BETTER FRUIT 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON — C. I. Lewis. Hortitniltunst. Corvallls. 



WASHINGTON — Dr. A. L. Melander. Entomologist: 

 O. M. Morris, Horticulturist; W. S. Thomber. Horticul- 

 turist. I*ullmaD. 



COLORADO — C. P. Gillette. Director and Entomologist: 

 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. BaU. Director and Entomologist, 

 Madison. 



MONTANA— O. B. IrMiIpple. Horticulturist. Bozeman, 



CALIFORNIA — C. W. Woodworth. Entomologist. Berke- 

 ley: W. H. Volcli. Entomolofrist. Watsonville; Leon D. 

 Batchelor. Horticulturist. RlTcrside. 



INDIANA— H. S. Jaclison. Pathologist. Lafayette. 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern, Progressive Fruit Growing 



and Marketing. 



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Entered as second-class matter April 22, 1918, 



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the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



"N^OLUME XIV 



Portland, Oregon, August 1, 1919 



Number 2 



Harvesting and Preparing Prunes for Evaporation 



By C. I. Lewis, F. R. Brown and A. F. Barss, of the Oregon Agricultural College Experiment Station, Division of Horticulture. 



DLRLNG the summer of 1911 the 

 Division of Horticulture con- 

 ducted a prune survey of the 

 state. Tliis survey covered nine coun- 

 ties and involved a study of seven 

 hundred prune orcliards. It revealed 

 the fact that there was a great varia- 

 tion in the methods and types of build- 

 ings used in the evaporation of 

 prunes. 



Since 1911 very little progress has 

 been made in standardizing prunes. 

 The only standard used in the state at 

 the present time for prunes is that of 

 weight, which is based upon the num- 

 ber of prunes to the pound. The Cal- 

 ifornia prune growers, wide awake to 

 the needs of the hour, are making 

 efforts to improve the products which 

 they offer the world's markets. 



We of the Northwest should do 

 much more than we have done in the 

 past along these lines. What do we 

 mean by standardizing the prune? 

 Simply adopting a degree of excel- 

 lence which it must attain in order to 

 be marketable. This will mean that 

 the methods employed will in all cases 

 be essentially alike. 



Prune growers should study . very 

 carefully the cost of producing and 

 evaporating prunes and should con- 

 duct their business as economically as 

 is advisable for the production of a 

 high-grade product. Frequently, for 

 over a period of five years, fruit will 

 produce unusually high profits. Ai 

 such times growers become extrava- 

 gant, careless in their methoils, and 

 are not ready to meet periods of de- 

 pression or lower prices. 



Harvesting. 

 In order to have a high-grade evap- 

 orated product, it is essential that the 

 fresh product also be of a higli grade. 

 It is impossible to take inferior prunes 

 and so evaporate them as to make a 

 first-chiss product. Much of the qual- 

 ity of the product, therefore, will de- 

 pend upon the time of harvesting and 

 the methods employed. Too many 

 growers have formed the habit of al- 

 lowing many pickers to shake the 

 trees; or of sending some unusuall.\ 

 strong man, no matter how careless he 

 may be, through the orchard to do the 

 shaking. This practice results in the 



harvesting of a large amount of unripe 

 fruit. 



Shaking. 



There seems to be no common prac- 

 tice followed among all growers in 

 harvesting. Some refrain entirely from 

 shaking until the last picking with the 

 idea of harvesting only the ripe fruit. 

 Whiie there is much merit in this sys- 

 tem, it has the drawback of allowing 

 a considerable amount of fruit to be- 

 come overripe. The tendency seems 

 to be to pick the smaller plantings 

 more frequently than the larger ones. 

 This is due to the impossibility at 

 times of getting over large areas fre- 

 quently. 



The most common practice followed 

 is that of three pickings, shaking the 

 trees for the last two. It must be 

 borne in mind, however, that the fin- 

 est prunes are secured where it is pos- 

 sible to pick the fruit frequently. In 

 this way one is more likely to secure 

 only ripe fruit. Our survey showed 

 us that the average time of maturity 

 for Italian prunes over a period of 

 years in the Willamette Valley was 



Illustration showing 44year-oId prune orchard in the 

 Willamette Valley. Oregon, which is still bearing a 

 good crop. High-headed type of tree. 



from September 10 to October 5. In 

 recent years, however, there has been 

 a tendency on the part of a large num- 

 ber of growers to start the harvesting 

 unusually early, generally from the 

 first to the sixth of September, or 

 about ten days in advance of the nor- 

 mal season. This tendency has been 

 brought about by the feeling that the 

 early harvesting might mean less dam- 

 age from rains later in the season. 

 This early harvesting, however, has 

 necesitated a great deal of shaking. 

 While we do not reconmiend doing 

 away with shaking entirely, we do ad- 

 vocate delaying the season to the point 

 where a very gentle shake before each 

 picking will supply plenty of fruit. If 

 growers organize their work so as to 

 pick frequently, and there is during 

 the period a moderate amount of wind, 

 practically no shaking will be needed 

 until late in the season. 



Picking Too Early. 



The season of 1912 should have 

 taught many growers an important les- 

 son. The harvesting that year was 

 started early and at the end of the 

 season after most of the growers had 

 resorted to very vigorous shaking or 

 clubbing, there were still many prunes 

 scattered throughout the trees. A ma- 

 joiity of the pickers had finished 

 their work by September 25, which is 

 10 days in advance of a normal sea- 

 son. A number of orchards were vis- 

 ited on October 2 and the trees ex- 

 amined for fruit. Not a single prune 

 was found still hanging to the trees, 

 although there were many on the 

 ground, indicating that they could not 

 be shaken off at the last picking, 

 ("learly the crop of 1912 was harvested 

 too early and the loss to the growers 

 of Oregon amounted to thousands of 

 dollars. 



As fruit matures many chemical 

 changes take place as regards tannin, 

 acids, starches, and sugar. The sugar 

 accumulates very rapidly during the 

 last few days of maturity. Sugar is 

 very desirable in the Italian prune. It 

 means maturity of fruit and heavier 

 fruit, a greater percentage of dried 

 fruit secured from fresh fruit, a short- 

 ening of the evaporation period, and 

 the production of a much more desir- 

 able product. 



