i 'age j j 



BETTER FRUIT 



April 



BETTER FRUIT 



PORTLAND, OREGON 

 Official Organ of Ti Qrowei I 



a Monthly Illustrated Magazine rublishod in the 



i Growing ami .Marketing 



All Com I Should Be id In oed and Remittances 



■ Payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



E. II SHEI'AHIi. E.I r iblisher 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON 



C. I- Lewis, Horticulturist Corvallis 



WASHINGTON 



Dr. A. L. Melander. Entomologist Pullman 



O. M. Morris, Horticulturist Pullman 



W. S. Iboraber, Horticulturist Tollman 



■ . I] ORADO 



C. P. Gillette. Director and Entomologist Port 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 



0. B, Whipple. Horticulturist Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W. Woodworth. Entomologist Berkeley 



Yv*. II. Voi.k, 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 



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



Postofflce at Hood River, Oregon, under Act 



of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



Cold Storage. — A very instructive ar- 

 ticle giving directions for the erection 

 of a cool storage warehouse appears in 

 this edition, which will be of much 

 interest to a great many growers. It is 

 very evident from past years' experi- 

 ences, and particularly 1917, there is 

 very apt to be a shortage of cars, there- 

 fore it is up to the growers to protect 

 themselves by having the proper storing 

 facilities to prevent the deterioration of 

 apples while awaiting shipment. It is 

 also true that a great many of the ship- 

 ping concerns have cold storage plants 

 wlinst capacity is not sufficient to care 

 for the entire crop of the district where 

 there is a shortage of cars. Conse- 

 quently it seems wise to suggest that the 

 growers should protect themselves to 

 the fullest extent possible. This they 

 can do by creeling cool storage ware- 

 houses, and although the Editor has 

 never seen the Wilson storage ware- 

 house, Ihe Wilson orchard is a very 

 large fine near Boise, and without any 

 doubt his directions for a cool storage 

 plant will be found very practical and 

 advisable. Even when cars are supplied 

 in ample quantities, it is important that 

 the whole crop should not go on the 

 market at once, for the reason thai 

 when the shipments are too heavy the 



markets bee e glutted and prices are 



demoralized, so the grower as well as 

 the association must be protected by 

 sufficient and proper holding capacity 

 for carrying the apples so they wilt 

 keep in first-class condition and nol 

 deteriorate in any way by becoming 

 overripe or scalding. Changes in tem- 

 perature affect the keep of apples more 

 than any other one particular thing, 

 except exceedingly high temperature. 

 "With good cool storage plants or cold 

 storage plants a temperature can be 

 regulated and maintained moderately 

 even. In addition to lliis, during the 

 coining year, with the .shortage of cars 



prevailing, which is very likely, it is 

 going to be necessary for fruit growers 

 to be equipped with considerable excess 

 warehouse capacity or cool storage 

 plants in their own orchards, for the 

 rcoson that those belonging to your 

 shipping organization may not be suffi- 

 cient to care for the whole crop. 



Abuse of Water on Fruit and Trees, 

 by I). F. Fisher, Office of the Fruit Dis- 

 ease Investigations, Department of Agri- 

 culture, is one of the most important 

 articles that has appeared in Better 

 Fruit for a long lime, for the particular 

 reason that il deals with a subject less 

 understood, re the abuse of irrigation 

 on fruit and trees. While growers have 

 been troubled for many years with a 

 disease in some sections called rosette, 

 and in other sections' winter kill or die 

 back, a great many growers have not 

 understood the cause of this disease. 

 Other troubles like Jonathan spot, 

 drouth spot, Baldwin spot and cork rot 

 have been more or less prevalent over 

 the Northwest for a number of years. 

 A number of reasons have been assigned 

 for the cause, but the real causes have 

 not been thoroughly understood by 

 many of the growers. The effect of ex- 

 cessive watering, lack of watering, or 

 too long intervals between watering is 

 in a large measure responsible for these 

 troubles. The article embraces a re- 

 search experiment w T ork carried on by 

 Mr. Fisher for a period of years and is 

 very valuable because he arrives at 

 some very definite conclusions. It is 

 one which every grower should read, 

 because it is very evident that by the 

 proper use of water and other sugges- 

 tions made in this article most of these 

 diseases are troubles that can be elimi- 

 nated and in nearly every case they can 

 be controlled. 



Small Apples. — The prices on 4 and 

 4%-tier apples have been very satisfac- 

 tory this year in nearly all districts, 

 taking into consideration conditions 

 with which marketing concerns have 

 had lo contend with. Bui prices on 

 small apples like 5-tier, and particularly 

 smaller sizes than 5-tier, are not very 

 encouraging and pay the grower very 

 little, if any, profit. While sellers suc- 

 ceeded in getting fair prices for small 

 apples this year, even though no export, 

 il must lie borne in mind that the crop 

 in the Fast was considered very light, 

 especially in New York Slate, so it looks 

 reasonable to assume the crop in the 

 East will be large next year, and the 

 wisest thing for [he fruit grower to do 

 in the West who tins apples lo ship East 

 is to produce as much size as possible 

 by proper pruning and thinning, and 

 keep his apples growing by maintain- 

 ing a good soil moisture condition with 

 sufficient supply of irrigation water 

 throughout the season. 



made very little if any money on very 

 small sizes or ordinary varieties. This 

 is particularly true of the lower grades. 

 It won't take long for any man who can 

 do a little plain arithmetic to find out 

 he could make more money by selling 

 his small sized apples and ordinary 

 varieties, particularly the low grades, to 

 the vinegar factory or to the evaporator. 

 These companies paid pretty fair prices 

 last year. Vinegar apples brought about 

 $8 per ton in most districts, evaporated 

 apples selling in various districts at dif- 

 ferent limes throughout the year all the 

 way from $12 to S18 per ton. Eighteen 

 dollars per Ion is nearly 40 cents per 

 box; adding the cost of packing would 

 be about as follows: Boxes 17 cents, 

 packing 5 cents, paper 7 cents, making 

 and nailing up boxes about 2 cents, 

 association or selling organization 

 charges from 10 to 20 cents, making a 

 total of 81 to 91 cents. So it ought to 

 be very evident you can do your own 

 figuring that these varieties have to sell 

 for 80 to 90 cents per box in order to 

 beat out the evaporator prices. You 

 know they won't do it, if you have your 

 returns and look over your prices. 



Codling Moth. — The fruit grower must 



bear in mind, if we have a large crop in 

 1918, that only (lean fruit will bring 

 good money. Therefore it is up to the 

 grower to spray thoroughly and fre- 

 quently for codling moth. It seems 

 more or less evident from experience 

 and results obtained that in most dis- 

 tricts three sprays are not sufficient; 

 many districts requiring four or five 

 sprays. When the growers followed the 

 good old fashioned method, but rather 

 expensive, of spraying every three 

 weeks for codling moth, then the cod- 

 ling moth was a very negligible trouble. 



This year's prices on small sizes and 

 ordinary varieties should certainly teach 

 a lesson to the fruit grower. If every 

 fruit grower who will take the pains to 

 look over his return sheet carefully and 

 figure out his cost of producing, har- 

 vesting and packing, will find he has 



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