igij 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



has verified this opinion. I firmly 

 believe we should receive better prices 

 this year. I have asked the question, 

 Why? It is because we lack organiza- 

 tion in each of the different districts, 

 because we lack control. We are too 

 much divided in practically all of the 

 districts. By that I mean there are too 

 many different ways of selling, too 

 many competing concerns without any 

 one concern handling a sulTicicnt 

 amount of tonnage to control the situ- 

 ation. Where there are twenty con- 

 cerns in a district, each handling a 

 small amount of tonnage, there is a 

 large duplication of overhead expense. 

 Each one employs a sales manager, 

 whereas this part of the business could 

 be handled by comparatively a few and 

 the rest of the money, which is spent 

 on sales managers at the present time, 

 could be used to employ salesmen to 

 cover the different districts in the 

 United States thoroughly. Where you 

 have a number of institutions and one 

 in control with a large tonnage, that 

 institution is a big factor in setting and 

 controlling the prices, whereas with a 

 large number of small institutions, with 

 each one competing with no one in 

 control, it occurs to me that the weak 

 sister is the one that frequently and 

 most frequently sets the prices. 



Suppose your association or selling 

 concern puts up a number one grade 



and pack, high class in every particu- 

 lar. It has an actual market value of 

 25 cents more per box than some of the 

 other concerns. If the weaker concern 

 putting up a poor grade sells at .$1 per 

 box then your price is •'?1.25. If the 

 weaker sister sells at 75 cents your 

 price is pulled down to $1. 



1 am inclined to believe that this has 

 actually occurred, that the price is un- 

 necessarily low this year in accordance 

 with all conditions as previously speci- 

 fied, and that the reason for it being 

 low is that there is "no control"; that 

 some of the weaker sisters have set the 

 prices, or some of the growers who are 

 awfully anxious to realize money 

 quickly, f. o. b., have sold at unneces- 

 sarily low figures. 



Conditions may be different in differ- 

 ent districts. There are different ways 

 of selling our apples. They can be 

 sold through co-operative institutions, 

 through private incorporated com- 

 panies, f. o. b. cash sales, by auction, 

 on consignment or on conmiission with 

 guaranteed advance. It is up to each 

 district to determine which will be the 

 most satisfactory way. A large ma- 

 jority having adopted a certain plan 

 for disposing of oui- crop would control 

 the situation if the method selected was 

 the best. 



The day of the small jobber and the 

 small manufacturer, if we are to judge 



from modern business, is practically 

 past. The business of the United 

 States today is being done by large job- 

 bers and laige manufacturers. Large 

 institutions, on account of the large 

 volume of business, can systematize 

 their business more perfectly; they can 

 introduce systems of efllciency, hire 

 men of the greatest ability; therefore 

 they are equipped for doing a better 

 business, and that they are successful 

 is evident from the number of big man- 

 ufacturers and jobbers that are in exist- 

 ence today and the lack of small ones. 



It seems to me this pertains to the 

 apple business just the same as any 

 other business. If we have fifteen or 

 twenty concerns you know and I know 

 they are limited in the number of sales- 

 men they employ. Naturally these 

 salesmen are sent to the cities and ter- 

 ritories where the largest number of 

 cars can be sold. Hundreds of smaller 

 cities and towns are neglected. The 

 result is the large cities are congested 

 and glutted, the smaller ones over- 

 looked. The prices in the big cities are 

 low on account of the glut. It seems 

 to me if we had a fewer number of 

 concerns, or strong combinations of 

 existing concerns so that the territory 

 of the United States could be covered 

 more thoroughly and more efficiently, 

 a greater volume could be sold and at 

 less expense. 



Spraying Orchards with Reference to Aphis Control 



By S. W. Foster, Entomologist and Manager Insecticide Department General Chemical Company, San Francisco 



TO obtain the best results from the 

 use of sprays in an orchard, we 

 must use and intelligently apply 

 that material or combination of mate- 

 rials which will do the greatest amount 

 of good toward controlling all the in- 

 sect and fungus diseases detrimental to 

 the particular orchard treated. Wash- 

 ington fruitgrowers are familiar with 

 the usual practices for the control of 

 codling moth, San Jose scale and some 

 other orchard pests. However, there 

 are certain troubles, particularly pow- 

 dery mildew and some species of 

 aphids which are not so well known 

 but which are becoming more gener- 

 ally important each year to the fruit- 

 growers of this state because of the 

 increased amount of damage done to 

 the trees and fruit. The really success- 

 ful fruitgrower of the future must take 

 full cognizance of all pests and condi- 

 tions which lessen the amount of fruit 

 produced on a given area or prevent 

 this fruit from being of the best pos- 

 sible quality. 



^Vhat I have to say in this article 

 deals primarily with the control of 

 aphids, — the rosy apple aphis, green 

 apple aphis and woolly apple aphis. 

 These so-called plant lice can be suc- 

 cessfully controlled without increasing 

 materially the number of applications 

 of spray now applied each year to the 

 average well-cared-for orchard. A few 

 words regarding the life history and 

 habits of these insects might not be out 

 of order, although I .shall not attemjjt 

 to give you a technical detailed dis- 

 cussion of the subject. 



Woolly apple aphis has one form 

 above ground which attacks the leaves 

 and twigs primarily during the grow- 

 ing period. Another form exists 

 throughout the year on tfie roots. 

 These forms are interchangeable, as it 

 were, because some of those living on 

 the limbs and branches of the tree 

 duiing the summer go to the ground, 

 while many of the ground-inhabiting 

 form move above ground to the limbs 

 and branches. This migration from 

 roots to limbs and from limbs to roots 

 keeps up to some extent throughout the 

 growing season. However, the princi- 

 pal migration from the trunk and limbs 

 of the trees to the gi'ound takes place 

 about the time of the first cold nights 

 in the fall of the year and the principal 

 migration from the roots to the limbs 

 and twigs takes place comparatively 

 early in the spring. In the Eastern 

 States there are usually six generations 

 per year, but the life history has not, 

 to our knowledge, been carefully 

 worked out for the Pacific Coast ter- 

 ritory under the varying conditions. 

 The insects pass the winter, however, 

 in our Eastern States both as eggs and 

 as over-wintering lice on the roots of 

 the trees and in some of the warmer 

 regions individuals live throughout the 

 winter in protected areas of i)runing 

 scars, wounds and rough jilaces on the 

 bark of the tree. 



In addition to the migration from the 

 roots to the trunk and limbs of the 

 trees of apples, and vice versa, there 

 is also a cross migration from apple 

 trees to elm trees and back again. The 



eggs are often laid during the fall of 

 the year in crevices of the bark in elm 

 trees, although these eggs are fre- 

 quently deposited on other trees. In 

 the spring the eggs hatch into forms 

 producing what is generally known as 

 stem mothers. These stem mothers 

 may be often found, by careful exami- 

 nation, upon or near the buds of elm 

 trees or other trees, where the eggs 

 have been deposited, before the buds 

 open in the spring. Soon after the first 

 leaves appear the stem mothers begin 

 feeding on tiie under side and the leaf 

 soon curls about the insect, giving some 

 protection for the production of the 

 first generation of young lice. 



This generation is wingless and lives 

 either on the curled leaves or upon the 

 tender twigs. The third generation can 

 usually be found on the elm leaves or 

 leaves of similar plants, but this gen- 

 eration is winged and is known as the 

 spring migrant. It usually migrates by 

 flying to apple trees or similar food 

 plants, settling on the leaves, twigs and 

 yoimg watersprouts. This winged mi- 

 grant produces the fourth generation, 

 wiiich is wingless and which is usually 

 the first important geneiation to be 

 found on apple trees and is the gen- 

 eration which is first observed in any 

 considerable nmnbers by the fruit- 

 grower, making its appearance notice- 

 able during .lune. This generation ma- 

 tures comparatively quickly and pro- 

 duces another, which is the fifth gen- 

 eration, giving two full generations on 

 the apple tree of wingless individuals. 

 The greater part of this last generation 



