BETTER FRUIT 



Pioneer Horticultural Journal of the Pacific Northwest 



Entered as second-class matter April 22, 1918, at the Postoffice at Portland, Oregon, under act 



of Congress of March 3, 1879 



Volume XVI 



PoKTLANu, Oregon, September, 1921 



Number 3 



Power Farming's Victory in the Orchard 



By H. M. Boland of the California Peach and Fig Growers' Association 



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I The frediction that the sa7ne ec- 



1 onomic forces that caused the horse 



I to supersede the ox in the nineteenth 



I centstiry zvould disflace the horse 



I '.c'lth the tractor is coming nearer and 



I nearer iuljillment. In sections of 



I the country where there are hard 



I surfaced roads, the tractor and the 



I motor car and truck have caused the 



I abando7iment of horses almost en- 



1 tirely u-hile everyzchere that the use 



I of these agencies is at all fracticable 



I the use of horses is rapidly declin- 



I ing. — Editor. 



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POWER farming has achieved a signal 

 victory in the fig growing sections of 

 California which center in the city 

 of Fresno. Its progress is shown in the uni- 

 versal adoption of the tractor for the cul- 

 tivation and care of the vast tracts which 

 are being planted to figs in the interior 

 valleys of the state. An old venture in 

 point of years, fig growing has recently as- 

 sumed the dimensions of one of the state's 

 foremost fruit industries and is character- 

 ized by the introduction of the most mod- 

 ern methods of culture, both through neces- 

 sity and expediency. 



Large tracts have been planted to figs 

 in the past six years in California and with 

 the progress made in bringing the fruit to 

 a high point of quality, it is believed that 

 in the near future, the state will supply the 

 markets of the nation with American grown 

 figs. 



Practically every important fig orchard 

 in the San Joaquin valley district is now 

 cultivated by tractor rather than bv old 

 fashioned methods of horse and man power 

 and the fact is doubly significant on ac- 

 count of the keen competition which is 

 being met in the struggle between the old 

 world and the new for the time-honored fig 

 commerce. 



Investigation by the U. S. Department of 

 Commerce and others h.as established that 

 the interior valleys of California arc per- 

 fectly adapted to the culture of the fig. 

 In soil, climate and in other natural charac- 

 teristics it has been found that the differ- 

 ence between the California valleys and 

 the favored sections of Asia and Europe 



where heretofore the fig has reigned su- 

 preme is so slight as to hardly warrant 

 distinction. 



In establishing this fact, the greatest sur- 

 prise was occasioned by an experiment in 

 which a box of figs was dispatched to 

 Smyrna, where fig growers of that section 

 were loud in their praise of the product, 

 claiming that the figs were not California 

 grown, but Smyrna grown, and in some 

 cases the orchards in Smyrna where the 

 figs were supposed to have been grown were 

 named. 



WITH the establishment of the fact 

 that in quality and appearance the 

 fruit of the Pacific Coast could not be sur- 

 passed, the advantage in seeking the com- 

 merce of the nation has hinged on the pos- 

 sibility of producing as economically and 

 an equal or better yield per acre. 



It is believed that perfecting of tractor 

 power for use in the orchards is going to 

 play an important part in the development 

 of this commerce in America and that this 

 realization has been brought home to grow- 

 ers is indicated by the rapid adoption of 

 tractors in orchard cultivation, one of the 

 most important phases of successful fig 

 growing. Fig trees, it has been found, can 

 stand neglect in many ways, but for the 

 sweet, wholesome fruit, such as California 

 has developed in the past few years, inten- 

 sive cultivation is an absolute essential. 



The fig is grown in sections where the 



hot summer sun and the cool nights impart 

 to the fruit the flavor and high sugar con- 

 tent which has made it one of the most 

 popular fruits with mankind for untold 

 centuries. But the fig is a fickle fruit. An 

 extra abundance of water will cause such 

 rapid growth of the fruit that it swells and 

 splits, making it unfit for commercial pur- 

 poses. Extreme moisture also causes a fer- 

 mentation which gives the fig a sour taste 

 and deprives it of the exquisite aroma 

 which has increased its popularity. 



THE ideal fig country is where the mois- 

 ture is retained uniformly in the soil, 

 permitting the tree roots to take it as need- 

 ed, but it must be ever present in sufficient 

 quantities to insure a healthy condition. 



It has been found that the only way 

 to secure this uniformity is by intensive 

 cultivation which forms a mulch, keeping 

 the moisture from evaporating under the 

 burning rays of the California sun and 

 doing away with the capillary attraction that 

 causes the moisture to evaporate through 

 the tubular formation of sun-baked soil. 



In Asia and Europe, the cheapness of 

 man power makes it possible to cultivate 

 intensively with comparatively little cost 

 and with the crude implements that have 

 been used for centuries. 



In California it is different. With man- 

 ual labor commanding four and five dollars 

 a day, and sometimes inefficient at that, the 

 progressive element among the orchardists 



A battery of tractors at work in a 12,000 acre California fig orchard 



