Page 22 



BETTER FRUIT 



Atigiist 



H€p! Hep'.'* Ten mifes 

 more to bibe — thm camp 

 and the comforts of a little 

 chetM of Real Gravely. 



See That He Never Lacks 



a pouch of 



Real GRAVELY Chewing Plug 



Your fighting man will go to almost any 

 lengths to get good tobacco. Many a man 

 has paid $5 for less good tobacco than you 

 will send him in a pouch of Real Gravely 

 Chewing Plug. Only costs you 1 cents. 



Give any man a chew of RealjGravely Plug, and he will 

 tell you that's the kind to send. Send the best! 



Ordinary plug is false economy. It cost less per 

 week to chew Real Gravely, because a small chew of it 

 lasts a long while. 



If you smoke a pipe, slice Gravely with your knife 

 and add a little to your smoking tobacco. It will give 

 flavor— improve your smoke. 



SEND YOUR FRIEND IN THE V. S. SERVICE 

 A POUCH OF GRAVELY 



Dealers all around here carry it in 10c. pouches. A 3c. stamp 

 will put it into his hands in any Training Camp or Seaport of the 

 U. S. A. Even "over there" a 3c stamp will take it to him. Your 

 dealer will supply envelope and give you official directions how to 

 address it. 



P. B. GRAVELY TOBACCO CO., Danville, Va> 



The Patent Poach keeps it Fresh and Clean and Good 



— It is not Real Gravely icithoat this Protection Seal 



Established 1831 



The Prune Industry in Douglas County 



By Earl Percy, County Horticulturist Douglas County 



THE remarkable thing about the 

 prune industry in Douglas County 

 is that its growth has been steady 

 and continuous from the start. It has 

 never been a boom business since old 

 John Hall, Hans Weaver and others 

 back in 1877 planted the first orchards 

 at Myrtle Creek and laid the foundation 

 for the county's largest industry. In 

 1916 10,000,000 pounds of dried prunes 

 were produced which was one-fourth 

 of the total crop of the State. Douglas 

 is the only county still growing any 

 great quantities of Petites. Probably 

 50 per cent of this year's crop will be 

 the French or Petite prune, long dis- 

 carded by the other prune growing sec- 

 tions of the State. In the Myrtle Creek 

 District this variety is at its best net- 

 ting the growers an average profit in 

 excess of the Italians, acre for acre. 

 The original plantings were divided 

 about epually between Italians, Petites 

 and Silvers. The last named variety, 

 while in many ways a fine fruit, rapid- 

 ly lost its place in the fruit world, due 

 to several weaknesses chief of which 

 was the fact that the tree tended to bear 

 itself to death. It is very susceptible to 

 winter kill, sour sap, heart rot and var- 

 ious other troubles. Nevertheless it was 

 but a very few years ago that a packing 

 company at Roseburg shipped a full 

 carload of Silvers east. 



In 1891 the Report of the State Board 

 of Horticulture contained this state- 

 ment: "The man who will plant a prune 

 orchard sufficiently large to enable him 

 to ship in carloads lays the founda- 

 tion for a fortune far more certain of 

 realization and in less time than any 

 other business in which he may embark 



with the same capital and labor." Many 

 comfortable fortunes have been thus 

 laid in the Umpqua Valley. Prune or- 

 chards are practically the only type of 

 real estate that is off the market. This 

 is not due to bumper crops or to the un- 

 usual yield of any one year, but to a 

 steady, continuous prosperity among 

 the prune growers, large or small. 



Prune growing occupies the same 

 relation to Douglas County that apples 

 do to Hood River. Wherever land is 

 farmed one will find prune orchards. 

 The county is cut up into many small 

 shoe-string valleys, extending for 60 

 miles from Yoncalla to Canyonville. 

 With the exception of the Riddle and 

 Myrtle Creek districts, there are no 

 large prune growing districts. The total 

 acreage that produces 10,000,000 pounds 

 of dried prunes is made up from the 

 many small plantings scattered through- 

 out the county. 



One of the best features of the Ore- 

 gon Prune is its adaptability to a wide 

 range of soils and its remarkable free- 



dom from pests and diseases. Here it 

 grows on every possible combination of 

 soil, slope and fertility, from the black 

 sticky to the rich bottom land along the 

 Umpqua river. It is true that it has an 

 optimum range for best success and it 

 is to be marvelled at that it grows at 

 all in some of the wet, unfavorable lo- 

 cations where it is found. Nature wisely 

 failed to provide a host of pests and 

 diseases for the homely prune. No 

 other fruit under the sun could stand 

 the neglect and abuse that the prune 

 receives and still remain the most profit- 

 able branch of horticulture in the 

 Northwest. If the prune growers were 

 suddenly forced to study and practice 

 the principles of entomology, pathol- 

 ogy, soil chemistry, meteorology and 

 marketing; and do all those things that 

 go to make apple and pear culture so 

 costly and yet so necessary to success, 

 it is probable that many of them would 

 go back to general farming for a livli- 

 hood. The prune orchards that consist- 



W. H. DRYER 



W. W. BOLLAM 



DRYER, BOLLAM & CO. 



GENERAL 

 COMMISSION MERCHANTS 



128 FRONT STREET 



Phones; Main 2348 

 A 2348 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



