Page 16 



BETTER FRUIT 



Published Monthly 

 by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



Twelfth and Jefferson Streets 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



lERROLD OWEN Managing Editor 



ERNEST C. POTTS Editor 



C. I. MOODY Advertising Manager 



EASTERN REPRESENTATIVES 



PAUL W. & GUY F. MINNICK 



303 Fifth Ave., New York 



JNO. D. ROSS 608 Otis Bldg., Chicago 



SAN FRANCISCO REPRESENTATIVE 



EDWIN C. WILLIAMS 



Hobart Bldg., San Francisco 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON— C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist. 



WASHINGTON— Dr. A. L. Melander, Ento- 

 mologist; O. M. Morris, Horticulturist, Pull- 

 man. 



COLORADO — C. P. Gillette, Director and Ento- 

 mologist ; E. B. House, Irrigation Expert, State 

 Agricultural College, Fort Collins. 



ARIZONA— F. J. Crider, Horticulturist, Tuscon. 



MONTAN.^- H. Thornber, Victor. 



CALIFORNIA— C. W. Woodworth, Entomolo- 

 gist, Berkeley; W. H. Volck, Entomologist, 

 Watsonville; Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist, 

 Riverside. 



INDIANA — H. S. Jackson, Pathologist, Lafayette. 



All Communications should be addressed and 



Remirtances made payable to 



BETTER FRUIT PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Subscription Price: 



In the United States, $1.00 per year in advance. 



Canada and Foreign, including postage, $2.00, 



payable in American exchange. 



Advertising Rates on Application. 



Seasonable Hints 



Those readers who unfailingly 

 keep things in spick-and-span shape 

 about their orchards or ranches and 

 who do the necessary task at the 

 exact time it should be done may 

 just as well pass this by. This is 

 just a bunch of timely hints and, as 

 such^ can be of no value to any 

 such paragons of efficiency. 



It is a poor workman who finds 

 fault with his tools, but it is a worse 

 one who goes on a job with poor 

 equipment. 



If you do not use the best prun- 

 ing tools obtainable you are miss- 

 ing much of the possible satisfac- 

 tion of this ofttimes irksome job. 

 Aside from the fact that the best 

 tools make the work of pruning 

 easier, a good pruner, whether saw 

 or shear, is the one that makes the 

 clean cut, while the poorly built 

 tool almost always damages the 

 limb stub. 



Figuring an average of only 20 

 cuts to a tree, you would make be- 

 tween 10,nOO and 12,000 cuts in a 

 10-acre orchard. If your pruners 

 are worn or dull, or not properly 

 constructed or adjusted to .insure a 

 clean cut all around, then you are 

 sure to leave thousands of ragged. 



BETTER FRUIT 



disease-receptive spots to mar and 

 cripple your orchard. 



Use of an old, worn-out spray 

 machine is another bit of false 

 economy that practically assures 

 trouble and loss. Not alone is it 

 expensive in amount of time con- 

 sumed, but also because of the in- 

 ferior work that must result in loss 

 of clean fruit. 



If you did not clean up and re- 

 pair your spray equipment and put 

 it away in the best of shape when 

 through with it you would be re- 

 paid even yet for the trouble of 

 putting it in proper trim now, or at 

 least well in advance of the time 

 you must use it again. Time for 

 the dormant spray, as you will re- 

 call, is not so many months distant. 



Have you looked into the mat- 

 ter of fertilization with an open 

 mind.? Perhaps you have not real- 

 ized that the day has gone when 

 horticulturists took it for granted 

 that these wonderful Northwestern 

 soils would go right on producing 

 bountiful crops without man's as- 

 sistance. Hundreds of tons of fer- 

 tilizers are now applied annually to 

 orchards of the Northwest and 

 their use is steadily increasing. 



Thovisands upon thousands of 

 acres of land in Southern states was 

 drained in days gone by of every 

 vestige of fertility through contin- 

 ued cropping to tobacco or cotton 

 without thought to replacement of 

 the elements necessary to crop life. 

 This condition is now being reme- 

 died, hut the loss in the meantime 

 has been appalling. Through the 

 use of cover crops and commercial 

 fertilizers lands of the South are 

 once more being brought back to 

 a state of fertility. 



The lesson is too obvious to need 

 elucidation. You will surely grant 

 that there must be no repetition of 

 any such stupidity in the North- 

 west. 



Mythical "Ring" 



It appears, after all, that the Chi- 

 cago investigators of food costs 

 thought they found something 

 wrong with the Northwestern 

 growers. One member of the com- 

 mittee which visited Coast cities 

 made the allegation that the grow- 



Decemher, 1921 



ers will sell their apples only to a 

 "ring" of commission men. 



The charge, were it proven true, 

 would reflect more or less of dis- 

 credit upon the growers and would 

 possibly account for a part of anv 

 undue costs to the consumer. 



Before those who know market- 

 ing methods and conditions in Coast 

 fruit sections the charge fell as a 

 "dud." The explanation of why 

 nearly all the fruit produced here 

 is sold to a comparatively few com- 

 mission dealers is simple. They 

 know the business and, more impor- 

 tant in this phase of the matter, 

 they have the funds necessary to 

 handle carloads of fruit under con- 

 ditions as they exist. 



Individual would-be purchasers 

 of fruit in car lots, the growers 

 have found, almost invariably drop 

 their plans when they find, for in- 

 stance, that a car of apples at its 

 eastiern destination represents an 

 outlay of approximately $2,000. 

 This money requirement is what 

 keeps the individual from buying, 

 and not an agreement among grow- 

 ers to sell only to a "ring" of 

 buyers. 



National Apple Day 



It is a fact hardly to be disputed 

 that National Apple Day was giv- 

 en little recognition in Western 

 fruit-growing states this year. 

 There were any number of com- 

 munities where not the slightest ob- 

 servance of the day could be noted. 



Several explanations may be ad- 

 vanced. Chief among them are 

 the fact that most apple growers 

 were too busy with their crops and 

 a sort of impression that the ob- 

 servance is intended anyhow main- 

 ly as a reminder for consumers in 

 the East. As to the first excuse, 

 excellent reasons can be advanced 

 in favor of a later date for apple 

 day. 



The fact remains, however, that 

 if the nation is to be told that a cer- 

 tain day of the year is set aside in 

 recognition to the apple and its 

 value to mankind, those who are 

 most vitally concerned should not 

 slight and ignore the occasion. The 

 impression thus given the consum- 

 er-public is anything but beneficial. 



