Page 26 



BETTER FRUIT 



Nitrate of Soda 



is conceded by Hood River Horticulturists, after 

 many comparisons, to be a most efficient fertil- 

 izer. This decision after careful tests, mind you 

 — they claim "the percentage of fruit set 

 through its use at blossom time will dou- 

 ble." Decide right here and now to try some 

 this year— even if only a sack — then await har- 

 vest. After that if you do not consistently use 

 Nitrate, it's because you didn't follow our instruc- 

 tions, as it contains 15% NITROGEN 

 EQUAL TO 18% AMMONIA and that's 

 what plant life thrives on. Write for literature. 



Nitrate Agencies Co. 



Hoge Bldg., SEATTLE 



Pacific Coast Agents 



United States Steel 

 Products Co. 



San Francisco 

 Los Angeles 

 Portland 

 Saattle 



J.C.PearsonCo.,inc. 



Sole Manufactwers 



63 Pearl Street 

 Boston, Mass. 



PEARSON 



CONOMY 



E 

 A 

 R 



S 



o 



NAILS 



in buying Is getting the 

 best value tor the money, 



not always in getting the lowest prices. 



PEAESON prices are right. 



DHESIVENESS H l°'^^l%^iZ^ 



for PEARSON nails. For twenty years 

 they have been making boxes strong. 

 Now, more than ever. 

 T?T T A TiTT TTV behind the goods is 

 HfJulAJJllJl A X added value. Tou can 

 rely on our record of fulfillment of every 

 contract and fair adjustment of every 

 claim. 



A T'TCl? A r'Tin'Xr '» assured by our 



A 1 lor AKj 1 IKJiy long experience In 



making nails to suit our customers' 



needs. We know what you want; we 



guarantee satisfaction. 



T>T/^T"Vr A T TT^V plus experience al- 

 lvl«ir> AIjI 1 X ways excels imita- 

 tion. Imitation's highest hope is, to 

 sometime (not now) equal Pearson — 

 meantime vou play safe. 



A 



I 



L 



February 

 Some Phases of Pruning 



Continued from page 8. 



fuse the amount and length of new 

 terminal growth with the total growth 

 which the tree makes. It is easy at a 

 glance to note the new terminal growth, 

 but requires careful scientific measure- 

 ments to determine the actual growth 

 which a tree makes. I believe we 

 would be safe in stating that the aver- 

 age pruner believes that heavy dormant 

 pruning increases the vegetative growth 

 of the tree, and that the trees should 

 be pruned heavily to cause them to 

 grow more vigorously; a careful anal- 

 ysis of recent investigations would 

 show that such a statement would need 

 very materially qualifying and that, to 

 discuss it, we should have a knowledge 

 of the age of the tree, its vigor, variety 

 and the general factors surrounding the 

 tree. For example. Alderman and 

 Auchter in their work with young 

 trees, have shown that the lightly 

 pruned young trees are taller, broader 

 and make a greater total growth than 

 the heavily pruned trees. On the other 

 hand, in working with older trees 

 which had entered a decline and were 

 in abnormal condition, they concluded 

 that pruning greatly stimulated, gener- 

 ally benefited and made the trees more 

 productive. In this case, heavy prun- 

 ing causing both more vegetative 

 growth and the bearing of greater 

 crops. Many of our older apple trees 

 in the Pacific Northwest would respond 

 in the same way. Bedford and Picker- 

 ing in their work with twelve-year-old 

 trees found that the heavily pruned 

 trees were 16 per cent lighter than mod- 

 erately pruned trees, while those un- 

 pruned were 20 per cent heavier than 

 the moderately pruned trees. Gardner 

 found young trees unpruned increase 

 in size as rapidly, if not a little more 

 rapidly, than trees winter pruned only, 

 or both winter and summer pruned, 

 that pruning caused more a change in 

 direction of growth or determined the 

 type of growth, but that the amount of 

 growth was determined more by what 

 the tree had done the previous year. 

 We have in our experimental plots 

 young trees which have not been 

 pruned since they were two years old. 

 These are fully as large as the pruned 

 trees and have borne more fruit. They 

 may not, however, be in as good form, 

 so to speak, and have as desirable a 

 framework for future crops. The sys- 

 tem of pruning adopted by Mr. Sawyer 

 of Toppenish, Washington, in his pear 

 orchard is of great interest. Mr. Saw- 

 yer has one of the largest pear orchards 

 in the Yakima Valley. li ts located in 

 an irrigated section and he has had his 

 orchard in alfalfa for many years. He 

 prunes very heavily and as a result he 

 gets a good growth; has little or no 

 propping to do and gets a very heavy 

 yield. His practices might be consid- 

 ered unorthodox, yet his results speak 

 for themselves. All these cases cited 

 are illustrations of our proneness to 

 accept some local experience as some- 

 thing fundamental rather than merely 

 an application of general principles. 



Let us now consider the relation of 

 place, of cutting and the kind of prun- 



