Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



December 



manner that every plum is keyed in 

 place, secure but not bruised, and 

 nothing but perfect fruit should be 

 packed. The cover must not press the 

 fruit sutTicient to bruise same, but must 

 bear firm enough to hold fruit from 

 being displaced by rough bumps by the 

 train en route. 



The man in business tries to follow 

 the lines of least competition. So with 

 the plum grower. During the last few 

 years so much advance has been made 

 in the creation of new and improved 

 varieties that it has stimulated the 

 grower's desire to get his plums in 

 market when the market is as bare of 

 fruit as possible. Under existing con- 

 ditions this is secured by getting his 

 fruits to market ahead of others. Many 

 standard varieties now considered com- 

 paratively old will always command a 

 place on the market, such as Tragedy, 

 Burbank, Wickso Climax, Hungarian 

 Grand Duke, Giant and Diamond, but 

 many new and valuable varieties are 

 now competing for first place on the 

 list of valuable shippers. Prominent 

 among these are the Beauty, Formosa, 

 California or Vacaville, Caviota and 

 many others, some unnamed, which I 

 am not at liberty to discuss. One very 

 promising new variety originated by 

 my neighbor, Mr. Burton, which he has 

 called the Earlianna, was entirely har- 

 vested by the first of June. It is a 

 good-sized plum, splendid color and 

 shape and an excellent plum for the 

 table, a good bearer and an Al all- 

 around early blue plum. In conversa- 

 tion with a neighbor recently, who is 

 growing over one hundred different 

 varieties, he remarked that he would 

 confine his energies in the future to 

 about three varieties, all of them new, 

 such as the Beauty, Formosa and Cali- 

 fornia Blue or Vacaville; and after in- 

 specting his orchard his judgment 

 seemed to me to be wise. 



From our experience in the past we 

 feel that the possibilities for improved 

 varieties are almost unlimited. As we 

 are now growing many times as many 

 varieties as are needed, and so many 

 as to keep the buyers at sea as to what 

 is being off'ered them, I think it wise to 

 eliminate all of the second-rate and 

 third-rate varieties, except where abso- 

 lutely necessary to retain them for 

 pollenizing purposes. On account of 

 the very great variation in the time of 

 blossoming in different seasons, varie- 

 ties requiring special pollenizing are 

 rather unsatisfactory. A very unsatis- 

 factory condition obtains on this Coast 

 in the naming of our fruits. It is bad 

 eonugh to have to be confused with a 

 thousand or more distinct varieties, but 

 when we add to this trouble by insist- 

 ing on calling the same variety by four 

 or five different names we are surely 

 in need of a guardian. 



And now in conclusion, my advice to 

 those contemplating the shipping plum 

 business is to go slow and to investi- 

 gate thoroughly first, and to be satis- 

 fled with nothing but the best condi- 

 tions, and then with care and good 

 judgment you are pretty sure of a suc- 

 cess that will net you a good income. 

 We now have the United States and 



Canada for a market, as no other por- 

 tion of America grows successfully the 

 fine varieties of plums grown on the 

 Pacific Coast. As soon as the Panama 

 Canal is opened to traffic you may an- 

 nex the markets of Europe with an 

 excellent refrigerator steamer service 

 direct from your own great City of San 

 Francisco. 



Deterioration of Heaters 



The Citrus Protective League has just 

 received the following letter from Mr. 

 C. C. Teague, general manager of the 

 Limoneria Company, Santa Paula, in 

 relation to the heavy depreciation in 

 oil pots in citrus groves due to lack of 

 care. Mr. Teague has had more expe- 

 rience in the handling of frost-fighting 

 equipment in citrus groves than any 

 other man in the state, and this letter 

 from him should be read and acted 

 upon by every grower who has in- 

 stalled frost-fighting equipment. On 

 account of the large amount of money 

 invested in oil pots and the great im- 

 portance of keeping this equipment in 

 first-class working order for possible 

 use in other years, we are asking the 

 co-operation of the newspapers in 

 giving publicity to the letter from Mr. 

 Teague which follows: 



"I have just returned from a two- 

 days' automobile trip through the prin- 

 cipal citrus districts of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, and the thing that impressed 

 me more than anything else upon the 

 trip was the tremendous loss that the 

 growers were having through neglect 

 of the care of their oil pots, and it 

 seemed to me to be worth while to try 

 and bring them to a realization of what 

 this means. It has been estimated that 

 the citrus growers have over two mil- 

 lion dollars invested in nil pots. In the 

 two-days' trip before mentioned I 

 only saw a very few cases where the 

 pots had been coated with asphaltum 

 or paint to prevent rusting, and as a 

 consequence nearly all of the pots were 

 rusting badly, and in my opinion will 

 be a mass of junk in from two to three 

 years if this is not remedied — probably 

 in two years. The new type of pot 

 should last at least ten years, and prob- 

 ably fifteen, with proper care, as the 

 burning action is not hard on them 

 until they are burned entirely out, 

 which will rarely be necessary. It 

 then is extreniely important that the 

 oil pots should be kept thoroughly 

 painted. In my opinion, if the present 

 method of care is continued the grow- 

 ers will meet with a loss of four or five 

 hundred thousand dollars a year in un- 

 necessary depreciation, and at the end 

 of two or three years will be without 

 adequate frost-fighting equipment, and 

 if a freeze comes along will again be 

 badly injured. 



"We have dipped all of our pots in 

 asphaltum ])aint before putting them 

 out in the field, and if it is necessary to 

 burn them so as to melt off the protect- 

 ing paint, we then send men around 

 with pails and brushes and touch them 

 up where it is needed. The material 

 that we use is cheap and is made as fol- 

 lows: We take asphaltum and place it 



in kettles and melt it, then remove it 

 from the fire and after it has stopped 

 boiling dilute it in the proportion of 

 one gallon of stove distillate to ten 

 pounds of asphaltum. This stock mix- 

 ture is then put in barrels ready for 

 use. If it proves too thick to apply well 

 with brushes, it can be diluted with 

 engine distillate or gasoline to the re- 

 quired consistency. The paint herein 

 (lescribed costs less than ten cents 

 per gallon." — F. O. Wallschlaeger, Sec- 

 retary Citrus Protective League of 

 California. 



Handling By-Products 



Means of converting second and 

 third-grade fruit and vegetable prod- 

 ucts into marketable goods are the sub- 

 jects of a new bulletin on fruit and 

 vegetable by-products, written by Pro- 

 fessors C. I. Lewis and W. S. Brown 

 and issued by the Extension Division 

 of the Oregon Agricultural College. 



"It is comparatively easy to sell high- 

 class fruit or vegetables," says the bul- 

 letin. "They are in such demand and 

 bring such high prices that they justify 

 high cost of production, expensive 

 freight rates and higher charges for 

 distribution and selling. Our problem 

 is thus seen to be concerned not so 

 much with fancy produce as with sec- 

 ond and third-grade products — the low 

 grades, so to speak. These grades will 

 not justify a heavy outlay. Further- 

 more, the amount of them is increasing 

 each year and the bulk of this fruit in 

 the Northwest is becoming enormous. 

 How best to utilize such products is 

 testing the greatest brains in the 

 country. We must attempt to utilize all 

 our products in some form or other 

 and reduce the enormous waste now 

 taking place. We believe that the 

 fruitgrowers' associations and the gen- 

 eral selling agencies are going to find 

 it to advantage to handle various fruit 

 products. The best grades of fruits can 

 undoubtedly be best disposed of in a 

 fresh state, but the other grades in 

 many cases will bring more satisfac- 

 tory returns when utilized by the can- 

 neries, vinegar works, evaporators or 

 jelly factories." 



The bulletin deals with the by- 

 products plant as an adjunct to fruit- 

 growers' associations. In it are con- 

 sidered the problems of the amount of 

 caijital necessary, the best system of 

 organization and the technique of 

 handling that is bringing the best 

 results. 



Orchardist 

 Supply House 



Franz Hardware Co. 



Hood River, Oregon 



I 



