ipi8 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



best quality and yield on prairie land. 

 It takes a fifty-bushel crop of wheat 

 per acre to equal the amount of nitro- 

 gen and phosphoric acid removed by 

 an average crop of cabbage, turnips or 

 onions, and the vegetables remove five 

 times as much potash as the wheat in 

 addition to a much larger amount of 

 water. This means, therefore, that the 

 yield is proportionate to the amount of 

 available plant food that the soil has 

 and its ability to conserve moisture. In 

 the delta regions cabbage yields have 

 been running this year as high as 

 twenty-five and thirty tons per acre, 

 the cabbage selling for fifteen dollars 

 f.o.b. shipping point. This high yield 

 is due to combination of the soil qual- 

 ities that I have just mentioned. 



Manure is getting scarcer than it 

 formerly was, which makes it almost 

 necessary that more vegetable land be 

 cover-cropped and built up by green 

 manures. In this way we can use much 

 less manure than we have been using 

 in the past. In a discussion of the sub- 

 ject "Can Vegetables Be Grown Com- 

 mercially Without Animal Manures" at 

 the recent meeting of the Vegetable 

 Growers' Association of America, which 

 I attended at Springfield, Massachusetts, 

 it was the conclusion of the speakers, 

 after visiting many acres where vege- 

 tables are grown for canneries, etc., 

 that when the manure supply is 

 short, light applications are wonder- 

 fully effective in rotting the organic 

 matter of the green manures and in- 

 creasing the availability of the plant 

 food which they contain. A limited 

 amount of manure, a cover crop, and 

 fertilizers have brought results in num- 

 bers of cases. An answer to the above 

 question was, "Yes, for truckers and 

 cannery growers. All over the country 

 we find men who are doing it." 



There seems to be somewhat of an 

 aversion by some regarding the use of 

 commercial fertilizers, but I do not 

 agree with such an attitude, provided 

 the soil conditions are studied and care 

 is taken in obtaining a standard fer- 

 tilizer. I am not here to say that the 

 artificial fertilizer will make for in- 

 creased yields in every case, but I know 

 that in many regions where the land is 

 being fertilized with cover crops the 

 yields are being brought up through 

 proper applications of some fertilizer 

 that particularly fits the needs of the 

 crop. It will be necessary, in every 

 case, to check up on the value of the 

 fertilizer to the crop. Very often the 

 use of a small fertilizer will make all 

 the difference between half a crop and 

 a full crop or nearly so, with a result- 

 ing net profit which will be satisfactory 

 after deducting the cost of the fertilizer. 

 Time will forbid me from going into 

 this part of the crop growing to any 

 length. 



The requirements of some vegetables 

 as regards the amount of labor neces- 

 sary to handle them is of considerable 

 importance in determining what crop 

 will be grown. The cost for labor in 

 handling a crop will vary with the in- 

 dividual crop. One man, for example, 

 can take care of twice as much acreage 

 of cabbage as of onions, and possibly 

 one-third less celery than onions. The 



labor item considers not only the cost 

 in growing the crop but also whether 

 the labor is possible to be obtained. 

 This is true in the case of growing 

 string beans for the factory, in which 

 case the profits of the crop are reduced 

 to a comparative small amount if an 

 expensive wage must be paid to pickers. 

 There must be careful inspection on 

 the part of the farmer as to the charac- 

 ter of the vegetables which are deliv- 

 ered. Toughening of fiber through long 

 standing in the field or elsewhere 

 causes the vegetable to lack the de- 

 sirable quality. There is, in some cases, 

 a tendency among some growers to 

 allow their products to become too 

 mature before delivery. Fancy stock 

 for processing, therefore, is impossible 

 to be obtained. If the majority of 

 farmers do not pay strict attention to 

 this factor in delivering there must of 

 a necessity be a lowering of the entire 

 grade and a cheapening of the product. 

 This is not just to the grower who is 

 careful about his stock at delivery time. 

 The production cost is practically the 

 same for either first or second grade, 

 while the gross receipts may be twenty- 

 five or fifty per cent less. In this re- 



gard, therefore, there must be the strict- 

 est co-operation. The grower must be 

 given a fair price for his vegetables 

 that will enable him, with a normal 

 yield, to pay the cost of production and 

 receive a fair interest on his invest- 

 ment. Likewise the grower should en- 

 deavor to deliver good quality produce 

 rather than try to get rid of poor, un- 

 marketable vegetables. In matters of 

 this kind, some growers have not al- 

 ways been fair, for they have had a 

 tendency to try to unload some stuff on 

 the cannery which would not be de- 

 sirable to process. 



I have in this article only touched 

 upon some of the many phases of crop 

 production. We can confidently expect 

 that if care is taken in obtaining all 

 available data before the choice of 

 vegetables is made and if the grower 

 will give them the proper care, there 

 should be not a great deal of difficulty 

 in getting satisfactory returns in the 

 growing of one vegetable or another. 

 I have endeavored to emphasize par- 

 ticularly the fundamentals underlying 

 the success of vegetable production, 

 hoping that these points mentioned may 

 furnish subjects for discussion. 



The Codling Moth Trap 



By Alfred M. Wilson, Clifton, Colorado 



THE following are some of the rea- 

 sons that should commend to apple 

 growers the codling-moth trap thought 

 out and perfected by E. H. Siegler, the 

 codling-moth expert of the United 

 States Department of Entomology: (1) 

 The traps will do the work they are 

 designed to do. The worms can get 

 into the traps, but the moths cannot 

 get out. They are trapped for good and 

 die in the traps for lack of sustenance. 

 (2) The traps reinforce the bands. 

 They do not do away with the bands, 

 but they do make the bands more 

 effective by removing the element of 

 uncertainty in the running of the bands. 

 If they are not properly cared for, the 

 bands, as too many growers know to 

 their cost, may become sources of in- 

 festation; but that source of danger is 



The Codling Moth Trap 



entirely removed when the bands are 

 reinforced and strengthened by the use 

 of the traps. (3) The traps do away 

 with the necessity of running the 

 bands. In other words, the traps, if 

 they are properly attached to the trees, 

 do their work automatically and with- 

 out further assistance from the grower. 

 (4) The traps are, therefore, great time 

 savers. This at the present time when 

 labor is so scarce and so costly is an 

 important consideration. (5) The traps 

 can be made by the growers themselves. 

 The only unavoidable expense is that 

 for material. (6) The traps can be at- 

 tached to the trees at any time in the 

 year most convenient to the grower. 

 For example, the traps can be attached 

 to the trees in the fall and winter when 

 the work is somewhat slack. (7) The 

 traps need not be renewed oftener than 

 every two years. (8) The cost for the 

 material and the expense involved in 

 making the traps and in attaching them 

 to the trees should not exceed the cost 

 for labor to run the bands during one 

 season. 



The traps are simple contrivances 

 made out of twelve-inch wire mesh 

 screen cloth. The mesh is first cut into 

 strips six inches wide. The strips are 

 then "crimped" and cut into the desired 

 lengths. The crimping may be done 

 either by band or by means of a 

 crimper such as is used by tinners in 

 crimping stove pipe. But the main 

 thing is to attach the traps properly. 

 So important is this matter that the ex- 

 perls emphatically state that unless the 

 bands are attached as they should be, 

 the growers have no right to expect the 

 traps to do the work they are designed 

 to do. 



In the first place colored bands, 

 folded once, are put on the trees. Then 

 over the bands the traps, which, by the 



