ipi8 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 21 



The Orchard Ladder A Pruner 



4«f OimEii'v nnisl ' H ' ;ir tne name 



Ul yUdlDiy "Northwest." Thous- 

 ands are sold on their merits. Ask your 

 dealer to let you see our ladder. 



which does the 

 work twice as fast 



as any other make, and costs no more. 



Why not use the best? 



It's the Bastian 



If your dealer does not carry our Ladder and Pruner in stock, write us direct for prices. 

 Information on our Orchard Supplies gladly given on request. 



N. W. Fence & Supply Co, 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



Prune Evaporation 



By F. R. Brown, Marion County Agricultural Agent, Salem, Oregon 



A DISCUSSION of prune evaporation 

 and all factors affecting such must 

 necessarily commence with the harvest- 

 ing methods. The normal season for 

 harvesting prunes in the Willamette 

 Valley is from September 10 to October 

 5. We find, however, that during the 

 past few years there is an increasing 

 tendency on the part of the growers to 

 hurry the season. In other words, a 

 great many growers are beginning as 

 early as the 1st of September and fin- 

 ishing as early as the 25th, or ten days 

 in advance of the normal season. With 

 these facts before us, then let us con- 

 sider the effect of this early harvesting. 

 Through experiments carried out at the 

 Oregon Agricultural College it has been 

 found that the following figures are 

 fairly accurate, showing the loss due 

 to this early harvesting: There is a loss 

 in weight of fresh fruit because the 

 sugar contained increases very rapidly 

 during the last three or four days that 

 the prunes remain on the tree. Expe- 

 rience covering two years give the fol- 

 lowing figures: A loss in weight due to 

 shaking 6 per cent. Since the sugar 

 contained in the prune vitally affects 

 the drying quality it is natural to find 

 that prunes which are shaken from the 

 tree dry lighter than those which drop 

 naturally. The average difference over 

 a period of three years shows a gain in 

 weight in favor of prunes dropping nat- 

 urally of 4.5 per cent. This means, then, 

 that the grower annually loses 10.5 per 

 cent of the weight of his dried prunes 

 by harvesting too early. Add to this 

 the cost of shaking, which runs from 

 .$3.00 to $0.00 per ton, and estimating 

 the price on a basis of $125 per ton of 

 dried fruit, we find the total loss due 

 to harvesting amounting to be from $18 

 to $20 per ton, or more than enough to 

 pay the cost of cultivating, pruning and 

 spraying the orchards. To further sub- 

 stantiate this fact, observations were 

 made during the seasons 1912-14 and 

 1917, those seasons which were particu- 

 larly noticeable on account of the diffi- 

 culty experienced in getting the prunes 

 from the trees. These observations re- 

 veal the following facts. First, that 



after resorting to severe shaking and 

 clubbing there still remained on the 

 trees at the end of the season a num- 

 ber of prunes. An inspection, however, 

 ten days later revealed the fact that not 

 a single prune remained on the trees, 

 but scattering prunes on the ground in- 



dicated that at the proper time prunes 

 dropped of their own accord. 



Let us now take the question of fray- 

 ing. There are many ways in connec- 

 tion with the traying of prunes where 

 greater efficiency can be obtained. For 

 instance, it is found in one case by 

 careful experiments and substantiated 

 in many others by observation that 

 enough rotten prunes were placed in 

 the trays to show a net loss of $2.73 per 



The Final Test 



Are you producing clean 

 fruit at low cost? 



This is the final test of 

 your methods. 



In the fall it is too late to 

 repair errors. 



Now is the time to review 

 last season's results and 

 plan for the future. 



Latimer's Dry Arsenate of Lead 



Will help you produce cleaner fruit. 



We'can convince you of this. 



Use Latimer's Dry on only a part of your orchard the first 

 year. Compare your results. Then you will know. 



High combined arsenate makes Latimer's Dry quick to kill. 



Extreme fineness gives covering power and adhesiveness. 



Uniformity in composition assures uniform results. 



The Latimer Chemical Company 



GRAND JUNCTION, COLO. 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



