Page 1 6 



bettp:r fruit 



September 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER, OREGON 



Official Organ of TI19 Nortluvest Fruit Growers' Association 

 A Moiitlilr Illustrated Magazine Published in the 

 Interest of Modem Fruit Growing and Marketing 



Alt Communications Should Be Addressed and Remittances 

 Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Pnblishinp; Corapanv 



E. H. SHEPARD, Editor and Publisher 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON 



C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist Corvallis 



H. S. Jackson. Pathologist Corvallis 



H. F. Wilson, Entomologist Corvallis 



WASHINGTON 



Dr. A. L. Melander. Entomologist Pullman 



O. M. Morris. 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 



E, P. Taylor. Horticulturist Grand Junction 



IDAHO 



W. H. Wicks. Horticulturist Moscow 



W. S. Thomber, Horticulturist Lemston 



UTAH 



Dr. E. D. Ball. Director and Entomologist Logan 



MONTANA 



O. B. Whipple. Horticulturist Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W. Woodworth. Entomologist Berkeley 



W. H. Volck. Entomologist Watsonville 



Leon D. Batchelor. Horticulturist Riverside 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 

 R. M. Winslow. Provincial Horticulturist Victoria 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE; 



In the United States. $l.on per year in advance 



Canada and foreign, including postage, $1.50 



AD"VERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION 



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



Postofflce at Hood River. Oregon, under Ac^t 



of Congress of March 3. 1879. 



The Apple Crop of the United States, 

 the Northwest in Particular. — Men who 

 are engased in the ajiple business and 

 others who are not, but who are well 

 posted, remember the boom that ex- 

 isted in the Northwest a few year ago, 

 in fact throughout the United States. 

 The boom collapsed in 1912. Since that 

 time there has been no extensive 

 planting of apple trees anywhere in 

 the United States, with the possible ex- 

 ception of some promotion work being 

 done in the State of Virginia. In the 

 meantime a large number of peojile 

 have found out that much land has 

 been planted to apples where neither 

 good varieties or quality can be pro- 

 duced, therefore a large amount of this 

 acreage is being dug up, not only 

 throughout the Northwest but in other 

 sections as well. The planting of 1912, 

 in 1920, will all be in bearing, being 

 eight years of age at that time; there- 

 fore the maximum of production could 

 be expected in 1920. As a matter of 

 fact it is the editor's opinion that the 

 maximum production will be reached 

 before that time, iirobably in 1918, for 

 the reasons, as already indicated, that 

 large acreages are being dug up that 

 are not adapted to fruit growing and 

 are being planted to something the dis- 

 trict can produce to advantage. In ad- 

 dition to this many varieties of apples 

 have been planted in districts where 

 the climate or soil conditions are not 

 suitable. For instance, Spitzenbergs 

 have been planted quite extensively in 

 some districts. It is now being ascer- 

 tained that in a great many districts 

 that Spitzenberg trees are susceptible 

 to blight. This is true more particu- 

 larly in warm sections, where the 

 blight has already done an immense 

 damage, not only to pear trees but to 

 Spitzenbergs. Figuring on reasonable 



prices for apples during the next five 

 years or so, many are finding that in 

 some sections they can make more 

 money by growing alfalfa, engaging in 

 the dairy business, raising bogs or en- 

 gaging in some other line of farming 

 than they can out of the apple business. 

 Therefore it looks very much to the 

 editor as if the decreasing acreage dur- 

 ing the next two or three years will be 

 rapid and that the maximum produc- 

 tion will probably be reached in 1918. 



Varieties for the Northwest. — The 



number of varieties of apples in which 

 the Northwest has shown extreme su- 

 periority in all respects are compara- 

 tively few, therefore the Northwest 

 will do well to figure out for the dif- 

 ferent locations which varieties they 

 will be justified in retaining, and what 

 they ought to either dig up or graft 

 over. Among the ijrincipal varieties 

 that look good at the present time, in 

 accordance with their time of ripen- 

 ing, are: Gravenstein, King, Jonathan, 

 Spitzenberg, Delicious, Winter Banana, 

 Rome Beauty, Ortley, Winesap and 

 Newtowns. In the minds of some there 

 is some question about the future of 

 the .Jonathan, for the reason that this 

 variety does very well in many other 

 states in the Union. In fact it is grown 

 in many states, whereas the other vari- 

 eties named are superior in the North- 

 west and can be produced in only a 

 few states in localities which are 

 limited. 



Apple Packing; House. — Every grower 



who has not already a good packing 

 house on his place should erect a shed 

 or cover so he can keep a good quan- 

 tity picked ahead, under cover, so as to 

 keep the packers going steadily during 

 rainy days that frequently occur dur- 

 ing the harvesting season. A shed an- 

 swering this purpose can be built at 

 small cost. Frequently many growers 

 who have sheds now need additional 

 room. One of the best conveniences 

 for this purpose and one of the cheap- 

 est is a .good sized tent about 30x40 

 feet, which affords a splendid place in 

 which to i)ut the grading machine and 

 packers, shutting otT the wind and 

 keeping out the cold and rain. These 

 tents can be ordered from a tent manu- 

 facturer, any size you want. The price 

 of a 30xl0-foot tent, according to the 

 ply, would cost somewhere from -*()0 

 to »m. The cost of lumber for the 

 framework would probably not ex- 

 ceep .$10 or •fil.'i, so for from .$7.5 to 

 100 a man can fix up a tent that will 

 accommodate a grading machine and 

 packers and take care of the entire 

 day's packing after being packed, 

 which is usually hauled away regu- 

 larly each day. 



ment of Botany and Plant Pathology, 

 Experiment Station, Corvallis. The 

 next four sections are by experts con- 

 nected with the same institution, the 

 second being a "Study of Fruit Buds," 

 by an eminent authority, E. .1. Krans. 

 The third section is "Pruning of Young 

 Trees," by Professor C. I. Lewis, who 

 has a reputation as a horticulturist, sci- 

 entifically and theoretically, according 

 to Western methods, unsurijassed by 

 any horticulturist in the United States. 

 The fourth section is devoted to 

 "Pruning of the Bearing Pear Tree," 

 by Professor V. R. Gardner, who has 

 given some of the most valuable in- 

 struction to Northwestern growers on 

 this sub.ject of any man who has writ- 

 ten or talked about it. The fifth sec- 

 tion, "Pruning the Bearing Prune 

 Tree," is also by Professor V. R. Gard- 

 ner. Each one of these articles is writ- 

 ten in the briefest language possible 

 and each illustrated in a very thorough 

 and scientific way with splendid illus- 

 trations. 



Cull Apples. — Perhaps no better ad- 

 vice can be given the grower in refer- 

 ence to cull apples, which contain 

 scab, codling moth, San Jose scale or 

 any pest which can be communicated, 

 than to advise him to put them in sacks 

 as fast as they are gathered up, tying 

 up the end of the sacks and haul them 

 to the vinegar factory promptly. By 

 leaving them around such diseases or 

 insects as they may contain remain to 

 infest the crop next year. This is par- 

 ticularly true in reference to codling 

 moth, which will crawl out and go in 

 the cracks of the packing house, next 

 year producing a large crop of worms 

 to bore the ci-op full of holes. The 

 editor has done this for several years. 

 This in connection with spraying has 

 reduced the crop of wormy and stung 

 apples regularly each year. Proper 

 spraying anil getting rid of the cull 

 apples promptly each year will sooner 

 or later result in the crop being al- 

 most entirely free from many pests. 

 During the thinning season the thin- 

 ners only reported five worms and 

 stings in the editor's orchard in a crop 

 of about 5,000 boxes. 



The editor desires to call attention 



cflitoiially to the article bet/inning in 

 this issue on pruning, which will be 

 continued during the next five or six 

 issues of "Better Fruit." The first sec- 

 tion appearing in this issue is devoted 

 to "Plant Phyisology as Related to 

 Pruning," by W. M. Atwood, Depart- 



The Apple Crop of the Northwest. — 



Several years ago, at the National 

 Apple Show at Spokane, some railroad 

 officials and newsjiaper men in com- 

 pilin.g statistics of the acreage made a 

 prophesy as to the (piantity of apples 

 the Northwest would produce. It was 

 stated at that time, as nearly as the 

 editor i-emembers, five years ago, that 

 in 191.") the ajjple crop of the North- 

 west would be .')0,000 cars and in 1920 

 would be I'lO.OOO cars. The editor at 

 that lime stated he did not believe the 

 Northwest crop in 191.") would exceed 

 l."),(IO() cars. 191.5 is iiere and accord- 

 in.g to the consensus of conservative 

 estimates it is the general opinion now 

 that the crop will be somewhere in the 

 neighborhood of 12,000 cars, maybe 

 less, instead of 50,000 cars, as stated by 

 the various railroad officials and news- 

 paper men. 



