ANNUAL REPORT, 1916, VICE-PRESIDENT, FIRST CONG. DIST. 183 



summer and not much if any winter protection needed. The 

 little hedge plant, Berberry Thunbergi, is in great favor, also 

 Hydrangea Arborescens and Spirea Anthony Waterer and Van 

 Houttii. 



Quite a number here spray their orchards, and it will soon 

 become general, as the results are so manifest. Buyers look up 

 those orchards first. The lesson has begun to sink in. We need 

 vinegar, cider or evaporating factories to use up the cull apples. 

 All the large growers deplore this waste. Spray or no spray, 

 there are bound to be off-fallings caused by wind, drouth, neglect 

 or something. There is a new everbearing raspberry down here, 

 that we call Gilbertson, that surpasses anything else in the 

 raspberry line in size, productiveness, also of good quality and 

 about as hardy as King. Wherever we observed them this sea- 

 son they were loaded with great fruit all the fall, from plants 

 set this spring. 



Co-operative Methods Not a Cure-All. — "Fruit growers in the east 

 have long looked upon the great fruit growers' organizations of the Pacific 

 Coast States as being almost models of all that fruit growers' organiza- 

 tions should be. The thorough manner in which they have safeguarded 

 every step from the pruning and spraying of their trees and the thinning 

 of the fruit to the packing of the product in neat, attractive packages, just 

 so many apples, uniform in size and color, to the box, has been pointed out 

 as the explanation of their ability to outsell — not undersell — eastern fruit 

 in the eastern markets. It has come as somewhat of a shock, therefore, to 

 many eastern growers to find that in spite of their apparent perfection of 

 method, all things are not well with the fruit growers of the western coast 

 states. In fact, it has seemed at times as if their situation could hardly be 

 worse. The very prosperity brought about by their early successes has led, 

 in a large measure, to their undoing. This success created a false optimism, 

 which resulted in over plantings, excessive land values, increased cost of 

 production, and ruinous competition between different co-operative organiza- 

 tions. This condition, in turn, culminated in glutted markets, and such low 

 prices for fruit that thousands of fruit growers have been ruined and large 

 areas of fruit trees cut down and the land devoted to other crops." — Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist. 



Universal Fertility Service. — How about starting universal fertility 

 service? All boys on the farm, and all men, too, are eligible to join. The 

 requirements are that you do your share toward maintaining the fertility 

 of the soil and promote agricultural preparedness by using the best methods 

 of handling your soils and crops. Your experiment stations and agricul- 

 tural colleges will furnish soil fertility ammunition in booklets and pamph- 

 lets. Bigger production is needed and to secure it better methods of farming 

 are urgent. 



