Page 14 



BETTER FRUIT 



December, 1920 



BETTER FRUIT 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing. 



Published Monthly 



by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



703 Oregonlan Building 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



Tree Surgery. 



Considering the price and the diffi- 

 culty in securing nursery stock to re- 

 place trees that have been injured, tree 

 surgery is becoming a very important 

 factor. In calling attention to this fact 

 experts connected with the United 

 State Agricultural Department state 

 that up to the present time tree-repair 

 work has not received the recognition 

 and approval from tree owners that it 

 deserves. Continuing, these experts 

 say: 



"This may be due at times to unfa- 

 vorable experiences with dishonest or 

 ignorant tree surgeons, at other times 

 to the reluctance of the owners to 

 spend much money in preserving their 

 trees, or from their ignorance of the 

 benefits that may result when tree- 

 repair work is properly done. 



"Reliable tree surgeons are doing 

 much in a practical way to educate the 

 public as to the benefits of tree-repair 

 work. A few states have laws regu- 

 lating tree-repair work on a commer- 

 cial basis. 



"Tree owners are urged to remember 

 that the necessity for tree-repair work 

 15 or 20 years hence may be reduced 

 materially by promptly attending to the 

 fresh injuries of today. 



"Most persons can, at least with a 

 very little preliminary practice on the 

 simpler types of work, undertake or- 

 dinary tree surgery provided they are 

 familiar with the use of a gouge and 

 mallet, a saw and a paint brush. A 

 steady head and ability to climb will be 

 necessary for work in the top of the 

 tree. 



"A badly diseased or injured tree 

 should be removed and replaced by a 

 healthy one unless there is some very 

 special reason for trying to preserve 

 the tree. 



"Two axioms for tree-repair work 

 that should be borne in mind constant- 

 ly are: That prompt treatment of 

 freshly made wounds is the surest and 

 most economical method of preventing 

 disease and decay in the future, and 

 that all wounds made in tree surgery 

 should be cleaned, sterilized and pro- 

 tected from infection just as thoroughly 

 as in animal surgery, and for the same 

 reasons." 



The orchardist should always bear in 

 mind that his trees are his stock in 

 trade; his producing element in other 

 words; that it takes years to bring them 

 into bearing on a paying basis and that 

 watchful care at the proper time will 

 avoid a loss that cannot be made up in 

 after years. Where the injury is slight 

 it may be taken care of by the or- 

 chardist himself, but bad cases require 

 the attention of a trained man in the 

 profession, and it pays to have expert 

 advice. 



The Nut Growing Industry. 



Due to a large extent to the thorough 

 investigations made by government 

 and state experts and the experience 

 of growers this year it is shown that 

 it will not be necessary to call a halt 

 in the rapidly growing walnut industry 

 in the Northwest on account of winter 

 injury which was a more or less pre- 

 dominant feeling among growers last 

 spring. These investigations show that 

 the greatest injury was sustained in 

 districts where the sites and soils were 

 not best adapted to the growing of 

 walnuts and that the trees most easily 

 affected were those that were devital- 

 ized. Another feature is that damag- 

 ing temperatures such as visited the 

 Northwest during the past winter are 

 of rare occurrence and are part of the 

 hazards of growing nuts and fruits. 



The recovery of trees in many or- 

 chards and the fact that walnuts on the 

 uplands were very little injured and 

 bore large crops this year coupled 

 with the experience growers gained 

 from the freeze generally has put new 

 life into the industry rather than in- 

 jured its advancement. The knowledge 

 also that the demand for nuts grown on 

 the Pacific Coast leads all others in 

 the big markets is inducing many to 

 plant new orchards while a number of 

 those already in the business are con- 

 templating enlarging their acreage. In 

 fact with 10,000 to 12,000 acres of wal- 

 nuts and filberts planted in the North- 

 west nut growing is taking a prominent 

 place with the other orchard enter- 

 prises of this region, and time only is 

 necessary to see the annual tonnage 

 assume large proportinos. 



Bulge or Flat Pack. 



The attempt of the railroads entering 

 the Florida fruit districts to have the 

 bulge pack abolished is commented on 

 by the Fruit trade Journal as follows: 



"Undoubtedly the sentiment of grow- 

 ers and the tendency of the present is 

 toward the bulge pack. By its adop- 

 tion less cars will be required to move 

 the crop than otherwise; because more 

 fruit can be put in each box than in 

 the package which the Atlantic Coast 

 Line Railroad seems to favor. Its use 

 will also mean less decay in normal 

 times inasmuch as the fruits do not 

 shift or rub against each other in a 

 tightly packed box as in the case in a 

 flat packed container. Not even those 

 who favor the latter package can deny 

 that after citrus fruits are packed a 

 few days, what at loading time was a 

 flat pack becomes a slack pack and 

 presents that appearance at destination 

 as a car of oranges from Florida is 

 usually six or seven days in transit. 

 What is called a 'bulge pack' seems like 

 an overfilled box at loading time, but 

 after being a week or so in transit it 

 proves to be nothing more than a box 

 of full measure. The vibration of the 

 car during its trip to northern markets 

 reduces the bulge to merely full meas- 

 ure and that is what buyers expect. If 

 they fail to get it, the growers will 

 have to accept a reduced price for their 

 fruit. It is not difficult to see that a 



flat pack means a slack box, or an im- 

 properly filled one at points of des- 

 tination. The jobber who is a connect- 

 ing link between the producer and con- 

 sumer, dislikes purchasing a slack 

 packed box of fruit because such a 

 package when turned over to the ex- 

 press man, or the truckman, will not 

 reach the consumer in good condition 

 as a result of the shifting of the fruit 

 around in the box. Nearly all growers, 

 jobbers and leading receivers share this 

 view. Upon the necessity of reducing 

 the damage to Florida citrus fruits in 

 transit and making the problem of 

 transportation as easy for the Atlantic 

 Coast Line Railroad and other carriers 

 as possible, there is general concur- 

 rence, but we doubt if the general use of 

 the flat pack will bring about this de- 

 sired result, or be conducive to the per- 

 manent good of the citrus industry." 



At a meeting of the Florida citrus 

 growers held at Orlando, in conference 

 with the railroad officials so many ar- 

 guments were brought to bear for the 

 retention of the bulge pack that it is 

 believed now that there will be no 

 further objections to it. This is as it 

 should be, as years of experience have 

 shown that it insures a satisfactory box 

 package to both dealer and consumer. 



Spotted Apples. 



Expert investigation into the cause 

 of the spotting of apples, especially 

 of the Newtown variety this fall, has 

 resulted in the decision that either the 

 August bordeaux must be eliminated 

 or some other agent than copper sul- 

 phate must be used, says the Hood 

 River Glacier. Contrary to the per- 

 sistent conviction of some ranchers, the 

 tiny red spots that covered a number 

 of their Newtowns this fall are not the 

 result of scab, but have been definitely 

 traced to a combination of two causes, 

 the unusually wet season and the cop- 

 per sulphate in the bordeaux spray. 

 Leroy Childs, of the Hood River Ex- 

 periment Station, says there can no 

 longer be any doubt about this, for it 

 is now recognized that spotting to a 

 lighter degree takes place under ad- 

 verse weather conditions even in or- 

 chards in which bordeaux had not been 

 applied in August. 



The spotting is explained by Pro- 

 fessor H. P. Barss, of the O. A. C. Ex- 

 periment Station, who says that the 

 rain and copper together had caused a 

 drying out of the lenticles of the apples, 

 with an eventual breaking down of the 

 tissues. Wherever this breakdown of 

 the tissues occurred a red spot devel- 

 oped. The reason why the apples in 

 some orchards appeared to be more 

 seriously damaged than in others is ex- 

 plained by the relative strength of the 

 copper sulphate in the spray used. 



Filbert Propagation. 

 'lime and cost of getting filbert stock 

 for new plantings can be saved by 

 layering the shoots that arise from the 

 base of the tree during the first sum- 

 mer. Well-rooted plants have been ob- 

 tained the first growing season in trials 

 at the Oregon Agricultural College and 



