August, iprp 



BETTER FRUIT 



WellBuiltStorageHouseValuablelnvestment 



THE building of apple storage 

 houses in the Northwest is being 

 engaged in on a larger scale this year 

 than at any other period in the his- 

 tory of the fruit industry in this sec- 

 tion. In almost every apple raising 



An apple storage house built along good lines. 



Note tile intake doors near the ground level, 



the slat doors above and the numerous and 



large outlet flues. 



district storage houses are being built, 

 and interest in proper construction to 

 secure the best results from common 

 or air cooled storage is keen. In last 



month's issue, Better Fruit published 

 an article written by F. W. Allen, As- 

 sistant Horticulturist in Fruit Storage 

 Investigations of the Bureau of Mar- 

 kets of the United States Agricultural 

 Department that attracted widespread 

 attention among western fruitgrowers 

 and fruitmen. 



Mr. Allen has taken a deep interest 

 in the matter of securing the kind of 

 construction in apple storage houses 

 that will secure the best results and 

 incidentally save growers many dol- 

 lars. Many mistakes have been made 

 in the past in the construction of these 

 houses owing to lack of information 

 and the idea that most any kind of a 

 storage house would do. This idea 

 however is becoming a thing of the 

 past as is shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustration of the latest type of 

 storage house recently completed in 

 a Washington apple growing district. 

 It will be seen at a glance that the 

 construction of this house is complete 

 and substantial, and that it should 

 prove a valuable investment to its 

 owners. 



Fertilizing and Topping Strawberry Plants 



By Gordon G. Brown, Horticulturist, Hood River Experiment Station 



THE strawberry harvesting season 

 is over and the grower must turn 

 his attention once more to problems of 

 fertilization, cultivation, topping, irri- 

 gation, etc. 



A good deal of data has already 

 been collected regarding the use of 

 commercial fertilizers for this crop 

 as far as spring applications arc con- 

 cerned. Little well established dalu 

 is yet available bearing upon the sub- 

 ject of applications after the straw- 

 berry harvest. However, the informa- 

 tion thus far collected seems to support 

 the idea that applications put on after 

 the berry harvest give larger yields 

 and firmer berries than applications 

 in early spring or at blooming time. 

 This applies especially to the use of 

 nitrate of soda and sulfate of am- 

 monia, both of which are high in their 

 readily available nitrogen content. 



The aim in this brief article is to 

 help the grower judge this matter for 

 himself. I would recommend, where 

 plants are somewhat lacking in vigor, 

 a condition which may have been 

 brought about by an insufficient 

 amount of soil fertility, lack of irri- 

 gation, cultivation or by advanced age, 

 that a small application of nitrate of 

 soda be put on soon and thoroughly 

 lioed in. One hundred and fifty to 

 two hundred pounds per acre would 

 be sufficient if properly applied. In 

 some cases 100 pounds per acre could 

 be considered sufficient. 



This may be followed by another 

 application next spring of a simihw 

 amount. Whether or not this second 

 application is necessary would depend 

 largely upon the response secured 

 from the first. The great problem thai 



confronts the berry grower is to get 

 a sufficiently large crop to insure fi- 

 nancial success. This means many 

 blossoms maturing into large fruit. On 

 the other hand, unless great care is 

 exercised in fertilization, especially 

 with nitrate there is a danger from 

 soft berries of poor shipping quality. 

 During a short season when extremely 

 hot weather prevails, berries thus 

 grown do not stand up well. How- 

 ever, there are few cases where at 

 least one application of such fertilizer 

 will not pay, and as already suggested 

 the information at hand appears to 

 favor applications after berry harvest. 

 The evidence supporting this is not 

 final however. 



Another problem upon which tho 

 station is working is that regarding 

 the best time of topping and irrigat- 

 ing. Some growers withhold topping 

 from two weeks to a month after the 

 end of the berry harvest. Others top 

 the plants immediately and continue 

 irrigation. Several growers claim to 

 have checked up this matter pretty 

 closely and prefer the latter plan. In 

 no case allow the plants to dry out. 



The Walnut as a Profitable 

 Dooryard Tree 



By E. C. Apperson. McMinnville. Oregon 



MY first experience with the wal- 

 nut tree dates back about twenty 

 years, when we purchased two lots 

 in the city having a total area of lOOx 

 120 feet. Mrs. Ajjperson at that time 

 requested that the shade trees be 

 chestnut and black walnut trees in our 

 parking strip, and the agent of the 

 Oregon Nursery Company who called 



Page II 



upon us and entered our order for 

 these trees, insisted that we include 

 in the order one English walnut tree. 

 We accepted his suggestion and pur- 

 chased a seedling tree, which we 

 planted in our dooryard. It was only 

 a few years, I think not more than 

 four or five, until this English wal- 

 nut tree began bearing, and it has 

 borne continuously each year since, 

 each succeeding crop being larger 

 liian the previous year. 



The success of this one tree gave 

 me considerable encouragement in the 

 culture of English walnuts, and some 

 ten or eleven years after the original 

 planting, Mr. Payne, of California, 

 came through the valley and I had him 

 top graft Ihe black walnuts that were 

 in our parking strip into Vrooman 

 Franquettes, since which time our 

 trees have produced nearly enough 

 revenue to pay the faxes on our home 

 property. We have quite a large com- 

 fortable home and the taxes on this 

 properly at the present time are ap- 

 proximately .$115 per year. 



Upon our dooryard lots above re- 

 ferred to we have one seedling tree 

 about twenty years old, and four black 

 walnut trees, top grafted in the Fran- 

 quelte variety of English walnut of 

 the same age, in which the top grafts 

 are now about ten years of age, and 

 we harvested in the year 1918, 454 

 pounds from these five trees. The 

 seedling tree alone produced 209 

 pounds, the greater portion of which 

 my daughter sold at 27 cents per 

 pound, while some of the Franquettes 

 she sold at 32 cents per pound, so 

 if we had marketed all the nuts 

 grown on our parking strip and 

 dooryard, we would have realized ap- 

 proximately $134. This is the largest 

 yield we have ever had, and also the 

 highest price we have ever received 

 for the nuts. 



Some few years ago I made a state- 

 ment before the Walnut Growers' As- 

 sociation of what my trees were then 

 doing, and introduced the slogan, "Let 

 your shade trees pay your taxes," and 

 I am pleased to say that I still believe 

 this is a good slogan to follow, and if 

 every family would place a few Eng- 

 lish walnut trees around their door- 

 yard, either in the city or country, it 

 would go a long ways towards paying 

 their taxes. The walnut business I 

 think is developing rapidly, and the 

 possibilities of it are now being fully 

 realized by the Oregon Agricultural 

 College and the progressive people of 

 our stale. 



$1,600 From IVz Acres of Loganberries. 

 In showing what loganberries are 

 doing for the growers in the Salem 

 district this year, the return to one 

 grower can be cited. D. L. Hopkins 

 has a patch of these berries about an 

 acre and a half in extent from which 

 he will harvest ten tons of fruit. At 

 the prevailing prices of eight to nine 

 cents a pound which growers are re- 

 ceiving, Mr. Hopkins will get a gro.ss 

 return of .$1,600 for his berries. The 

 patch was planted about five years ago 

 and commenced bearing when it was 

 two years old. 



