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BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



Prune -Tree Culture in the Great Pacific Northwest 



By Elwyn D. Seaton, Santa Rosa, California 



IN reply to your request that I write 

 an article on prune-tree culture for 

 your journal, Better Fruit, -will 

 state I am delighted to present such 

 facts as I have learned, after many 

 years of the most intensive application 

 and study of the subject. Oh that I 

 could coin language to picture to your 

 readers my vision of the possibilities of 

 the future horticultural industry of the 

 Pacific Coast States, with their rich val- 

 ley lands, where the sedimentary soil 

 is of almost unlimited depth. 



No study can have a grander material 

 significance than the one which gives 

 us the knowledge of the causes of fer- 

 tility. The thrill of pleasure of being 

 able to pass on to others some prac- 

 tical knowledge gained by constant 

 work and observation is compensation 

 indeed. 



I have traveled many thousand miles, 

 in this and other states, in order to 

 learn conditions in hundreds of or- 

 chards and fields. I discovered that in 

 practically every orchard there are to 

 be found one or more highly distin- 

 guishable trees. No matter how poor 

 or neglected the orchard may be there 

 are always some noteworthy trees; and 

 from a careful study and examination 

 of such trees much valuable knowledge 

 has been gained. In a forty-year-old 

 prune orchard, where the trees are 

 standing 15 by 16 feet apart, two trees 

 in particular have given me a fund of 

 knowledge. A record of these trees has 

 been kept for some fiifteen years; 

 during that period an average of more 

 than a thousand pounds of fresh prunes 

 per tree has been attained each year. 



I am positive wherever one finds an 

 exceptional tree growth, or any other 

 exceptional vegetable growth, more soil 

 bacteria will be found than where the 

 growth is less prolific. 



Beyond all calculation and compre- 

 hension are the powers and mysteries 

 of the working of the infinitesimal 

 microbe workers of the soil. Unques- 

 tionably crops are made certain by the 

 presence of this bacilli. Eight years 

 ago I completed my study and investi- 

 gation, and matured my plans for plant- 

 ing a fifty odd acre field to fruit trees 

 with a full expectation that they would 

 produce an annual net income of six 

 per cent on a valuation of $5,000 per 

 acre when the trees were in full bear- 

 ing. At this stage of development they 

 are exceeding my most sanguine hopes 

 as to development and production. 



The field was divided. Gravenstein 

 apples and French prune trees were 

 selected for the test as being best 

 adapted to the location and the soil; 

 also for the reason that we consider the 

 two, in their order, the King and Queen 

 of all the fruits, and hence we find a 

 much greater joy and pleasure in 

 watching their development. The year 

 preceding the planting of the orchard 

 the land was put in the best of physical 

 condition. 



The ground was laid off in twenty- 

 eight-foot squares. Holes three feet 



deep and three or four feet in diameter 

 were dug in each corner, some minerals 

 were scattered in the holes, which were 

 then about half filled with soil fully 

 alive with soil bacteria. The trees were 

 then carefully planted by having the 

 soil in the pit cone shaped, the roots 

 being separated and equally distributed 

 around the cone and trained so as to 

 extend downward, thus encouraging 

 the deepest rooting possible. The trees 

 now give the most splendid evidence of 

 the wisdom of this method. 



Sub-soiling and very deep cultivation 

 has been constantly maintained since 

 planting. This has been accomplished 

 with much difficulty, because our soil 

 is naturally cold and tenacious, and 

 during the wet season runs together 

 and packs — in other words, a very 

 refractory soil, which has systemati- 

 cally been redeemed from such condi- 

 tion by the above method of tillage and 

 by the extensive winter cover crops. 



French prune tree one year old from planting. 

 All trees planted were one-year-old grafted trees. 



French prune tree eight years old from planting. 

 Estimated better than 1,000 pounds green fruit. 



The two main thoughts I had in mind 

 before planting this orchard were: first, 

 that the large majority of the trees 

 planted would produce profitable crops 

 for a hundred years at least; second, 

 that the vigorous development and long 

 life of the trees, with heavy fruitage, 

 would depend upon the successful 

 propagation and maintenance of the 

 soil bacteria. 



The one prominent thing proven be- 

 yond question by our intensive appli- 

 cation and work, by the application of 

 various minerals salts, by extending the 

 season of cultivation and by varying 

 the time and method of pruning, with 

 careful daily notations, is that tree and 

 all other vegetable development is al- 

 ways in proportion to the development 

 of the soil bacteria. That is to say, the 

 greater the quantity of bacteria in the 

 soil the greater and more luxuriant will 

 be the vegetable growth. 



If there are any doubting Thomases 

 as to this fact I suggest that they make 

 a test by taking two lots of soil, one to 

 be highly pregnated with a legume soil 

 bacteria and the other soil to be made 

 perfectly sterile and so maintained 

 through plant growth. Sterilized water 

 only should be used in irrigating this 

 latter soil. The seeds for both plant- 

 ings should be from the same lot. 



It is a lamentable fact that, after all 

 of the years of agricultural study and 

 investigation by state and nation, one 

 is unable to find in the agricultural de- 

 partment at Washington, D. C, or else- 

 where, carefully compiled data and 

 definite information on the best meth- 

 ods of developing the proper and best 

 soil bacilli. The soil should be made to 

 teem and fairly hum with myriads and 

 myriads of the legume bacilli. They 

 are the most indefatigable workers, 

 never idle night or day. They keep the 

 soil wholesome and prepare from it the 

 proper food, and it is so prepared that 

 the plant can take it up and assimilate 

 it easily and quickly. 



They mull over the earth and mineral 

 salts even the hardest and most dense 

 of substances. In this way phosporus, 

 potash, magnesia, sulphur, iron, lime, 

 sodium, lithium, and who knows how 

 many more are made available, each 

 one in its proportion, just as essential 

 to the tree's growth and fruiting as the 

 other, and when these bacteria have 

 been developed on the roots of legume 

 plants they make available free nitro- 

 gen from the air. 



It is obvious that the clovers, the 

 vetches, the peas, the beans and many 

 other plants are dependent for their 

 growth upon their peculiar bacteria, 

 and growth is in proportion to bacteria 

 development upon their roots. Is not 

 such a fact illuminative, and taking our 

 cue from this fact, should we not make 

 every effort to supply to the very limit 

 these ever industrious underground 

 workers for all vegetable life'? 



It is a source of great satisfaction to 

 take a part in the care of the orchard 

 and to observe the teams or tractors 



