Paf;t- 22 



BETTER FRUIT 



April, i()20 



BETTER FRUIT 



An Illiisliatod Magazine Diviilcil ti> the liilcrcsts 



of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing. 



Published Monthly 



hy 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



703 Oregonian Building 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



Why Not Confer? 



It is proposed that tlie various large 

 fruit handling organizations of the 

 Northwest hold a conference for the 

 purpose of discussing matters in rela- 

 tion to fruit marketing that are of im- 

 portance to both grower and shipper. 

 The main object of this conference 

 would be for the purpose of making 

 an agreement to establish a burean of 

 information or a system by which 

 each of these organizations would sup- 

 ply daily reports of the movement of 

 fruit shipments that are being distrib- 

 uted from Northwest points. Other 

 matters would no doubt be taken up at 

 such a conference that would result in 

 beneficial action. 



Taking into consideration the handi- 

 cap under which most of these organi- 

 zations have been working during the 

 past season, and other seasons for that 

 matter, in competing for sales in the 

 big markets, it would appear that if 

 such an agreement could be made that 

 there would be many advantages. The 

 kind of fruit shipments that this sys- 

 tem would more particularly apply to 

 would be apples, the tonnage of which 

 in the Northwest is increasing so rapid- 

 ly that a cooperative scheme of market- 

 ing, if only on a limited basis, is very 

 essential. 



Fruit growers in the Northwest must 

 wake up. They must be brought to 

 realize that they must leave no stone 

 unturned to keep the markets they have 

 for their fruit, and to create new ones, 

 for the big part played in this year's 

 apple market by the fruit from the Pa- 

 cific Northwest is causing the apple 

 growing sections in the East and the 

 Southwest to discuss the adoption of 

 methods that are expected to give the 

 fruit of those sections the preference. 



A conference of the fruit handling or- 

 ganizations of the Northwest looking 

 to the adoption of improved marketing 

 methods is not only, as we have said, 

 essential, but a necessity. 



The Call of Education. 



Now that the legislature of Washing- 

 ton has done its duty in the matter of 

 providing additional funds for public 

 education it remains for the voters in 

 Oregon to keep pace with its sister state 

 In keeping the torch of enlightenment 

 bright and burning. 



The measure to provide the Oregon 

 Agricultural College, the University of 

 Oregon and the State Normal school 

 with additional funds will be voted on 

 in Oregon at the primaries May 21. All 

 of these institutions need the relief in 

 the way of money asked for and the 

 public needs the greatest efficiency they 

 can render in the several branches of 

 education in which they specialize. 

 Larger classes, causing a need for en- 

 larged accommodations and more equip- 



ment, more instructors and increases in 

 salaries to retain these instructors, ow- 

 ing to higher living costs, are among 

 the vital things that make additional in- 

 comes for these institutions necessary. 

 As the fountain head from which 

 Hows the stream tliat leads to the higher 

 things in life no public spirited Oregon 

 voter will ignore this call. Oregon 

 citizens must go on record as as pro- 

 gressive in the matter of education as 

 the bordering states of California and 

 Washington if they expect their state 

 to forge ahead. With every progres- 

 sive educational movement in these 

 states being pushed they cannot afford 

 to lag behind. 



Cull Apples and Cider. 



Reports from several sections of the 

 country are to the effect that cider mak- 

 ing plants that last year paid growers 

 many thousands of dollars are going 

 out of business or are being put to other 

 uses because they cannot comply with 

 the government regulation prohibiting 

 the manufacture of any kind of fruit 

 juice that contains over one-half of one 

 per cent of alcohol. Therefore the pro- 

 hibition law that seemed to be a boon 

 to the apple grower is in reality a 

 black eye. 



The question now arises what is to 

 be done with this grade of cull apple 

 which is unfit for any other use. If the 

 law is sti-ictly complied with it cannot 

 even be made into vinegar as the chemi- 

 cal action that takes place in the pro- 

 cess between cider and vinegar exceeds 

 the alcoholic content many times. 

 Boiled cider, which is an attenuated 

 form of apple butter, is not very highly 

 relished as a beverage and other at- 

 tempts to rob the pure juice of the apple 

 of its slightly sparkling content and 

 then market it, have not made anybody 

 rich. 



There seems to be but one hope for 

 that old-time refreshing drink of our 

 ancestors, and that is to have the law 

 governing its alcoholic content modified. 

 Considering its usually non-intoxicat- 

 ing qualities this should not be hard 

 to accomplish for even a Maine or Kan- 

 sas senator ought not to object to cider. 



Information on Storage. 



Experiments now being conducted by 

 the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in a specially constructed gov- 

 ernment plant to investigate diseases 

 and other reasons for the deterioration 

 of fruit in cold storage .should result 

 in the saving of thousands of dollars 

 and also the more scientific manage- 

 ment of plants for storing fruit. With 

 a movement on foot to greatly increase 

 the storage of apples in the Northwest 

 and other sections of the country in- 

 formation of this nature will prove 

 highly valuable. 



WTiile excellent results have already 

 been accomplished in this line by the 

 experts which the government has 

 placed in the field the proper storage 

 of fruit is a question the average grow- 

 er and shipper needs much information 

 on. Heretofore storage has been a part 

 of the apple industry that has been 

 left to a large extent to buyers and 



shippers. From now on, however, it 

 is apparent that the grower from the 

 standpoint of self-protection intends to 

 add storage to the other phases of the 

 fruit industry and with this in mind 

 will welcome complete information on 

 this question. 



Order Early. 

 From present indications it will be 

 well for the fruit grower who has any- 

 thing in the way of ecpiipment and sup- 

 plies to purchase to make arrangements 

 to obtain them well in advance of the 

 time they are needed. This advice ap- 

 plies to almost every appliance, mate- 

 rial or thing of any kind necessary 

 for an orchard or fruit farm. Manufac- 

 turers are already giving notice that 

 they are experiencing difiiculty in sup- 

 plying retailers and the latter state that 

 the demand is far in excess of the pres- 

 ent supply. So order early if you 

 would not be caught short handed as 

 the season advances. 



What the Papers Interested 

 in Fruit Are Saying 



According to The Fruit World, published at 

 Melbourne, Australia, the quantity of apples 

 that shippers wanted to export from that 

 country to England during the present season 

 was 1,600,000 bushels. The English govern- 

 ment, however, which was providing the ships 

 for the transportation of the fruit cut down 

 the space for shipments to 7.50,000 bushels. 

 Tlie result was a number of indignation meet- 

 ings and severe criticism of the government's 

 action. Of the total quantity booked for ship- 

 ment by the growers, Tasmania produced 

 800,000 bushels, Victoria, 400,000 bushels. West 

 Australia, 350,000 bushels and South Austra- 

 lia, 50,000 bushels. 



W. M. Yundt, who owns an apple orchard 

 near Peshastin, Washington, has the distinc- 

 tion of having grown the largest apple in the 

 United States in 1919. It was a Wolf River 

 variety, measuring nineteen Inches in circum- 

 ference and weighed two pounds, ten ounces! 

 — Monthly Xews Letter. Washington State De- 

 partment of Horticulture. 



Pi-eliniinary estimates of the tonnage of 

 dried fruits in California tend to show more 

 than 400,500 tons were handled in 1919 as 

 compared with 205,700 in 1918. Raisins, 184,- 

 000 tons, constituted the largest variety. There 

 were 135,000 tons of prunes, 35,000 tons of 

 peaches, 14,500 tons of apricots, 11,000 tons 

 of figs, 10,000 tons of apples and 5,000 tons 

 of pears. The biggest increase was in prunes, 

 the production having almost tripled that of 

 1918. The apricot yield was 500 tons lighter 

 than the preceding year. — The Evaporator. 



Are our agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations incapable of solving fertilizer ques- 

 tions in relation to the orchard? There is now 

 an amazing lack of accurate and satisfying 

 data and information on the subject. Experts 

 on orcharding and specialists on fertilizers 

 themselves testify to the apparent apathy of 

 experimental institutions in this respect. At 

 the November convention of the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association, Prof. F. C. Sears, of 

 Amherst, Mass., said that the agricultural 

 colleges had done less in the matter of solving 

 orchard fertilizer problems than in solving 

 any other problem of either orcliard or farm. 

 Mr. Henry G. Bell of Toronto, who knows as 

 much about fertilizers in general as any man 

 in Canada, said to the association: "I am con- 

 vinced that one of the things that is holding 

 b,ack your net returns from orcharding in this 

 province is a lack of specific information re- 

 garding fertilizers." 



In studying fertilizer problems, experi- 

 menters seem to have chosen to follow the 

 lines of least resistance. They have fled from 

 the complex fertilizer problems of the orchard 

 to other fields where results are more certain 

 and more immediate. There have been very 

 few long-continued experiments anywhere in 

 Canada or the United States to ascertain, for 

 instance, what the fertilizer requirements of 

 the apple are, but long-continued experiments 

 with fertilizers on field crops are numerous. — 

 Canadian Horticulturist. 



