Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



June 



OUR BARN 



IS YOUR 

 WORK SHOP 



This is the most important building on the farm — Ii 

 should therefore be equipped with modern hay and grain 

 unloading tools such as MYERS UNLOADERS, 

 FORKS.SLINGS, PULLEYS and FIXTURES. Th 

 will mean fast unloading service for hay, grain, fodder and similar crops when hauled in on 

 hayrack, for Myers Hay and Grain Unloading Tools are uniformly built, have large capacity, 

 and arc so designed as to permit speedy unloading from the rack into mow or onto a stack. 

 Help will be scarce this year — work will be heavier — time will be money — overcome these handicaps by 

 using Myers Hay Tools to unload your crops. Ask your dealer or write us. Booklet on revest. 



£*--%iJ 



F.E.MYERS &BR0. 



NO. 120 ORANGE ST. 



ASHLAND. OHIO, 



insofar as the s;ip flow is concerned. 

 Let him who is skeptical remove a limb 

 in the dead of winter, and he will be at 

 once convinced of this statement when 

 he beholds the flow of sap that follows. 

 And for that reason I conceive there is 

 sufficient sap activity in these late- 

 starting trees to supply the demands of 

 a few scions whose needs are modest 

 as compared with the total sap flow 

 which lies in reserve for the tree's use 

 during the active period of their .devel- 

 opment. Furthermore, it appears that 

 the scion has well-known powers of 

 "pumping" sap independently of the 

 stump on which it is grafted, and that 

 the stump and roots will respond to the 

 draft created at the top of the scion. 

 This must be so, for the scion has dor- 

 mant life and is seeking every channel 

 to develop its buds, and will, unless 

 retained in almost frigid quarters, com- 

 mence to bud at its natural time. 



As a deduction from what has been 

 said, I would recommend to the luck- 

 less orchardist who has trees of dila- 

 tory habits, to work them over at the 

 precise time he would give his atten- 

 tion to normally behaved trees, say, 

 about April the 15th, allowing a few 

 days for the scion to callous before the 

 period of growth, and then to place the 

 unused grafts in cold storage and later 

 on, or about the loth of June, to employ 

 them in instances where the scions did 

 not grow. By accepting this formula, 

 he will be in a position to take advan- 

 tage of two opportunities for the same 

 work and thereby appreciably reduce 

 his failures, and when successful the 

 period of time required by the trans- 

 formation will give new significance to 

 the declaration that nature works in a 

 mysterious way her wonders to per- 

 form. 



Commercial Prune in the Snake River Valley 



By L. G. Dunn 



MANY features of developing the 

 commercial prune in the Snake 

 River Valley will apply favorably to the 

 Boise Valley or other parts of the state. 

 As local conditions vary so much in the 

 different parts of the Northwest, I will 

 confine myself principally to our ex- 

 perience in developing more than 200 

 acres of Italian prunes on The Swiss 

 Valley Ranch, eleven miles west of 

 Bliss, Idaho. We are located in the 

 Snake River canyon, between the rim- 

 rock and the river, where the river 

 makes a three-mile curve around the 

 ranch. Beginning at the east side, 

 flowing southwest, then flowing to the 

 right until it flows directly north, to- 

 ward King Hill. 



This land in the bend of the river is 

 known as the Swiss Valley Ranch, 

 about three-quarters mile wide. The 

 ranch is divided onto two principal 

 flats or levels. The lower flat, where 

 we have about 100 acres of Italian 

 prunes is about 00 to 80 feet above the 

 river. On the upper flat we have more 

 than another 100 acres Italian prunes; 

 it is about 250 feet above the river. 

 Then the rimrock on the east side of 

 the ranch is about 100 feet higher, 

 nearly all a perpendicular wall, which 

 shades over a great portion of the or- 

 chard quite late in the morning, making 

 a great protection during late spring 

 frosts. The air drainage is generally 



Bliss. Idaho 



good. The soil is rather a coarse silty 

 or lava ash sandy nature, rich in about 

 all the soil elements that go to make 

 ideal fruit land, except humus and 

 nitrogen, which is found deficient in 

 nearly all the new soils of the North- 

 west. This deficiency we are trying to 

 supply by raising alfalfa, clover and 

 other legumes between the trees. Some- 

 times plowing under a green cover 

 crop. 



The first planting of prunes began in 

 the spring of 1013. The first stock of 

 trees, 20,000, were all the best stock we 

 could get, yearlings four to six feet. 

 The inspector did not throw out a 

 single tree from the 20,000. A few 

 trees purchased were three to four feet, 

 and it might be well to say along this 

 line that, as these three to four-foot 

 trees were about two-thirds the size of 

 the four to six-foot trees, they are still 

 maintaining that comparative standard; 

 and from all appearances at this time 

 they will still maintain that same com- 

 parative standard in the production of 

 fruit. It never pays to plant anything 

 but first-class stock. We have also 

 noticed that the early-spring planting 

 got the best results on the growth of 

 the trees up to this time. Fall planting 

 has not proved as successful as spring 

 planting. 



Clean cultivation and growing crops 

 between the trees are showing about 



equal results, so far as the growth of 

 Hie prune trees are concerned, up to 

 this lime. Where clover or alfalfa is 

 grown right up under the young trees 

 they require a great deal of water, and 

 then do not do so well, though I think 

 they will be benefited in the future by 

 having had this cover crop there. On 

 some parts of the orchard we have 

 grown corn between the trees for three 

 years in succession, on land that had 

 clovei- between the trees the two first 

 years. On this portion of the orchard 

 are the very best trees. However, we 

 would not advise planting corn three 

 years in succession on any land. 



On the other portion of the orchard 

 we have been raising clover, alfalfa, 

 potatoes, beans and carrots, etc. Other 

 portions are clean cultivated, while 

 certain other portions are so rocky that 

 we do not try to do anythinkg with it 

 except to irrigate it. But that part is 

 not doing so well. Thorough cultiva- 

 tion is getting the best results through- 

 out the valley. 



Pruning. — The first year when the 

 prunes were first planted, we cut the 

 switches back to about thirty inches. 

 Second spring the trees were well cut 

 back again, after that just enough 

 pruning to keep the trees balanced. 

 Owing to the strong prevailing winds 

 from the west, most of the pruning is 

 done on the east side. As a rule prune 

 trees do not require much pruning, 

 though a little pruning will always help. 



Irrigation. — Our only rule is to irri- 

 gate any part of the orchard when it 

 needs it and as much as it needs, regard- 

 less of when it was previously watered, 

 or the number of irrigations it has 

 already had in the season. A part of 

 the orchard where there is alfalfa or 

 clover growing all around the trees, we 

 sometimes irrigate ten times during the 

 season. Other portions, where clean 

 cultivated, only two or three times. 

 There are two one-acre patches of prune 

 trees above the ditches that are now 

 five years old that have never been irri- 

 gated. These trees are growing just 

 about as well as those that have been 

 irrigated regularly. We have practiced 

 considerable late fall or winter irriga- 

 tion with very good results. Especially 

 if the fall and winter is rather dry and 

 cold it is of very much benefit, and in 

 our valley it never does any harm. 



The oldest trees are now five years 

 old, and over a greater portion of the 

 fields we have developed a very fine 

 young commercial prune orchard. Last 

 spring, 1917, twelve or fifteen thousand 

 of the oldest trees bloomed and set on 

 a heavy crop of prunes, but, like most 

 all the young prune trees of the North- 

 west, they nearly all fell off before 

 they matured. The cause of this heavy 

 shedding has been a mystery to the 

 horticultural experts, as well as to the 

 prune growers. On The Swiss Valley 

 Ranch, it is our opinion the heavy shed- 

 ding of the prunes was caused by the 

 unfavorable climatic conditions the 

 past three years, as follows: The win- 

 ter of 1914 and 1915 were very dry, no 

 snow, and quite cold, followed by a dry, 

 hot summer, with a shortage of water 

 for irrigation. Winter of 1915 and 1916 

 rather dry and cold in early part of the 



