Page 20 



BETTER FRUIT 



April 



The Pear a Coming Fruit for Western Oregon 



By M. M. McDonald, President Oregon Nursery Company 



THE subject of the pear in Western 

 Oregon is one that is worthy of our 

 best study and investigation, and I 

 believe there are many things we can 

 say about tlie pear and do with it that 

 will be of vital interest to horticulture. 

 In the first place, I think it is pretty 

 well understood, and generally admit- 

 ted, that the pear succeeds as well in 

 Oregon and our Coast country as it does 

 in any other part of the United States, 

 and that we have growing in these 

 Western valleys the greatest varieties 

 of pears of any place in America. 

 Therefore, this country must be well 

 adapted for pear growing, and it fol- 

 lows that the subject should have a 

 place in your deliberations. We have 

 only recently been producing pears in 

 such quantities in these valleys that we 

 have been able to reach the commercial 

 markets of the world; in fact, we have 

 given but little attention to the subject 

 of varieties, production and marketing 

 of pears. It is true that in the Rogue 

 River, and some of the other Southern 

 valleys, they have been growing pears 

 in a commercial way and shipping in 

 carlots, but throughout the state gen- 

 erally, I do not believe the same atten- 

 tion has been given to the pear that has 

 been given to some other fruits. 



It is one of the fruits that lends itself 

 well to small acreage. It seems to 

 thrive better in the back-door lot and 

 out in the open than when growing in 

 large orchards; and in these small back- 

 door lots there is growing a great deal 

 of fruit of splendid quality that never 

 reaches the consumer. Our trouble 

 seems to be that no adequate provision 

 has been made for marketing it when 

 grown in a limited way. True, in cer- 

 tain localities where canneries are 

 established, the best of the fruit is 

 taken, but thousands of tons of the most 

 luscious of all fruits is allowed to go to 

 waste every year for the lack of proper 

 marketing facilities. We need better 

 co-operative marketing systems for 

 taking care of the production of the 

 small grower, for every time a ton of 

 pears, for instance, goes to waste tliere 

 is just so much wealth lost to the com- 

 munity, for it is only when labor re- 

 ceives its just returns for the effort put 

 forth that it can turn the result of that 

 labor into the regular channels of trade 

 and thereby add its part to the wealth 

 of the nation as a whole. 



We hear a great deal these days about 

 creating positions agricultural for our 

 boys when they come back from the 

 front. We also hear a great deal about 

 the back-to-the-soil movement for them. 

 But people cannot live by just pro- 

 ducing things from the soil. We must 

 create the machinery that will convey 

 these products, when grown, to the 

 market that is hungry for them and 

 return to the producer a fair amount 

 for his labor and interest on his invest- 

 ment. Therefore, it would seem as if 

 we ought to try to create conditions 

 that will allow a man to plant and care 

 for his trees and wait a reasonable time 

 for them to come into bearing. As some 



of us grow older, we realize that it 

 takes time to produce fruit profitably. 

 In our earlier years, we had an idea 

 that we could plant an orchard this 

 year and next year harvest the crop. 

 As time goes on, I believe we will more 

 and more come to a realization of the 

 fact that the production of tree fruits 

 is a permanent investment that takes 

 years to come to full fruitage — an in- 

 vestment to hand down to our children. 



To my mind, we are planting all of 

 our orchard trees too close together. 

 By the time they come into bearing, 

 both roots and tops are interlocking 

 and soil exhaustion has already set in. 

 The pear is a heavy producer under 

 proper conditions and a gross feeder; 

 consequently, when planted close to- 

 gether they soon exhaust the available 

 plant food and are impoverished. If 

 we are going to produce the pear at its 

 best, we must extend the distance be- 

 tween the trees, allowing more soil 

 area for each tree, and by so doing 

 produce larger crops and more money 

 per acre. 



In our Western valleys and Coast 

 country, there is none of our tree fruits 

 that gives a surer annual crop than does 

 the pear, and yet it has received but 

 little attention in a general way. What 

 I mean is, there is less information 

 readily available for the use of the aver- 

 age planted than for other fruits. We 

 want to know more about the pear; the 

 best varieties to plant in different soils 

 and different localities; the best kinds 

 to plant for shipping and the best for 

 canning. 



It is my opinion that more attention 

 should be given to the subject of can- 

 ning the pear — that is, from the stand- 

 point of the grower. It is true the can- 

 neryman knows all about what he 

 wants from his standpoint. He makes 

 arbitrary rules to protect his own in- 

 terests without any regard for the in- 

 terest of the producer or the consumer. 

 To illustrate: Last season we had a 



very large crop of Bartletts, as fine 

 fruit as ever grew, but on account of 

 climatic conditions the fruit was not as 

 large as usual and a large percentage 

 did not come up to the standard set by 

 the canneries. Consequently, there was 

 no market for this under-sized fruit, 

 fruit that had just as good food values 

 as the larger grade. The average con- 

 sumer would be just as well served if 

 the smaller size were canned and the 

 producer would realize a profit instead 

 of a loss. Better provision must be 

 made to take care of the small producer 

 in years when there is a surplus and the 

 crop, from climatic conditions, does not 

 come up to the usual standard. If 

 orcharding is to be brought to its high- 

 est state of perfection, then fruit must 

 be produced by the small grower, who, 

 with the help of his own family, does 

 all of his own work and harvests his 

 own crop. He needs, and must have, 

 assistance in marketing in a co-oper- 

 ative way. He must be allowed to get 

 fair returns for his labor and invest- 

 ment, and this he cannot do under some 

 of the arbitrary rulings made in regard 

 to grades because he cannot always 

 control conditions surrounding the 

 growing of his crop. If the small 

 grower is to be allowed to survive, we 

 must devise some method that will 

 assure him a market in these off years 

 when for some reason, climatic or 

 otherwise, his crop has run largely 

 below the standard rule established. 



Canned Goods Prices Adjusted. 



A final price adjustment covering 

 .$12,000,000 worth of canned goods 

 which were released from government 

 reservation some time ago has been 

 decided upon in Washington, according 

 to the announcement of H. Clay Miller, 

 who has just returned after having 

 taken part in the conferences. He says 

 that the price adjustment has been 

 highly satisfactory to the canneries, 

 especially in the matter of tomatoes, 

 which at one time promised to be a 

 burden. 



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