Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



August 



Our 



Satm BOX APPLES 



We handle more box apples 

 than any concern in Ohio and 

 want to hear from every grower 

 and shipper who will have 

 either large or small lots to offer. 



AND THE THREE BIG 



Peaches, Pears, Prunes 



LET US HEAR. FROM YOV AT ONCE 



I. N. PRICE (Q. CO., Cincinnati, Ohio 



REFERENCES: ANY BANK OR CREDIT AGENCY 



occasional tree is untrue both in flavor 

 and form. I have a theory — only a 

 theory, for I don't know — that a Bing 

 grafted on a Bing seedling would be 

 better than either. 



Pruning of cherry trees is a disputed 

 question. The witches told our grand- 

 mothers it would kill them. Many still 

 believe it. It is true that it is more 

 difficult than to prune apple trees, but 

 it is almost as necessary. For the young 

 tree, head about three feet high; have 

 no center and no double header. Lead 

 out four or five branches as nearly 

 equal and as near the same place as 

 possible. A cherry tree will not split 

 with its load; and if a center is left the 

 outside branches rob it and make a bad 

 mess later on. The second and third 

 years, I do not clip as with the young 

 apple tree. Cut back only the one or 

 two branches which tend to overtop 

 the others. The two-year-old should 

 spread out like a hayshock; and it will 

 do this if it has a good boarding place, 

 but if starved it adds only a few shoots 

 on the top — no side shoots — and soon 

 loks like a poplar. In pruning old 

 neglected trees, I prefer to take out a 

 few large branches, doing little or no 

 other cutting. I have never yet injured 

 a tree in this way — get better growth 

 and fruit than to cut out many small 

 limbs. I am not afraid to go to the 

 center of a tree for a fence post. A 

 general clipping over the outside of the 

 tree every year, as we do apples, is not 

 necessary and is questionable. Some 

 clipping is necesary, but not every year, 

 and it should be reduced to a minimum. 



To flavor a Bing properly, the general 

 point is to keep the tree in vigorous 

 condition with dense foliage. Smooth 

 and glossy leaves in great abundance 

 above the fruit is almost a guarantee of 

 good flavor. The reverse, then, makes 

 poor flavor. But there are many reasons 

 for poor flavor. We clip the grow- 

 ing concord to improve it; but the same 

 treatment ruins the Bing. Liberal fer- 

 tilizing improves flavor, but an excess 

 often injures it. A peach wants the 

 sun, a cherry wants the shade. A Bing 

 with rough, crinkly leaves, and on a 

 mazzard, produces fruit incurably bad. 

 Fruit that is dry is leathery and strong. 



Overloaded trees produce a weak flavor. 

 The water necesary for the heaviest 

 tonnage and largest size of fruit some- 

 times weakens flavor and requires three 

 or four days without any water before 

 picking. 



Cultivation or grass? Again I find 

 myself across the public highway. I 

 cannot get results by leaving the 

 ground in alfalfa or clover year after 

 year; have gotten excellent results by 

 sowing clover in June, then plow 

 under the green crop the next May and 

 cultivate for the following two or three 

 years. I depend mainly upon the plow, 

 and run close against the tree trunks. 



Solving the Southern Idaho Fruit Problem 



Kenyon Green, Twin Falls, Idaho 



WITH the arrival of the four vears 

 of low apple prices, 1912, 1914, 



1915, and followed by the freeze of 



1916, the fruit industry of Southern 

 Idaho, and the Twin Falls country in 

 particular, was dealt a crushing blow 

 in its very infancy. With the majority 

 of orchards just coming into bearing, 

 with no nation-wide reputation for its 

 fruit, and with no well-established mar- 

 keting system worked out, prospects 

 for the fruitgrowers of this district 

 looked very black indeed. 



Immediate action was undertaken, 

 however, along several lines, and today 

 there is a universal feeling of optimism 

 which may be noted among orchard 

 men all over the tract. First, those 

 who were not really interested in the 



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LADDtflLTON 

 BANK • 



This Pioneer Bank 

 invites you to 

 make this your 

 banking home 



Successful People 



never spend all they earn. They save 

 not occasionally but regularly. Start 

 a savings account now or add to your 

 savings account regularly from now on. 

 It will give you a new lease on life. 



LADD & TILTON BANK 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



growing of high-grade fruit, who had 

 set out their orchards merely because 

 it was the popular thing pulled their 

 orchards. Approximately twenty-five 

 hundred acres of apple trees in the 

 Twin Falls country have been pulled to 

 the mutual advantage of the owners 

 and the remaining orchard men. 



Second, those who retained their 

 orchards, determined to see the thing 

 through, forgot their dreams of thou- 

 sand-dollar-an-acre profit, reorganized 

 their apple acreage as a part of a gen- 

 eral farming scheme, weeding out all 

 poor varieties, and weak, low-vitality 

 trees. 



Bealizing that the opening years of 

 the twentieth century saw farm special- 

 ization pushed to its extreme, these 

 men have studied out the best methods 

 of diversification, which is the opposite 

 of specialization. To them fruit grow- 

 ing, which is the most noted of the 

 specialized crops of the Northwest, 

 became only one part of farming and 

 was treated as such. 



Believing that a few years hence the 

 finest and highest priced general farm 

 will be the one with a well-cared-for 

 small orchard several head of good 

 stock, and a variety of general crops, 

 these men have continued pruning and 

 spraying with as great care as though 

 their apples were their most profitable 

 product. Departing also from the old 

 clean cultivation, these fruitgrower 

 farmers have worked out a line of 

 inter-crops that are exceedingly profit- 

 able. From his twenty-acre apple 



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