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BETTER FRUIT 



January 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER, OREGON 



Official Organ of The Northwest Fruit Growers' Association 

 A Monthly Illustrated Magazine Published in the 

 Interest of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing 



All Communications Should Be Addressed and Remittances 

 Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



E. H. SHEPARD. Editor and Publisher 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON 



C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist Corvallls 



WASHINGTON 



Dr. A. L. Melander, Entomologist Pullman 



O. M. Morris. Horticulturist Pullman 



W. S. Thornber, Horticulturist Pullman 



COLORADO 



C. P. Gillette. Director and Entomologist Fort Collins 



E. B. House, Chief of Department of Civil and Irrigation 



Engineering, State Agricultural College Fort Collins 



ARIZONA 



E. P. Taylor. Horticulturist Tucson 



WISCONSIN 



Dr. E. D. Ball. Director and Entomologist Madison 



MONTANA 



O. B. Whipple, Horticulturist Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W. Woodworth. Entomologist Berkeley 



W. H. Volck. Entomologist Watsonville 



Leon D, Batchelor, Horticulturist Riverside 



INDIANA 



H. S. Jackson. Pathologist Lafayette 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 

 R. M. Winslow. Provincial Horticulturist Victoria 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: 



In the United States. $1.00 per year in advance 



Canada and foreign, including postage, $1.50 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION 



Entered as second-class matter December 27. 1906, at the 



Postofflce at Hood River, Oregon, under Act 



of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



President W. J. Kerr.— The State of 

 Oregon is to be congratulated on the 

 decision of Mr. Kerr to remain as presi- 

 dent of the Oregon Agricultural College. 

 Mr. Kerr deserves the appreciation and 

 thanks of every resident of the state for 

 his loyalty to the state and for his 

 affection for its inhabitants, indicated 

 by the fact he remained at a lesser 

 salary than he was offered elsewhere. 

 Under President Kerr the Oregon Agri- 

 cultural College and the Experiment 

 Station has made a most wonderful ad- 

 vancement. Through his guidance the 

 institution has accomplished the great- 

 est amount of good for the farming in- 

 dustry in the state that it ever accom- 

 plished since the beginning. Under 

 Mr. Kerr's guidance, I speak more par- 

 ticularly of horticulture, although the 

 same is true of all other departments 

 of farming carried on in connection 

 with the Experiment Station, an insti- 

 tution has been built that is second to 

 none anywhere in the world, with no 

 superiors. The work in the horticul- 

 tural department stands out pre-emi- 

 nently compared with all other horti- 

 cultural institutions in the world. In 

 fact the success has been so marked 

 that other states, being aware of the 

 great work being done by the Oregon 

 Agricultural College, have persistently 

 and continuously been endeavoring to 

 take away its ablest professors and in- 

 structors, offering them larger salaries 

 than the State of Oregon thought it 

 could afford to pay. Quite a number of 

 very valuable men, attracted by higher 

 salaries, left, which is to be regretted. 

 Many others, including Mr. Kerr, have 

 been offered higher salaries, but their 

 sense of loyalty to the State of Oregon, 

 connected with the hope, in which we 

 think they were justified, that the state 

 in its growing prosperity would appre- 

 ciate the work being done by the Ore- 

 gon Agricultural College to the fullest 

 extent, and in the near future be able to 



pay a salary that is equal to that 

 offered by other states. President Kerr, 

 and others who remain, have the heart- 

 felt thanks of every fruit grower, every 

 farmer, and, we believe we can hon- 

 estly say, of every resident of the State 

 of Oregon. 



G. Harold Powell. — Nearly every fruit 



grower in the Northwest is acquainted 

 with Mr. G. Harold Powell, who for 

 many years was chief executive in the 

 Horticultural Department of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C, during which time he visited the 

 Northwestern fruit sections annually, 

 making friends wherever he went. Mr. 

 Powell is now assistant to Mr. Hoover 

 in the food conservation. A very nice 

 account of Mr. G. Harold Powell's life 

 is printed in the Literary Digest of 

 December 15, being extracts from an 

 article appearing in the Country Gentle- 

 man. Mr. Powell is 45 years of age. 

 A few of his achievements that signify 

 his ability in a most emphatic way will 

 be of interest. He entered Cornell at 

 nineteen years of age, paying his own 

 way by running a boarding house for 

 students. He entered the Department 

 of Agriculture, rapidly advancing and 

 becoming chief executive of the depart- 

 ment. It was Mr. Powell who, in his 

 research work, discovered that thou- 

 sands and hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars lost on the decay of oranges in 

 transit was due to rough handling in 

 picking and packing — a fact unknown 

 up to that time. It was Mr. Powell who 

 discovered that the great loss on 

 peaches in transit from Georgia and 

 other localities was due to the peaches 

 being shipped too warm, and who dis- 

 covered the loss could be prevented by 

 pre-cooling. It was Mr. Powell who 

 discovered that the great loss on apples 

 in shipment and poor keeping when 

 stored was due to rough handling, too 

 late picking and too long a delay after 

 being picked before being placed on 

 cold storage. It was Mr. Powell who 

 was called on to become general man- 

 ager of the California Citrus Fruit 

 Growers' Association, which handles 

 about 70 per cent of the oranges in 

 California, and under the able man- 

 agement of Mr. Powell the Citrus Fruit 

 Growers' Association has been success- 

 ful, and under his administration the 

 orange growers made more money than 

 they ever made before. Appreciation 

 of his ability is shown by his success 

 in all of these affairs, and it is due to 

 his success in these matters that he was 

 chosen as assistant to Mr. Hoover. 



Apples on Cold Storage. — A report 

 issued by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C, December 12, 

 shows a decrease of apples on cold 

 storage in the United States compared 

 with December 1 last year of lfm per 

 cent. The total number of box apples 

 on cold storage in 1916 was 796,620 

 boxes; in 1917, 939,838. Barreled apples 

 show a decrease; however it is true 

 that the amount of box apples on com- 

 mon storage is considerably larger than 

 last year. Prices during the month of 

 December have been depressed. This is 

 undoubtedly due to the very heavy 



shipments. During October cars were 

 short, but on the first of December the 

 number of cars shipped exceeded the 

 number of cars shipped last year by 20 

 per cent. Cars were loaded fully 20 

 per cent heavier, which in reality 

 makes an increase of 40 per cent, prob- 

 ably more, in the quantity of apples 

 shipped, going onto the markets during 

 the month of November, over the same 

 month last year. It is stated the loss 

 has been pretty heavy from freezing 

 weather. The heavy shipments have 

 resulted in some pretty low prices, 

 which undoubtedly has caused a very 

 heavy consumption, indicated by the 

 fact that the amount of box apples on 

 cold storage is very little in excess of 

 last year. Some of the big factors in 

 the business seem to think that the big 

 shipments have resulted in a very heavy 

 consumption. The loss in common 

 storage will be heavy, consequently 

 there will be no over-supply on hand 

 after the first of the year. There is a 

 general opinion there will be a good 

 demand commencing the latter part of 

 January or the first of February, with 

 no excess supply, and consequently 

 there is every reason to assume that 

 prices will be fair a little later on 

 during the year. 



Spraying. — The fruit growers of the 

 Northwest have suffered a severe loss 

 for many consecutive years from fun- 

 gus on apples. Strange to say, it took 

 several years before they became in- 

 formed and fully appreciated the neces- 

 sity of a rigid spraying program, but it 

 is a pleasure to announce that in 1917 

 the fruit growers got the right idea and 

 did the work right. They began with 

 sulphur sprays — lime and sulphur was 

 used extensively; application was made 

 in the semi-dormant, sometimes called 

 the pre-pink spray, or when the leaves 

 are one-quarter to one-half an inch 

 long. This was followed by another 

 application in the pir.k, another appli- 

 cation just after the petals dropped, 

 known as the calyx spray, and another 

 two weeks later. Those who sprayed, 

 following this program, doing it thor- 

 oughly with the proper strengths, had 

 crops that were entirely free from fun- 

 gus. In some sections additional spray- 

 ing was necessary. No grower who 

 wants a clean crop, free from fungus, 

 can afford to take any chances in 1918, 

 by omitting any sprays. But one word 

 more of advice. On account of the 

 shortage of supplies and the uncertain 

 advancing prices, it seems wise to sug- 

 gest to the fruit growers that they pur- 

 chase their fungicidal sprays as early 

 as possible. 



Thrift Stamps are intended to enable 

 those people who cannot spare the 

 amount necessary to purchase Liberty 

 Bonds to help carry on the war and at 

 the same time to help themselves by 

 becoming saving and thrifty. These 

 stamps will be on sale from December 

 3, 1917, to January 31, 1918. A thrift 

 card is furnished to all purchasers of 

 25-cent stamps. This card has space 

 for sixteen stamps. When all the 

 spaces are filled the thrift card may be 

 exchanged for a $5.00 stamp at the 



