Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



June, igso 



Successful Cherry Growing in Umpqua Valley, Oregon 



THE Umpqua Valley in Soulhcrn 

 Oregon is pre-eminently a(l;ipted 

 to the production of cherries. The 

 clay loam found on the hillsides, as 

 well as the sandy river bottom soils, 

 are especially favorable to this fruit. 

 But it is of the hills in this hilly region, 

 in relation to the successful growing 

 of cherries, that I will speak of here. 



The Umpqua Valley in Douglas 

 County is in reality made up of hun- 

 dreds of dilferent smaller valleys or 

 intervals, divided by hills of all shapes 

 and sizes and in their wild state gener- 

 ally covered with a thick growth of 

 oak and laurel. Many of these hills 

 are too steep for orchard purposes, but 

 numbers of them make ideal locations 

 for growing fruit. The soil on them is 

 usually of a reddish brown color which, 

 when cultivated, falls apart readily and 

 is underlaid with clay, which holds the 

 moisture to a remarkable extent during 

 the dry season. In the wet season, be- 

 ing high and more or less steep, they 

 have splendid drainage of both air and 

 water; also they soon warm up in the 

 spring and being above the river levels, 

 the late spring frosts which generally 

 are found to seek the low levels along 

 the rivers and bottoms of the valleys, 

 leave these hillsides untouched. All of 

 these conditions are absolutely ideal 

 for the production of the cherry. 



The Umpqua Valley has been proved 

 to be the earliest producer of fruit and 

 berries in the state of Oregon. It warms 

 up there sooner than any other district 

 in the entire state. The winters are 

 very mild and open and it is a matter 

 of record that produce is marketed first 

 from this county practically every 

 season. 



This being the case we are able to 

 get our Bings and Royal Annes on the 

 market about ten days earlier than any 

 other district, and as this is the first tree 

 fruit that appears, our cherries are thus 

 in great demand for eating purposes. 

 As far back as 1911 I sent Bing cherries 

 to Portland and received 15 cents for 

 them and a neighbor got HVac for some 

 of his, 15c for the balance. Another 

 cherry grower received 13c for his 

 Royal Anns at the same time and we 

 all had requests for far more than we 

 had to ship, at these same prices. Then 

 as the season advances and the Willam- 

 ette Valley cherries come in the price 

 is cut so the bulk of their fruit goes to 

 the cannery at a much lower price per 

 pound and even then there are very 

 good profits to be made. 



As the Bing, Lambert and Royal Ann 

 cherry all grow to such perfection and 

 also and chiefly as they are so early 

 and such handsome returns can be ob- 

 tained for them, it is a matter of sur- 

 prise that we find so very few commer- 

 cial cherry orchards here. True, that 

 there are not so very many commercial 

 orchards of any fruit, except prunes, in 

 heavy bearing here yet, still one would 

 have thought that the early settlers 

 would have appreciated sooner what 

 could have been realized from the earlv 



By An Experienced Grower 



sweet -liL-rries, and that one would find 

 numbi IS of fair sized orchards. Such 

 howe\ cr, is not the case. We have now 

 a fair acreage of commercial cherry 

 orchards, and as few people outside of 

 this county realize, perhaps, an enor- 

 mous acreage of young apple and pear 

 orchards. 



Now as we have the soil and climate 

 for the production of these greatest of 

 cherries, the Bing and Lambert, and as 

 they grow here to best advantage as I 

 firmly believe, of any spot on earth, on 

 which they have been tried, added to 

 the fact that they are the earliest in 

 the Northwest, it will not be amiss for 

 me to say a few words on the adapt- 

 ability of these varieties to our hill- 

 sides. 



As all orchardists know it is not sat- 

 isfactory to try to cultivate too steep 

 a hillside. You cannot turn earth up- 

 hill with a plow, nor can you keep a 

 disc harrow from turning over if the 

 hill be too steep, or prevent the culti- 

 vator from slipping down hill and 

 skinning the trees sometimes. There- 

 fore, in order to utilize these hills of 

 ours, which are generally the cheapest 

 lands to buy, we must plant something 

 which does not require much, if any 

 cultivation. 



The cherry is the only fruit that con- 

 forms to that need. Despite opinions 

 to the contrary held by men whose 

 words carry weight and whom I should 

 be the last to needlessly criticize, I 

 maintain without fear of successful 

 contradiction, that the cherry, after its 

 fourth year, does not need cultivation, 

 in fact is better off' without it. Prac- 

 tically the only disease that attacks the 

 cherry is gnmosis. As far as known at 

 present this disease is caused by an 

 over-production of sap, which the tree, 

 not using, gets rid of by pushing it out 

 to the .surface, where it occurs in 

 gummy masses, which may be small or 

 large, and there it continues to ooze 

 out, rotting the wood around it and fi- 

 nally, in a great many cases, causes the 

 death of the tree. This being the case, 

 anything that stimulates the growth of 

 the tree beyond a certain extent is 

 harmful. Now we all know that cul- 

 tivating and pruning a tree stimulates 

 the production of growth and sap and 

 in the case of the cherry it works a 

 positive harm. 



Now as cherries ripen in June the 

 moisture has not gone from the soil 

 before the crop has matured and in the 

 case of a tree over four years old the 

 root system has gone deep enough to 

 find moisture enough to keep it 

 healthy the balance of the dry season. 



So that is the crop to raise on our 

 hills we firmly believe. Dig big holes 

 at planting time, hoe well the first year 

 or two after each rain, dig around the 

 trees each spring till they are four 

 years old, then they will look after 

 themselves. Also if one plows and cul- 

 tivates these hillsides, the winter rains 

 are constantly washing away the soil 

 and in the course of years, more good. 



rich dirt is lost than most people have 

 any idea of. Let the natural sod re- 

 main, or better still, seed it down to a 

 good mixture of grasses as I have done 

 in part of my orchard and raise some 

 hay. The grass in my cherry orchard 

 is ready to cut by May 15. This grass 

 forms a complete protection from soil 

 erosion in winter and helps out on the 

 feed bills in summer. The agricultural 

 college at Corvallis kindly told me the 

 mixture of grasses adapted to our hill- 

 sides here and they surely were right; 

 it is the easiest crop to get a stand of 

 I ever seeded. It also kills out most 

 weeds. 



Our cherry growers here do not prac- 

 tice much of any pruning except to cut 

 away a limb that crosses another. Do 

 not stimulate the growth on a cherry 

 tree. Nature will grow it as fast as it 

 ought to be grown and you will not be 

 troubled much with gumosis. 



Another point in favor of the cherry 

 on the hillsides is it requires the least 

 spraying of any fruit tree grown. 



Let me add a few words in closing 

 as to the fruit itself. The Bing is the 

 favorite shipping cherry here. It grows 

 to an enormous size. I have measured 

 hundreds with a tape line and found 

 that four inches in circumference is the 

 size of the best. WTien ripe they are 

 nearly black and when a 20-pound box 

 is faced with these magnificent speci- 

 mens it would seem they must be black 

 plums, as their great size looks too 

 great for a cherry. As to their holding 

 qualities, one can hardly overstep the 

 mark; they will go to New York and 

 back again I believe, without showing 

 any sign of decay. There are some 

 Lamberts raised here too, but not 

 many, although a few have been lately 

 planted. They are a very fine cherry, 

 probably as good as the Bing, but per- 

 haps do not bear quite as well. Our 

 Royal Anns are very fine and there are 

 numbers of Black Republicans which 

 latter, though hardly a commercial 

 cherry, exceed all others in quantity 

 to the tree. 



No Orchard or Farm is Complete 

 Without Our Latest Model 



COMMERCIAL SIZE 



All Purpose Evaporator 



Write for Folder 



HOME EVAPORATOR CO. 



ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 



P O. Box 817 Central Station 



NOW is the time to tend to 



Milton Nursery Company 



MILTON, OREOON 



FOR THEIR 1919 CATALOG. 

 FULL LINE OF NURSERY STOCK. 



"GcnulNMMs and Quality" 



