Page 22 



BETTER FRUIT 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 

 of Modern Fruit Grow ing and Marketing. 



Published Monthly 

 by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



703 Oregonian Building 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



Fruit Crop Prospects. 



Unprecedented cold weather has un- 

 donbtedly injured almost all fruit plant 

 life in the northwest although the def- 

 inite extent of the injury will not be 

 known until the season is sufficiently 

 advanced for new growth to commence. 

 Stone fruits are believed to have been 

 more seriously injured than apples and 

 pears while cane fruits in many dis- 

 tricts were nipped quite severely above 

 the snow line. 



With apples, which constitute the 

 most important crop grown in the 

 northwest it is natural to conclude that 

 the injury was sufficient to cause a con- 

 siderable reduction in the 1920 crop 

 although this may not prove as serious 

 as was at first thought. According to 

 all precedents the 1920 apple crop, even 

 if there had been no winter-injury, 

 could not be expected to be as large as 

 that of last year as orchards in this 

 territory where soil and other growing 

 conditions and proper cultural methods 

 were pursued, invariably bore heavily. 

 In other words 1919 was the heavy 

 bearing year and the coming season 

 should therefore be expected to pro- 

 duce only a moderate crop. The pear 

 production in 1919 was also very heavy 

 but the tendency of this fruit is to pro- 

 duce more evenly than apples. Reports 

 now seem to indicate that pear trees 

 were seriously damaged. 



The fruiting tips of cane fruits un- 

 doubtedly suffered some damage which 

 will result in a more limited crop on 

 the older plantings. New acreage which 

 was largely covered by the snow will 

 not be much affected and no harm is 

 expected to have resulted to strawber- 

 ries. It is believed therefore that the 

 berry crop will be little less this year 

 than the 1919 output and that it may be 

 considerably larger. 



The outlook for prunes, peaches and 

 cherries is problematical, although if 

 prune trees were only slightly injured 

 there should be a larger crop in the 

 northwest this year than last when the 

 crop was far below normal. 



Reports received to the present time 

 indicate that the situation is serious but 

 far from discouraging and that while 

 the coming season will not see the 

 large production of 1919 it should re- 

 sult in the harvesting of a tonnage that 

 will be fairly normal, considering all 

 contingencies. 



Spraying. 

 The spraying program which should 

 be commenced soon by the progressive 

 fruit grower is the most important as 

 a marketable crop producer of any of 

 the operations in an orchard. No grow- 

 er who wants to make it possible to 

 obtain the maximum income from his 

 orchard can afford to take any chances 



BETTER FRUIT 



in omitting sprays. In the past two 

 years with the big advance in the price 

 of fruit this fact has been driven home 

 to the orchardist more emphatically 

 than ever before. As a result spraying 

 has been done more scientifically, more 

 thoroughly and more generally and re- 

 ports arc to the effect that the largest 

 as well as the cleanest crop of apples 

 ever produced in the northwest was 

 harvested in 1919. 



Spraying is an operation that nuist be 

 done intelligently. It is not sufficient to 

 throw the spray on the trees in any old 

 way trusting to luck that it will "take." 

 The utmost care should be taken in the 

 selection of the materials to accomplish 

 the purpose for which the spray is be- 

 ing used. It should be applied at the 

 right time and the application so di- 

 rected that it will accomplish the maxi- 

 mum results. Those who are not get- 

 ting these results should make a study 

 of the methods of those who are and 

 also consult authorities on the subject. 

 In many instances this means not only 

 better results but economy in material 

 and labor as well. 



In this particular, efficient equipment 

 plays a very important part. In the 

 rapid progress which is being made in 

 the use of sprays and in applying them 

 a grower who fails to keep himself in- 

 formed will discover later that he has 

 lost both time and money by not adopt- 

 ing the improved methods and equip- 

 ment. 



Of late spraying, has to some extent 

 been made much simpler by the use of 

 combination sprays where they will 

 serve a double purpose. For this reason 

 it will be well for growers to consult 

 the diagram and table published in an- 

 other part of this issue. In applying 

 these combination sprays the fruitgrow- 

 er should remember that they must be 

 selected with caution and used for the 

 purposes designated. Map out your 

 spraying program in advance; know 

 what it is necessary for you to do in 

 this regard; the time that it should be 

 done; apply the spray correctly and the 

 results will show for themselves. 



Prunes a la Eastern Prices. 

 A Roseburg, Oregon, lady who was 

 visiting in the east, 3,000 miles away 

 from home, was served four Oregon 

 prunes in a high-class hotel for which 

 she was charged 50 cents, according to 

 a report from the turkey metropolis. 

 Not so bad, after all, when you con- 

 sider that two Oregon hen fruit served 

 in Portland, Oregon, the hub of the 

 state cost anywhere from 35 to 65 

 cents. 



Geographically Speaking. 

 Billie Strandborg, publicity man for 

 the Portland Railway, Light & Power 

 Company, who recently returned from 

 a trip east tells us that New Yorkers 

 think Hood River apples are grown in 

 Washington and that Cleveland people 

 opine that Wenatchee apples are pro- 

 duced in Oregon. If he had inquired 

 in Chicago he might have discovered 

 that the residents of the Windy City 

 think that Tillamook cheese is made in 

 the Hawaiian Islands. It seems that 



February, ip20 



the geography of easterners is still very 

 much mixed notwithstanding the mag- 

 nificent eloquence of Frank Branch 

 Riley. However, geographically speak- 

 ing Libby, McNeil & Libby recenty dis- 

 covered through the operation of the 

 government food act that pears grown 

 and canned in the state of Washington 

 are not grown and canned in California 

 and will so announce next season. 



Pruneizing the United States. 



Robert C. Pauhis, manager and C. I. 

 Lewis, organization manager, respect- 

 ively of the Oregon Growers' associa- 

 tion, have figured out that in order to 

 profitably market the rapidly increasing 

 U. S. prune crop, that each inhabitant 

 must, in the near future consume 3 and 

 one-half pounds of prunes per annum. 

 Up to the present time it hasn't been 

 decided just how this per capita dose 

 of prunes is to be taken — that is 

 whether the allotment must be gor- 

 mandized at one fell swoop or he con- 

 sumed in homeoi)atIiic quantities each 

 morning' for breakfast. But, the fact 

 remains that Messrs. Paulus and Lewis 

 and other authorities on prune crop 

 production have decided that the 

 American people, with what foreign 

 assistance they can get, must take these 

 prunes. 



The campaign to accomplish this re- 

 sult will not be one of coercion, but of 

 persuasion through the channels of na- 

 tional advertising and a much wider 

 distribution. With the plantings al- 

 ready on the Pacific coast the prune 

 crop in the next few years is expected 

 to reach more than 300,000,000 pounds. 



For the Idle Moment. 

 Bees accomplish nothing save as they ^^'o^k 

 together, neither do men. — Hubbard. 



Cultivators of the earth are the most valu- 

 able citizens. They are the most vigorous, the 

 most independent, the most virtuous; and they 

 are tied to their country and wedded to its lib- 

 erty and interests by the most lasting bonds. — 

 Thomas Jefferson. 



Sour soils and sour dispositions are both 

 bad for the farm. Men think that a little 

 sweetening of the soil with lime would pro- 

 duce such good results that the farmer's dis- 

 position might also be sweetened. — Exchange. 



The belief is crystallizing that faith isn't 

 dead in the world yet. Farmers are still ship- 

 ping fruits and vegetables to fly-by-night com- 

 mission merchants, with oftices in their hats 

 and fountain pens and typewriters as capital. 

 — Fruit Trade Journal. 



The Oregon Growers' Cooperative Associa- 

 tion believes that the fruit growers are entitled 

 to a fair profit on their investment, to a fair 

 return for their labor, to an allowance for de- 

 preciation. We believe the middle man and 

 the retailer are entitled to fair profits. The 

 speculator, however, has no place in the mar- 

 keting of food products. — The Oregon Grower. 



That the price of fruit, particularly apples, 

 in the future will only justify the conservative 

 planting of orchards is the opinion of W. J. 

 Green, horticulturist at the Ohio Experiment 

 Station. Mr. Green points out that the enor- 

 mous crop of apples a few years ago really 

 resulted in a loss as the over-production re- 

 duced the price to such an extent that orchard 

 owners could not even pay for the expense of 

 handling the apples. This year with Ohio pro- 

 ducing approximately not more than 30 per 

 cent of an average crop, the price has risen 

 to ?7 and S8 per barrel for apples shipped out 

 of orchards and from 8 to 12 cents a pound 

 for apples retailed in grocery stores. It would 

 not be safe to start extensive planting expect- 

 ing to receive the present high prices. Mr. 

 Green believes, however, that the price of 

 apples in the future will adjust itself profit- 

 ably to the grower Mho sets out orchards con- 

 taining varieties of general commercial im- 

 portance. — Ohio Experiment Station Bulletin. 



