it provided 

 for a box that we could not well use, and that it failed to give 



