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BETTER FRUIT 



October 



BETTER FRUIT 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing. 



Published Monthly 



by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



407 Lumber Exchange 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



HAVE YOU SUBSCRIBED TO THE 

 FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN? 



Dairying. — Every fruit grower should 



keep one or more cows. Our orchards 

 are now demanding cover crops to 

 maintain the humus and nitrogen con- 

 tent, and practically every fruit grower 

 has a part of his orchard in cover crops, 

 which affords feed for a number of 

 cows, in accordance with the size of his 

 place. Many fruit districts now have 

 creameries, and these are meeting with 

 wonderful success. Creamery and milk 

 routes should be established in every 

 fruit-growing section. With the pres- 

 ent system of electric lines in many 

 districts, and with the use of automo- 

 bile trucks, milk and cream can be col- 

 lected at a very small cost. In addition 

 to the income received from dairying, 

 a herd of cows have an additional value 

 to the orchards in the improvement of 

 the soil by the continuous manure 

 afforded by the herd. A fruit grower 

 with a few cows and a good separator 

 can with very little extra expense keep 

 a few pigs, which will very soon enable 

 the fruit grower to pay off his mort- 

 gage, or if he is fortunate enough to 

 have his place clear, he can soon tuck 

 away a nice bank account or increase 

 his subscriptions to Liberty Bonds. 

 There are many good makes of cream 

 separators, which can be run by hand 

 power, or can be furnished with elec- 

 tric drive, and a fruit grower, in order 

 to make the most of his butter fat and 

 to save work, should have a good 

 separator. A campaign has been inau- 

 gurated in Oregon which might be 

 termed "Save - the - Herd Movement," 

 which is under the joint auspices of 

 the Oregon Agricultural College, the 

 United States Food Administration, the 

 State Dairy and Food Commission, the 

 State Board of Health and the Oregon 

 Dairy Council. Its object is to educate 

 people to the food value of dairy pro- 

 ducts. Milk at the advanced cost is one 

 of the cheapest foods the housewife can 

 provide for her farnily — the energy 

 value of a quart of milk is said to be 

 equal to that of nine eggs. It is a well- 

 known fact that the dairy herds of 

 Europe are very badly depleted. When 

 this war is over there will be an im- 

 mense demand for dairy products, and 

 unless we increase our supply of dairy 

 animals, we will not be in a position to 

 supply this demand. It is hoped 

 through a good educational campaign 

 that every fruit grower and farmer will 

 enlarge his herd, so that we will be 

 ready to take care of the increased de- 

 mand for all dairy products. 



increased very largely with very little 

 increase in the cost of production. An 

 orchard is an ideal i)lace for bees dur- 

 ing the blossoming period, and now 

 with so many acres sown to cover 

 crops, good pasture for bees is afforded 

 during the entire season. Permanent 

 courses in beekeeping are being intro- 

 duced in agricultural colleges and ex- 

 tension work in beekeeping is now 

 being conducted in many states. Api- 

 arists suffer the greatest loss in winter- 

 ing, but in the Northwest the weather 

 is never so very cold, and a cold spell 

 does not last very long, so that with a 

 very little care bees can be wintered 

 with little loss. Because of the short- 

 age of sugar, honey is being used for 

 sweetening. The famous brand of 

 French jam is preserved with honey 

 instead of sugar. The uses of honey 

 are unlimited, and with very little 

 trouble and little expense every fruit 

 grower can keep a few skips of bees. 

 In addition to furnishing honey, bees 

 are of additional value in the orchard, 

 which cannot very well be estimated, 

 coming from the work done by bees in 

 pollenization. Many experiments have 

 been conducted on certain limbs of the 

 trees showing conclusively that with 

 cross-pollenizing the apples on those 

 branches were finer in quality than the 

 apples on the rest of the tree. 



"TAKE FRUIT FOR IT." 



For "that tired feeling," "that 

 aching back," "loss of appetite," 

 "specks before the eyes," and var- 

 ious other disorders, troubles and 

 discomforts associated with a lazy 

 liver or defective working of other 

 organs. Nature has this world- 

 old advice : "Take fruit for it." 



Apple Crop Estimates for 1918.— The 

 September report on the apple crop of 

 the United States issued by the Bureau 

 of Crop Estimates, United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, places the 

 entire crop of commercial apples in the 

 United States at 24,076,000 barrels, as 

 compared to 22,519,000 for 1917, show- 

 ing an increase of 7 per cent over 1917. 

 The box-apple producing states show a 

 decrease of 16 per cent as compared to 

 1917. The production in Washington, 

 Oregon and Idaho is estimated at about 

 20,666 cars of 750 boxes each, as com- 

 pared to 24,900 cars in 1917. The Jon- 

 athan crop will be very light, which is 

 due to the fact that Idaho suffered a 

 severe loss from frost. Spitzenbergs 

 and Delicious will be below the aver- 

 age. Newtowns and Winesaps will 

 average the best. The quality and size 

 of Northwestern apples is very fine. 



Produce More Honey. — The United 



States produces annually about 250,- 

 000,000 pounds of honey. The honey 

 production in the Northwest could be 



Nearly a third of the prune crop of 



Oregon and Washington will be taken 

 over by the allied governments. This 

 purchase will amount to about sixteen 

 million pounds. The prune crop is the 

 largest ever produced, amounting to 

 about 60,000,000 pounds, and of excel- 

 lent quality. Mr. W. K. Newell, Assist- 

 ant Food Administrator for Oregon, 

 who is now in Washington, D. C, urges 



that growers take unusual care in put- 

 ting out their product, predicting that 

 if the prunes of the Pacific Northwest 

 make a good impression on the people 

 of the allied countries it will mean the 

 opening up of new markets in the 

 future. 



Clearing Land. — Various methods of 



clearing land in cut-over sections have 

 proved very successful. There are sev- 

 eral kinds of stump pullers on the mar- 

 ket, and different brands of blasting 

 powder. On many farms at the present 

 time there are small tracts of wood- 

 land that might be cleared to a good 

 profit. Much of this clearing can be 

 done during spare time without inter- 

 ruption to the regular work, and fruit 

 growers can profitably increase their 

 tillable area. A new bulletin has just 

 been issued on clearing land. Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 974. Every fruit grower 

 who is interested in this subject should 

 send for a copy of this bulletin. 



At the recommendation of some of 

 the county agents in different districts 

 of Eastern Oregon growers in that 

 vicinity have recently purchased 100 

 tons of powdered sulphur for drilling 

 into the soil to increase available plant- 

 food supplies. This experiment will be 

 watched with interest by many fruit 

 growers. 



The Spokane Valley Growers' Union 



Spokane, announces the sale of the en- 

 tire crop to be handled this year, of 

 approximately 150 cars, to an Eastern 

 firm. The price paid was $170,000, 

 making an average of nearly $1.50 per 

 box. 



The Liberty Loan Feeds and Clothes 

 Our Soldiers 



Since the beginning of the war, we 

 have spent for army use 837,000,000 

 for flour; $14,000,000 for sugar; $43,- 

 000,000 for bacon; $12,000,000 for beans; 

 $9,000,000 for canned tomatoes and 

 $3,000,000 for rice. These are only 

 some of the large items in our army's 

 bill of fare. We have spent $126,000,000 

 for shoes; over $500,000,000 for clothing, 

 winter and summer; nearly $150,000,000 

 for blankets. 



Our axes for the army have cost 

 over $6,000,000; our rolling kitchens 

 $47,000,000 and field ranges $1,500,000. 

 The army is using 2,500,000 shovels 

 costing one dollar apiece. Our motor 

 trucks to carry supplies and ammuni- 

 tion cost .$240,000,000, and for horse- 

 drawn wagons and carts we have spent 

 $37,000,000. Our 279,000 horses and 

 132,000 mules have cost us nearly 

 $100,000,000; to feed them has cost over 

 $60,000,000 and the harness for them 

 nearly $30,000,000. 



These figures are large, but we have 

 nearly 2,000,000 men in France and 

 nearly as many in cantonments here, 

 and the United States and the people 

 of the United States, through the Lib- 

 erty Loan, are making these soldiers 

 as safe and as comfortable, as powerful 

 and effective as possible. 



Every subscriber to the Loberty Loan 

 has helped, and every subscriber to the 

 Fourth Liberty Loan will help to win 

 the war. 



