Page 8 



BETTER FRUIT 



January, 1921 



high until late in the season after spur 

 and spur leaf growth is over. As 

 growth is in relation to the food re- 

 serve as well as to current seasons cul- 

 tural conditions, any practice tending 

 to change the nature of the reserve ma- 

 terials, could have an influence upon 

 the growth responses. During a course 

 of years, their cultivation could so 

 alter the internal composition of the 

 trees as to give marked differences in 

 even the spur growth, when compared 

 to that found in unfilled orchards. 

 Fruit trees need early season fertiliza- 

 tion. Culitivation gives the greatest 

 available nitrogen late in the season, 

 after spur growth is mostly over. 



Pruning has been found to play a 

 most important part in inducing regular 

 bearing of off-year trees. This is be- 

 cause of its value in rejuvenating the 

 older spurs, Fig. 2. Irregular bear- 



ing is common where there are many 

 spurs of a low vegetation condition. 

 Owing to the fact that the effects of 

 pruning are largely local, small cuts 

 near "run-out" spurs can be used to in- 

 crease their vigor, give a variety of 

 spur classes and tend to result in regu- 

 lar bearing. Also, cases of too much 

 shade are subject to remedy by prun- 

 ing. Pruning by the removal of large 

 limbs should be avoided. Such cutting 

 has a minimum influence upon the 

 growth of older spurs along the re- 

 maining large branches. Thinning out 

 of the tops should be secured by a 

 larger number of smaller cuts being 

 made close to the spurs which it is de- 

 sired to rejuvenate. 



Suggestions of how to secure annual 

 bearing depend upon how near or how 

 far the trees are from being regular 

 now. This can be known only after ob- 



serving the type of growth made by 

 the trees, as to whether it is over, under 

 or medium vegetative as compared to 

 trees giving the best fruiting responses. 

 "It is important when judging the 

 trees, to know the amount of spurs 

 blossoming but equally important facts 

 to determine are: Are any blossom 

 spurs forming on second-year terminal 

 growths? How much growth are the 

 non-blossoming spurs making? Are 

 they making so little growth that no 

 blossom buds are formed (while the 

 tree is fruiting) ? Are they making 

 enough growth to be in the class of 

 spurs that form blossom buds? The 

 answer to these questions should be 

 the basis upon which to build the cul- 

 tural plans."* 



•Wisconsin Experiment Station Bulletin 317. 



The Northwest Fruit Growers' Conference 



WITH over 200 fruitgrowers in at- 

 tendance, the annual meeting of 

 the Washington State Horticul- 

 tural Association, the Northwest Fruit- 

 growers' Conference and the Washing- 

 ton State Grade and Pack Conference 

 opened at Spokane Mondav, December 

 13, concluding on the 16th. W. S. Gil- 

 bert, president of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, welcomed the fruitgrowers to 

 the city while F. A. Wiggins, vice-presi- 

 dent of the association, responded. 

 President H. G. Boehlke of Wenatchee 

 in opening the sessions of the horticul- 

 tural association spoke briefly. His re- 

 marks were chiefly devoted to the co- 

 operative movement in general among 

 farm and orchard producers and the 

 necessity for organizations of this kind. 

 The part of the program devoted to 

 the control of insect and other plant 

 pests and horticulture in general was 

 then taken up and occupied much of 

 the time of the convention. A leading 

 topic in this connection was the in- 

 jurious work of the leaf roller which 

 was said by Leroy Childs, entomolo- 

 gist at the Hood River experiment sta- 

 tion, to be causing serious damage over 

 an area including California, Oregon, 

 Washington, Idaho and Montana. Mr. 

 Childs who has had considerable ex- 

 perience in fighting this pest advised 

 poisons and contact sprays such as 

 arsenate of lead and black leaf forty to 

 destroy the young worms after they 

 have hatched, and oil sprays to destroy 

 the eggs. 



In discussing the spray residue left 

 on apples at times which caused con- 

 siderable loss to a few Northwestern 

 fruitgrowers last year by having their 

 apples condemned in the East E. J. 

 Newcomer of the U. S. Bureau of Plant 

 Industry said that eliminating this east- 

 ern perjudice was a matter of educa- 

 tion. He said that eastern consumers 

 must be taught that in order to have 

 fancy fruit it must be sprayed and that 

 the small amount of spray sometimes 

 left on the fruit was harmless. 



Dr. A. L. Melander, entomologist of 

 the Washington State College, in his 

 remarks on pest control stated that the 



work along this line was seriously 

 hampered by lack of funds to carry on 

 the work and A. B. Kelly urged that 

 horticulurists bring strong pressure to 

 bear to get larger appropriations for 

 this and similar work. 



Taking up the matter of the exten- 

 sion of the strawberry root weevil pest 

 throughout the Northwest M. L. Dean, 

 state horticulturist, discussed the advis- 

 ability of establishing a statewide quar- 

 antine. The state agricultural depart- 

 ment, he said, had this matter under 

 consideration at the present time. 



In the matter of interstate quaran- 

 tine regulations W. H. Wicks, director 

 of the Idaho State Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, said that it was the sentiment of 

 quarantine officials to modify to some 

 extent the regulations now in effect 

 and that a meeting of the Western Plant 

 Quarantine Board was to be held soon 

 to discuss the proposed modifications. 



How to keep mice from girdling trees, 

 which was an interesting subject, was 

 handled by Theo. H. Scheffer. J. H. 

 Stahl, of the Western Washington Ex- 

 periment Station had for his subject 

 small fruit growing, while R. T. Reid of 

 Seattle discussed the grape in Washing- 

 ton. Better ventilation and more at- 

 tention to maintaining a proper temper- 

 ature for apples in storage and trans- 

 portation was urged by R. R. Pailthorpe 

 of the United States Bureau of Markets, 

 while D. F. Fisher, pathologist of the 

 United States Bureau of Plant Diseases, 

 presented the results of investigations 

 of afiple scald. The various diseases of 

 apples and their cause was the topic 

 handled by Dr. F. D. Heald, pathologist 

 of Washington State College, who went 

 into his subject thoroughly and gave 

 the growers much valuable informa- 

 tion. Professor O. M. Morris of the 

 state college gave an interesting infor- 

 mal talk on the effects of temperatures 

 on fruit trees. Soil fertility was ex- 

 plained by Roy Larson of Wenatchee, 

 followed by E. D. Newsom who told of 

 the importance of soil analysis. Other 

 subjects presented were "Alfalfa a Soil 

 Builder," E. S. Robertson, Extension 

 Division, State College; "How to Prune 



for Efficiency," W. P. Sawyer, Wapato; 

 "Fruit Transportation Problems, Water 

 versus Railway," J. Curtis Robinson, 

 Seattle; "The Northwest's Opportunity" 

 (an address on the benefits of coopera- 

 tive growers' associations), C. I. Lewis, 

 organization manager Oregon Growers 

 Cooperative Association; "Cooperative 

 Organization," Stanley Arndt, San Fran- 

 cisco; "Cooperative Marketing," Joseph 

 Passonneau, Pullman, director of the 

 State Bureau of Markets. 



At a special evening session devoted 

 to the subject of spraying, "The Effects 

 of Dormant Oil Sprays," was presented 

 by C. C. Vincent, professor of horticul- 

 ture of the University of Idaho, while 

 B. G. Pratt of the "Scalecide" company, 

 New York, A. J. Gunderson of Cleve- 

 land, representing the Sherwin-Will- 

 iams Company, and C. J. DeVise of the 

 Rex Spray Company of Yakima, Wash., 

 talked on the value and use of their re- 

 spective sprays. 



The joint meeting of the beekeepers 

 and fruitgrowers resulted in a valuable 

 interchange of ideas. George W. York, 

 the veteran bee expert of Spokane, told 

 of the value of bees to horticulture; Dr. 

 A. L. Melanders explained how bees 

 pollinate blossoms, and J. J. Romage 

 gave an enlightening talk on "Bees and 

 Fruit as a Business." 



Cooperative marketing was unani- 

 mously endorsed, the resolution saying 

 in part "that it be resolved that the 

 horticultural association of Washing- 

 ton recommends the earnest considera- 

 tion and investigation of cooperative 

 marketing to devise cooperative assem- 

 bling and marketing-associations suited 

 to our conditions and products." 



Stating that the fruit industry is bear- 

 ing an inequitable burden in the matter 

 of freight rates another resolution re- 

 quests the appointment of a horticul- 

 tural committee to work with the Na- 

 tional Farm Bureau in taking up this 

 question. The Truth in Fabric bill, the 

 Capper-Volstead bill or a similar meas- 

 ure, the Vestal bill applying to standard 

 containers, and the Kahn-Wadsworth 

 or a similar bill authorizing the govern- 

 ment to operate the nitrate plant at 



