Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



February 



completely slop Ihe work ol' tliu fruit- 

 ing machinery. We desire a proper 

 balance between the two kinds of 

 growth. To maintain it, or even to 

 restore it when it is lacking, usually 

 requires a certain amount of liotli kinds 

 of pruning, heading back and thinning 

 out. The tlesiraljility of the results 

 obtained from mainly lieading back or 

 mainly thinning out in restoring the 

 balance in an unfruitful tree of bearing 

 age depends upon how correctly its 

 present ovei'-vigorous or under-vigor- 

 ous condition is estimated, as well as 

 upon a knowledge of the probable 

 effect of the difTerent pruning practices. 



Cheer for Fruitgrowers 



"When Fruit Men Get Scared" is the 

 title of an article written by James H. 

 Collins, who spent several weeks here 

 last sunmier, appearing in The Coun- 

 try Gentleman of January 1. But the 

 article iiears a message that should be 

 gratifying to all fruit men, of tried 

 districts, and especially cheering to the 

 faithful among the growers of the Hood 

 River Valley. 



Mr. Collins visited the most of the 

 apple districts as well as the citrus 

 belts last year. His opening paragraph 

 shows that he observed conditions 

 pretty closely. He says: 



"The big crop last year in famous 

 winter-fruit sections seemed to be not 

 apples or oranges l)ut meetings. Long 

 before blossoming time the clans l)egan 

 gathering. From the citrus groves of 

 California to those of Porto Rico the 

 growers came together for debate and 

 organization, as well as for ructions 

 and disorganization, and the apple 

 world was in a ferment from the Rogue 

 River Valley of Oregon to tlie Shenan- 

 doah Valley of Virginia." 



In another paragraph he says: 



"So the growers everywhere began 

 holding meetings, criticising odlceis, 

 managers and market methods, with- 

 drawing from old organizations and 

 forming new ones, listening to explana- 

 tions, plans, dreams. One kind of 

 grower, with a clear head, understood 

 that it was the time to hantf on to his 

 interests, even though mortgages and 

 loans made it desperately hard, and 

 with the aid of the banker he hung 

 accordingly. Another type of grower, 

 yielding to gloom and discouragement, 

 talked of letting go, of getting out of 

 fruit into some profitable line, of chop- 

 ping down his trees and raising grain 

 or hay — on five-hundred-dollar land!" 



Then comes the message to growers 

 and shippers and the cheer for the 

 faithful. Fxtracts from the body of 

 Mr. Collins' article are as follows: 



"These are mighty inteiesling times 

 in the fruit industry. On the sui-face, 

 with all the clamor and pessimism, it 

 often looks as though everything were 

 going to pieces. Rut down underneath, 

 the real meaning is reconstruction on a 

 sounder business basis. Old evils in 

 production are being eliminated and 

 broader ideas of marketing are coming 

 in everywhere. The need for organisa- 

 tion at home, where fruit is produced, 



I-"ic.i'RE 52 — A linilj in (he upper j)art of an Italian prune tree. The indi- 

 vidual spurs have had an aliluldanl supply of lisht. Note that not only the 

 individual spurs l)ut .llso the small fruiting limbs are short, stocky* and 

 vigorous. However, it would be desirable to remove a few of the smaller 

 branches to prevent too heavy shading of those lower in the tree 



is clearly seen b\ most growers, be- 

 cause shortcomings are close at hand. 

 The need for organization in the big 

 markets is not so clearly seen, because 

 those markets are far ofl", little under- 

 stood by growers, and the factors that 

 make for success or failure, good prices 

 or bad, are not in evidence to them. 



"Rig crops were a factor in the ruin- 

 ous prices of a year ago; so was war. 



"But it is fairly certain that with bet- 

 ter Lmdeistanding of market conditions 

 by growers and better organization of 

 shipments, there would have been nnich 

 better ijrices. 



"Nine growers in ten believe that low 

 prices are due to glutting of markets. 

 Real market gluts of fruit like winter 

 aiiples, which can be stored and held 

 f(n- months, are much rarer than is 

 commonly supposed, and while citrus 

 fruit cannot be held so long, once it is 

 oil' the tree, it still has a margin of 

 stability that makes it entirely differ- 

 ent from berries and soft fruits, which 

 must be haiiilled (|uickl.\-. 



"Sevent.\ -live i)er cent of all the so- 

 called market gluts of winter fruit. 



with falling prices, are probably price 

 scares instead. They can he prevented 

 by better organization of growers and 

 produce men, and that will come as 

 soon as the operation of price panics is 

 more widel.\ understood. 



"Under normal circumstances, by 

 skilU'ul organization, storage and sales- 

 manship the Xorthwest would probably 

 have made some profit on box apples. 

 But individual growers, under ))ressure 

 of fright or debt, began consigning 

 their fruit to I'^astern markets in coni- 

 ])etition with growers" associations, and 

 in a little while whatever confidence 

 existed was destroyed and prices had 

 dropped to less than freight charges. 



"One of the big Northwestern grow- 

 ers' organizations sent a representative 

 through the Middle West selling apples. 

 He found many towns where box fruit 

 had never been handled and sold lots 

 of three to fen cars in such places. 

 Fruit dealers jKiid association prices 

 and began selling the consumers at 

 moderate margins of profit, to assure 

 sleadx trade all winter. 



("ontinued on page 40 



