Page i i 



BETTER FRUIT 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



Official Organ of The Northwest Fruit Growers' Association 



a Mi [rated Magazine Published In the 



rest of Modern l-mlt Growing ami Marketing 

 All Communications Should Be Addressed ami Remittances 

 m is payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



II - i m I lUdlng, Portland, Oregon 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON 



C. I. Lewis. Horticulturist Corvallis 



WASHINGTON 



It. A. L. Melander, Entomologist Pullman 



ii M Morris. Horticulturist Pullman 



W. S. TUornber. 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, Entomolodst Berkeley 



W. H. Volcfc. 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 April 22, 1918, at the 



Postofflce at Portland, Oregon, under Act 



of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



Advertising the Apple. — In this issue 

 we present to our readers a very inter- 

 esting article, "Northwestern Box Ap- 

 ples and Salt Mackerel," by Dwight L. 

 Woodruff, district manager of the Apple 

 Growers' Association of Hood River in 

 New York. During the past few months 

 Mr. Woodruff has been afforded some 

 excellent opportunities for studying 

 market condifi ors. The subject of ad- 

 vertising is one f! at is little understood 

 by many fruit Towers. In California 

 the growers of cilrus fruits and the 

 raisin growers are fully appreciative of 

 what advertising has done. Take up 

 any of the national publications and 

 you will see full page advertisements of 

 raisins, and during the past few years 

 the raisin industry has been put on a 

 stabilized basis and is bringing the 

 growers splendid net returns. Some 

 years ago the loganberry growers were 

 unable to market their crop. With a 

 small fund of not more than $1,000, 

 which they spent in advertising, they 

 succeeded in moving the crop, and the 

 demand for loganberries, canned, dried, 

 and loganberry juice, has become so 

 great and such splendid prices realized, 

 that the loganberry industry is fast be- 

 coming a very important one in the 

 Northwest. A few years ago the walnut 

 growers of California were receiving 

 poor profits — the growers were low- 

 spirited; their groves were neglected, 

 and the result was small, scrubby, un- 

 attractive looking nuts. The California 

 Walnut Growers' Association determined 

 to emulate the methods of the California 

 Fruit Growers' Exchange, which handles 

 citrus fruits. A big advertising cam- 

 paign was carried on, with the result 

 that today the California nuts are bring- 

 ing very high prices — the industry is 

 stimulated, and the walnut industry is 

 bringing to the growers big returns. 



Elbert Hubbard once wrote a defini- 

 tion of advertising: "Advertising is the 

 education of the public as to who you 



BETTER FRUIT 



are, where you are, and what you have 

 to offer in the way of skill, talent or 

 commodity. The only man who should 

 not advertise is the man who has noth- 

 ing to offer tlic world in the way of 

 commodity or service." 



A couple of years ago a meeting was 

 held in Spokane during one of the 

 National Apple Shows, consisting of 

 representatives from Oregon, Washing- 

 ton, Idaho and Montana, to discuss the 

 advisability of a general advertising 

 campaign to advertise Northwestern 

 box apples. This idea did not meet 

 with the approval of all of the apple 

 districts of the Northwest, but many of 

 the districts have carried on splendid 

 individual advertising campaigns. The 

 Northwestern Fruit Exchange has spent 

 large sums in advertising the Skookum 

 Brand. The "Y" Brand, which is put 

 out by the Yakima Fruit District Asso- 

 ciation, is well known throughout the 

 Eastern states, through a good advertis- 

 ing campaign. In 1916 Hood River in- 

 creased its advertising fund, which met 

 with splendid success. 



Advertising is necessary to increase 

 the demand for any food commodity. 

 It has proved to be successful for North- 

 western apples, so that every fruit 

 grower should be willing to spend a 

 certain sum per box to create a greater 

 consumption, which means better prices. 

 Mr. Woodruff urges advertising not 

 simply as Wenatchee, Yakima or Hood 

 Riverj but advertising them as "North- 

 western Apples," and he cites California 

 as an example. It is through advertis- 

 ing that the by-product business of the 

 Northwest is doing so much for the fruit 

 industry — that they have been able to 

 make more money out of the discarded 

 fruit than is realized for the first-class 

 product. It is certainly time that the 

 fruit growers realized the value of ad- 

 vertising to create a wider demand, 

 which means better prices. 



June 



mark will be reached. Throughout the 

 country millions of people are reducing 

 their consumption of wheal flour to the 

 barest minimum — some households have 

 used no wheat flour for months. The 

 sacrifice is very little when we think of 

 what the soldiers are doing ami the tre- 

 mendous sacrifices the people of Europe 

 have been called on to make, and we 

 urge that every reader of Betteb Fruit 

 will reduce the consumption of Hour to 

 the barest minimum, or do without it 

 entirely, so as to relieve the sniveling of 

 our Allies in Europe. 



Saving the Wheat. — In each issue of 

 BrcTTEn Fruit we aim to publish cook- 

 ing recipes that will assist our readers 

 to prepare palatable dishes so as to 

 save the flour, sugar and meat. The 

 wheat shortage is becoming more ser- 

 ious, and so great is the European de- 

 mand for flour that the Food Adminis- 

 tration is urging farmers not to hold 

 wheat of their last harvest for the seed- 

 ing of their next crop, except in a few 

 states where this is absolutely neces- 

 sary — where the period of harvesting 

 winter wheat overlaps the period of 

 planting. It has long been a practice 

 to hold over wheat for seed, but with 

 the exception of a few sections this is 

 not necessary. There has never been 

 such an urgent need for wheat, and 

 every bushel that can be put into action 

 within the next few months will play 

 an important part in the war. Each 

 bushel of wheat, at the present rate of 

 consumption, would provide bread for 

 at least one of our Allied soldiers until 

 the next crop is harvested. There is 

 every indication of a bumper crop — the 

 largest ever grown, if weather condi- 

 tions continue favorable. The object 

 of the Government was to produce a 

 billion bushels, and with the outlook at 

 the present time it is very probable this 



It is about seven years ago that the 



first apple grading machine was first 

 introduced in the Northwest. Since 

 that time many new makes have been 

 manufactured, some firms have discon- 

 tinued, but each in their time have 

 given pretty good satisfaction, but new 

 improvements are continually being 

 added. The grading machines that are 

 being placed on the market now are 

 giving excellent satisfaction, many 

 claiming that their machine will grade 

 every variety of fruit without bruising. 

 Growers have found by actual experi- 

 ence that by using grading machines in 

 the packing house it means a saving of 

 from six to ten cents per box, and in 

 addition the fruit is graded more uni- 

 formly to size. By the old style method, 

 when the fruit was graded by the box, 

 the worker tried to do as many boxes 

 per day as possible, and in many in- 

 stances the work was not done prop- 

 erly, and the packer who is packing by 

 the box will not take the time to sort 

 out the apples that are not up to grade, 

 and the result was very often a poor 

 pack. This year it will be necessary for 

 growers to equip their packing house 

 with every possible labor-saving device, 

 and any grower who has once used a 

 grading machine would not be without 

 it if iTcost twice the sum. This year 

 much of the work of harvesting will be 

 done by women and girls. In many 

 districts the schools are suspended for 

 one or two weeks to enable the growers 

 to harvest their crops without loss. We 

 would strongly urge every grower who 

 has not already a good fruit grading 

 machine to lose no time in sending for 

 catalog or price lists, and to purchase 

 early in the season the machine that 

 seems best suited to his requirements. 



Mr. Benjamin Wallace Douglass, Trev- 

 lac, Indiana, has recently published, 

 through the Federal Publishing Com- 

 pany of Indianapolis, a most interesting 

 and valuable book, "Orchard and Gar- 

 den." For many years Mr. Douglass has 

 been preaching the doctrine of better 

 fruit and better gardens, and it is with 

 the hope that in publishing this book it 

 will prove a safe guide to the beginner. 

 The last few chapters are devoted to 

 flowers and shrubbery. 



The first box of California cherries 

 was auctioned May 1st, by the Ameri- 

 can Central Fruit Auction Company of 

 St. Louis, for the benefit of the Red 

 Cross. Bidding was brisk— the box 

 changing hands several times, and more 

 than $1,000 was realized. 



