Pa^e Sixteen 



BETTER FRUIT 



February y 1 922 



BETTER FRUIT 



Published Monthly 

 by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



Twelfth and Jefferson Streets 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



JERROLD 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 



MONTANA— 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 



Remittances made payable to 



BETTER FRUIT PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Subscription Price; 



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



three years, $2; five years, $3. Canada and 



Foreign, including postage, $2.00, payable in 



American Exchange 



Advertising Rates on Application. 



\'OLUME XVI. NO. 8 



In the New Era 



The old policy of selling only 

 developed orchard tracts to new 

 settlers has been a grave mistake. 

 This was the statement made re- 

 cently to Hood River men by C. 

 R. Bone, pioneer developer of 

 orchards. The thing that should 

 be done and must be done to en- 

 courage newcomers, he said, is to 

 sell them a tract of undeveloped 

 land along with each planted or- 

 chard tract. 



To our way of thinking, this sug- 

 gestion is a highly practical, sen- 

 sible and timely one. It is in accord 

 with the keynote of our Home- 

 seekers' number of last month. In 

 that was stressed the fact that the 

 new settler will do the best and be 

 most satisfied only through pur- 

 chase of reasonably priced good 

 land and the transformation of this, 

 by his own resources and labor, into 

 an intensively developed acreage. 



The suggestion of Mr. Bone puts 

 the idea in concrete form. Beneath 

 it is sound psychology. The plan 

 provides for creative work on the 

 part of the settler. In this are em- 

 bodied the greatest joys and satis- 



factions that come to the keen, 

 normal man. If you do not grasp 

 this fundamental truth read again 

 the experience articles published 

 last month. Every one of them 

 pointed out the joy and the pleasure 

 derived from development work in 

 the fruit game. 



It was shown, of course, that 

 greatest financial reward also comes 

 from development of a tract of land 

 into a valuable and productive 

 ranch. But do not overlook the fact 

 that something more than mone- 

 tary reward is necessary to make 

 the red-blooded worker happy. 

 "That something" is constructive, 

 creative activity. The new arrival 

 who promptly becomes engrossed in 

 the job of developing a fruit farm 

 isn't the least bit likely to be writing 

 "back home" that he is dissatisfied 

 in his new location. 



In contrast would be the man 

 who buys a developed tract, at top 

 price, and is immediately con- 

 fronted with the new and untried 

 job of making it pay. If things go 

 a little wrong it is this man who, in 

 a few months, degenerates into one 

 of those obnoxious pests known as 

 the knocker. At present this pest 

 is pretty well eliminated in the Pa- 

 cific Northwest — why be so foolish 

 as to grow another crop.? 



The best way to give honest 

 value to the new settler and set him 

 on the road to becoming a con- 

 tented, prosperous booster is to see 

 that he gets some land to develop. 



The County Agent 



It is a fine commentary on the 

 value of the county agent's work 

 that the wave of deep retrenchment 

 sweeping most every county gov- 

 ernment of the Northwest leaves 

 him untouched. If any county 

 agent in northwestern states has 

 been dropped from service as a re- 

 trenchment move the incident has 

 not come to our attention. The 

 nearest to anything of the kind was 

 the case of an agent who resigned 

 when confronted with a decrease in 

 his budget allowance. 



Had the country gone through a 

 period of readjustment four or five 

 years ago it is a safe conjecture that 



many a county agent would have 

 been dropped from his job as a bit 

 superfluous. 



But the agricultural agent has 

 had time to demonstrate his worth. 

 Each succeeding year has found 

 him widening the sphere of his in- 

 fluence and service. He has come 

 to be accepted, even by the tight- 

 fisted type of farmer, as practically 

 indispensable. 



If you will read a monthly or 

 yearly report of a faithful county 

 agriculturist you will admit he has 

 abundantly justified the salary paid 

 him. The scope and variety of his 

 activities are astonishing. 



He cannot be an expert in all 

 lines, yet rarely is an appeal for 

 aid or advice sent him in vain. If 

 his own fund of knowledge and ex- 

 perience falls short he knows where 

 to obtain the needed information. 

 He makes it a point to obtain it. In 

 the course of a year he plugs a 

 thousand little leaks and gives a 

 thousand constructive suggestions. 

 He has made good. He has won 

 well-earned approbation. He has 

 been scrutinized by the purse- 

 pinching county commissioners and 

 they have stamped him "O. K." 



The Other Fellcw 



There are numerous things that 

 should make for optimism among 

 Western fruit growers. The big 

 trouble with the pessimist is that 

 he refuses to think of the fact that 

 he has obtained a very satisfactory 

 crop that has brought in remunera- 

 tive returns, or the fact that rail- 

 road rates have been reduced again. 



There is a simple rule for the 

 man who prefers not to be a pess- 

 imist. He need only turn his 

 thoughts to the plight of some of 

 the other fellows. For example, 

 would he care to change places with 

 the sheepman who has seen the 

 value of his flock dwindle until he 

 faced bankruptcy, with almost no 

 market for his wool.? Or, just how 

 would he be feeling now were he 

 a corn grower in the Middle West, 

 with his year's crop worth more as 

 fuel than as a foodstuff.? 



