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BETTER FRUIT 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing. 



Publislied Monthly 



by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



703 Oregonlan Building 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



Motor Truck Transportation. 



To no occupation has the inli-oduc- 

 tion of the motor truck been of greater 

 value than to the fruitgrower. To em- 

 phasize this statement we are publish- 

 ing the following item taken from the 

 Hood River Glacier: 



Gasoline motors have revolution- 

 ized the methods of transporting ap- 

 ples in the valley. Of the 2,000,000 

 boxes of commercially packed fruit 

 that will be harvested" this season, it 

 IS likely that not more than 100,000 

 boxes will be hauled from packing 

 houses to shipping stations by horse 

 drawn vehicles. Motor trucks are 

 making short work of apple hauling. 

 It IS rare that a grower owning large 

 acreage is found without a motor 

 truck. Truck sales the past year are 

 approaching close to the century mark. 

 Scores of orchardists, buying new pas- 

 senger vehicles, have turned their old 

 cars into serviceable trucks. In a sin- 

 gle line at the receiving stations of the 

 Apple Growers Association last week 

 19 different makes of trucks, ranging 

 from a huge Mack to a Ford, were 

 seen. 



The motor truck has been of great 

 benefit in enlarging the scope of rapid 

 urban transportation in all lines of 

 endeavor, but to none of them is it so 

 valuable as to the fruit industry, which 

 of necessity requires the quickest pos- 

 sible handling of perishable products. 

 This is particularly true of the small 

 fruits which must be marketed daily 

 with the utmost dispatch. More time 

 can be taken with the larger fruits 

 such as apples and pears but there 

 are times also with these fruits when it 

 is advisable to get them to the storage 

 house or to the shipping point as quick- 

 ly as possible. This the motor truck is 

 acomplishing with an efficiency 

 never before known, in addition to 

 the fact that it is making it pos- 

 sible for a far greater development 

 in fruit production than could be at- 

 tempted heretofore. 



In sections that are isolated from 

 railroad transportation thousands of 

 acres adapted to fruit raising that 

 have lain idle because the owners 

 could not get their products to market 

 are now being planted. In fact this 

 method of transportation has in- 

 creased the area suitable to fruit- 

 growing beyond estimation, in addi- 

 tion to doubling the value of the land. 



While motor truck transportation 

 has done much toward a greater de- 

 velopment of the fruit industry in the 

 past year or two in the Pacific North- 

 west, it is safe to say that only a 

 start has been made in this direction 

 and that in the next few years it will 

 have reached that point where only 

 the most inaccessible districts will be 



BETTER FRUIT 



without this means of getting their 

 products to market. 



Like the automobile and the tractor, 

 and other mechanical inventions, the 

 motor truck is reducing the drudgery 

 of country life as well as bringing to 

 it an economy and an efficiency of 

 service of untold value. 



Cheap Spraying Solutions. 

 There are undoubtedly ways in 

 which the fruitgrower can economize 

 in managing his orchard, but we do 

 not believe he can afford to do so by 

 experimenting with cheap and untried 

 spraying materials. The advanced 

 prices of these materials it is re- 

 ported, is causing some growers to 

 seek cheaper so-called substitutes. It 

 should be remembered that the stand- 

 ard spraying solutions now in use are 

 the result of years of study and ex- 

 periments made by experts employed 

 to determine their value and that until 

 they evolve or discover something that 

 is better than the sprays now in use, 

 that the safest and wisest plan is to 

 use the standard brands — the brands 

 that have secured results. 



The Benefits of Advertising. 



The successful sale of the entire 

 crop of the California Walnut Asso- 

 ciation in a few hours after the price 

 was announced, and the success in 

 marketing Northwest Jonathan apples 

 through advertising campaigns, should 

 be sufficient evidence to fruit growers 

 that money spent in this way is not 

 a contribution, but should be regarded 

 as one of the most important fixed 

 charges of the industry. The Jona- 

 than advertising campaign which was 

 inaugurated in the Northwest by 

 Messrs. Clark, Gwin, Rose, McCullagh 

 and others interested in box apple 

 distribution with the cooperation of 

 John Denny and Wagner & Sons ol 

 Chicago, Steinhardt & Kelly and Sgo- 

 bel & Day of New York, John Cancel- 

 mo of Philadelphia and other promi- 

 nent apple men in the east was a big 

 stroke in behalf of a greater consump- 

 tion of all varieties of Northwest ap- 

 ples. Attractive copy prepared by 

 Arthur Rule of the Northwest Fruit 

 Exchange and H. J. Woodruff, New 

 York representative of the Hood River 

 Apple Growers Association, played an 

 important part in moving the Jona- 

 than crop at a critical period. This 

 creation of a consumption demand 

 when it is most needed is one of the 

 most valuable features of advertising 

 apart from the organized publicity 

 campaign which should precede the 

 shipping of the crop to points of dis- 

 tribution. 



When the returns are in for the 

 Northwest apple crop this year, it 

 should not take much more hammer- 

 ing to induce the apple grower to 

 freely open his pocketbook for adver- 

 tising funds in the future. When the 

 dealers feel that they can afford to 

 spend large sums to increase apple 



December, iQip 



sales, the grower ought to be con- 

 vinced that it is sound policy to co- 

 operate and secure still greater re- 

 sults by appropriating funds to be 

 used in a nation wide consumer-de- 

 mand publicity campaign. 



The Hen Fruit Union. 



Tlie Hen 

 I shall not lay as often as of yore. 

 Our Rooster orders us to organize; 

 Like everybody else, we're getting wise! 

 Now for your eggs you will be paying more. 

 I ve scratched until my toes are sick and sore. 

 But now I take but little exercise — 

 Our Union has compelled these rural guys 

 To serve our pickings on a marble floor. 

 And at our next convention we'll decree 

 How many eggs each one of us shall lay. 

 How many shall be hatched, how many 



stored. 

 We have demanded better rooms and 

 board, 

 A holiday on every other day. 

 And no wire fences. Chickens shall be free I 

 — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 



What the Newspapers Interested in 

 Fruit Are Saying. 



Apple growing is a fine occupation to go 

 into for a change and a rest. The commission 

 merchants take all the change and the whole- 

 salers get the rest. — Canadian Horticulturist. 



A record price for a citrus orchard is 

 claimed to have been established at Whittler 

 last week with the sale of ten acres of 11- 



«cn"n'n°n'' n^'-"/"^'?, oranges and lemons for 

 $60,000.— Pacific Rural Press. 



There is developing a marked increase in 

 demand for apples in the local markets, but 

 people would like to buy cheaper apples. They 

 are willing to accept poorer grades in order 

 to keep within their means. — Pacific Home- 

 stead. 



More than 314,000 motor tractors for farm 

 use will be manufactured in the United States 

 this year. Ninety thousand of these tractors 

 are intended for export. We wonder how 

 many are likely to find their way to South 

 Atnca. — South African Fruitgrower. 



<.,^,',?,''i'''^''?> *'"' 'as' of California's fruits to 

 fall for advertising, will soon be advertised 

 nationally out of a fund contributed by grow- 

 ers and packers in equal amounts. The list 

 of advertised or immediatel.v-to-be advertised 

 Calitornia products now includes oranges, 

 lemons, raisins, prunes, apricots, olives, wal- 

 nuts and almonds— all sponsored by associa- 

 tions of growers. Add to these the preserved 

 Iruits and vegetables in cans and it is plain 

 to see that California has found itself.— West- 

 ern Advertising. 



Western New York, which last year mar- 

 keted nearly six million barrels of apples, 

 will this season have only two and one-third 

 million barrels, not including apples used lor 

 drying or cider, or sold in bulk on local 

 markets. The forty per cent increase in the 

 western states which pack their apples in 

 boxes will make up in bushels for the short 

 crop in New York state, but will not help 

 much to reduce the price. Buyers in western 

 «/?'- * "V' '*■■'; "ow paying an average of about 

 *6.2a a barrel. — The Evaporator 



The news that Australia is not going to raise 

 the embargo on importations of apples has not 

 affected the market at all. Now if it were 

 the grain market — those fellows always are 

 looking for some "factor" to put 'er ud or 

 down.— The Packer. 



It was in the spirit of enterprise and prog- 

 ress that a resolution, agreeing to a small 

 acreage tax to organize the fruit industry, was 

 carried at the annual convention of the Vic- 

 torian Fruitgrowers' Central Association. 



So far as the fruit industry of Victoria can 

 speak with a united voice the Victorian Fruit- 

 growers' Central Association is the chosen and 

 effective means of such expression. 



The affiliated societies represented at the 

 convention have had the proposal for organ- 

 izing the industry by means of an orchard tax 

 in front of them for many months; the pro- 

 posal has been discussed from every stand- 

 point, consequently delegates came prepared 

 to vote. Delegates from Northern and South- 

 ern Victoria were emphatic in supporting the 

 proposal, and with only four dissentients, the 

 resolution was carried. — The Fruit World, 

 Sydney, Australia. 



