IQl8 



BETTER FRUIT 



Perfection Oil Heater is 

 easily carried — up stairs or 

 down, from this room to that 

 — anywhere heat is needed. 



Lights at the touch of a 

 match — gives instant heat. 

 No smoke or odor. 



Steady, comfortable warmth for 

 many hours on one filling with 

 Pearl Oil, the ever- obtainable 



fuel. 



Cuts fuel bills, for less 

 furnace heat and fewer 

 grate and coal-stove fires 

 are required. Oil con- 

 sumed only when heat is 

 needed — no waste. 



Buy Perfection Oil 

 Heater today. Deal- 

 ers everywhere. 



STANDARD OIL 

 I COMPANY 



(California) 



PERFECTION 

 OIL HE>VTER 



Early History of the Oregon Prune Industry 



By H. S. Gile, Salem, Oregon 



was quite an acreage came into bearing 

 ■within a year or two and no markets 

 had been developed for our fruit. In 

 fact, for two or three seasons condi- 

 tions were so discouraging that quite a 

 few of the growers grubbed out their 

 orchards. The experience of others in 

 an endeavor to borrow money to tide 

 them over through the stress under 

 which they found themselves, found it 

 difficult to borrow on their orchards, 

 financiers advising them that they 

 would figure values minus the cost of 

 grubbing out the trees, which of course 

 would lower the valuation of their 

 prune lands, so that in the early 90's 

 prune orchards could have been bought 

 very cheaply. The writer knew of one 

 particular orchard which was taken 

 back under mortgage when the owners 

 were willing to sell on the then low 

 valuation of the bare land, but this was 

 the time when success for the prune in- 

 dustry was anything but assured and 

 there were very few customers for the 

 prune orchards. 



SOME twenty-five or thirty years ago 

 the large acreage of prune orchards 

 in the Willamette Valley were planted, 

 the principal varieties being Italian, 

 French, and Silver prunes. It was not 

 long before experience proved that the 

 Silver variety was not suitable or prof- 

 itable, and most of the trees have been 

 entirely eliminated from the orchards. 

 In the Willamette Valley the Italian 

 variety is mostly grown, the soil and 

 climatic conditions being more suitable 

 to its development, and it is found more 

 profitable than the French or Petite 

 variety. In the southern part of the 

 state the French variety does very well 

 and the acreage planted in that section 

 is just about equally divided between 

 the French and Italian varieties. Most 

 seasons the French type is produced 

 profitably and the quality is strictly Al, 

 the climatic conditions having much to 

 do with this. 



In the early stages of the prune pro- 

 duction the industry had its trials and 

 setbacks, passing through the usual ex- 

 periences of all new industries. There 



Page II 



In the early history of the prune pro- 

 duction, Oregon prunes were shipped 

 out in cotton sacks in their original 

 condition. They were of course graded 

 and sacked as to sizes, so that our goods 

 were not at all inviting when compared 

 with the finely packed goods of Cali- 

 fornia. Many of our prune growers at 

 that time realized that it was going to 

 be necessary to improvve on our qual- 

 ity and packing for shipment, so that in 

 1900 the Willamette Valley Prune Asso- 

 ciation was organized for the purpose 

 of packing and marketing the Oregon 

 prunes, most of the leading growers of 

 this section at that time becoming mem- 

 bers of the association. It was soon 

 found that the association had under- 

 taken a big task to market a new var- 

 iety of dried prunes which was entirely 

 unknown and with a flavor altogether 

 different to that which the consuming 

 public had been used to, but the grow- 

 ers started in to use greater care in the 

 harvesting of their prunes and the asso- 

 ciation commenced to pack their pro- 

 duct in 25-pound boxes, faced, and 

 adopted a brand which they are still 

 using, the Pheasant Brand, which is one 

 of the best known brands for Oregon 

 prunes in all the markets of the world 

 where Oregon prunes are used. 



About the year 1903 we had a large 

 crop of Oregon prunes. The prices 

 were low and growers got little or 

 nothing for their goods. At lower 

 prices the fruit was somewhat attrac- 

 tive to the general public, so that the 

 Oregon prunes got a fair distribution, 

 and from that time on we have noticed 

 a steady improvement in the demand 

 for Oregon prunes, until today markets 

 have been opened up in all the leading 

 cities of this country, Canada and 

 Europe. This distribution has been 

 accomplished at considerable expense 

 and effort through advertising and 

 demonstrations at all the leading expo- 

 sitions held in this country. Many 

 medals have been received for the fine 

 quality and pack of the well-known 

 Pheasant Brand prunes packed and ex- 

 hibited by the Willamette Valley Prune 

 Association, which since its organiza- 

 tion has been one of the largest factors 

 in the packing and marketing end of the 

 Oregon prune industry, until at the 

 present time this industry is firmly 

 established and there is a growing de- 

 mand for the famous bearing prune 

 orchards of our state and the North- 

 west. The production of prunes is now 

 one of the largest fruit industries in the 

 Willamette Valley, if not the largest, 

 and we believe the prospect is more 

 encouraging today than it has been at 

 any time since its inception. 



Wenatchee, Washington, is reporting 

 the sale of a number of cars of apples 

 at splendid figures. Many buyers are in 

 the field and energetically at work. 



Clergyman, age 36, desires posi- 

 tion with fruit ranch. Capable 

 wife, no children. 



Address H. I. G., 

 Care Better Fruit Publishing Co. 



