Page 24 



BETTER FRUIT 



May, 1920 



Northwest Fruit Notes from Here and There 



OREGON. 

 Prices for canning cherries were fixed at The 

 Dalles April 17, when a contract was closed be- 

 tween the local cherry growers' union and the 

 Libby, McNeil & Libby Canning Company, at 

 15 cents per pound. J. D. Riggs, manager of 

 the cherry growers' union estimates that the 

 crop of cherries at The Dalles this year w ill be 

 1,000 tons. 



Pools recently closed on several varieties of 

 apples handled by the Hood River Apple Grow- 

 ers' Association show that the high and low 

 prices received were as follows: Jonathans, 

 i«2.28 and ?1.33; Delicious, *2.91 and $1.51; 

 Northern Spy, Si2.16 and $1.45; Wageners, $1.95 

 and $1.34. 



A local nurseryman at Hood River reports 

 that a 200-pound shipment of seedlings that be- 

 fore the war cost $25, according to present 

 prices for nursery stock, cost him $536. Not- 

 withstanding this big increase it is claimed by 

 some of the leading nurserymen that stock for 

 planting has not yet reached the maximum 

 figure. 



Although loganberry prices are soaring the 

 Salem Statesman, which has been keeping close 

 watch on ofi'ers that are being received for 

 these berries at the hub of this industr- says 

 that it has beeu unable to find that moi ; than 

 12 cents has been actually offered for loganber- 

 ries this year. Predictions are being freely 

 made, however, that they will go to 14 cents 

 before the season is over. While the prospect 

 for record prices for "logans" seems bright, 

 some of the larger and older growers say that 

 it will hurt the industry to boost the price so 

 high that they will be out of reach of the con- 

 sumer. A new feature that is reported to have 

 been injected Into the loganberry industry this 

 vear is the arrival on the coast of eastern buy- 

 ers who are said to be buying these berries to 

 be packed in barrels and shipped to the At- 

 lantic coast in refrigerator cars to be processed 

 in the east. Rerry growers generally believe 

 that prices considerably higher than those 

 offered at the present time will prevail this 

 year. 



The market for strawberries in the Willam- 

 ette Valley is reported to have been opened at 

 14 cents for eastern shipments while local 

 canneries are quoting prices around 12 cents. 

 Prices for berries on five and ten-year contracts 



that have been offered are six cents a pound 

 for strawberries, five cents a pound for logan- 

 berries, four cents for gooseberries and eight 

 cents a pound for raspberries. These prices 

 it is stated are the minimum, and with a stip- 

 ulation in the contract that if open market 

 conditions warrant it higher prices will be 

 paid. 



In order to secure the greatest degree of co- 

 operation between the prune growers of Oregon 

 and Washington, growers and managers of the 

 Oregon Growers' Cooperative Association and 

 a similar concern with headquarters at Van- 

 couver recently held a conference in regard to 

 marketing this year's prune crop. By keeping 

 in close contact during the coming season the 

 two organizations will work in harmony in 

 regard to the several features necessary to 

 place the prunes of Clarke County and the 

 Willamette Valley on the market to the best 

 advantage. 



A good deal of sickness that has developed 

 during the winter throughout the Northwest 

 among horses and cattle in orchard districts 

 through the eating of hay that has been taken 

 from orchards that have been sprayed with 

 arsenate of lead is causing experiments and 

 investigations to be made by experts at the 

 various agricultural colleges. The matter was 

 brought to a head by the death of two horses 

 at Hood River. Dr. J. W. Kalkus, head of the 

 veterinary department at the Washington Agri- 

 cultural College at Pullman, says that in its 

 acute form the disease manifests itself sud- 

 denly and resembles very much a typical case 

 of respiratory influenza. The course being 

 recommended at present by these experts is 

 for the orchardist to exercise greater care in 

 seeing that spray apparatus is in good condi- 

 tion and to avoid allowing any large amount 

 of spray to be deposited on intercrops that are 

 being grown in orchards. 



Following a meeting of the Oregon Growers' 

 Cooperative Association recently held at Salem, 

 it was announced that fruit packing and pro- 

 cessing plants aggregating in cost more than 

 $100,000 would be built or taken over by the 

 association. A prune packing plant will be 

 built at Myrtle Creek and another at Riddle, 

 while a plant will be erected at Grants Pass, 

 for the handling of apples and pears. Com- 



bination driers and prune packing houses will 

 be constructed at Sheridan and Dallas. At 

 Yamhill the association has already taken over 

 the Drager prune drying and packing plant. 

 J. O. Holt, cannery and packing house manager 

 for the association, who has made a distinct 

 success in managing the plants owned by the 

 Eugene Fruit Growers' Association, will have 

 charge of the plans for the new plants and an- 

 nounces that they will be built according to a 

 standardization policy adopted by the grow- 

 ers' organization. This will include everything 

 that is modern in the way of equipment to 

 handle the various products which the associa- 

 tion is to market. 



M the annual meeting of the Hood River 

 Apple Growers' Association, at which plans 

 were discussed for the coming season the key- 

 note was declared to be a more rigid inspec- 

 tion of fruit and a stronger enforcement of 

 packing rules. Although the association 

 handled the largest crop of fruit in its history 

 the cost of handling was reduced per box be- 

 low that of any previous year and the finances 

 of the organization shown to be in a very sat- 

 isfactory condition. The new directors elected 

 are: J. C. Porter, R. J. Mclsaac. E. W. Birge, 

 \. F. Bickford, J. H. Jeffrey, J. D. Guttery, 

 A. J. Graff, C. K. Benton, J. R. Nunnamaker, 

 O. B. Nye, A. C. Staten. A. W. Stone remains 

 as manager and W. C. MucCullough, sales 

 manager. 



Probably one of the largest plantings of 

 prunes and nuts made in the State of Oregon 

 of late has just been completed by Pearcy 

 Bros., in the Willamette Valley section. In the 

 planting there are 3,000 filbert trees which is 

 believed to be the largest tract of filberts in 

 Oregon if not in the Northwest. The entire 

 tract is owned by eastern people who have 

 engaged the Pearcy Bros., who make a specialty 

 of nuts, and fruits also, to handle and manage 

 it for five years. 



To demonstrate how a model fruit farm 

 should be conducted, 10 acres of fruits and 

 vegetables that can be used by a cannery will 

 be planted near Albany. The farm will be 

 used to teach prospective and actual fruit 

 growers in that section the proper methods of 

 fruit and vegetable growing. Stockholders in 

 the Puyallup and Sumner Fruitgrowers' Asso- 

 ciation) which has a cannery at Albany, will 

 finance the farm. 



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