HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



fruit will be larger in size, better matured and far 

 more valuable in market. It is an entirely safe 

 assertion that 100 peaches, each weighing one pound, 

 would sell in any market for four times as much 

 money as 1,000 peaches, each weighing one-tenth of a 

 pound. And while this is true, it is also true that the 

 trees bearing the fruit would have parted with their 

 strength and vitality in inverse ratio of the value of 

 the fruit produced. Among the most careful and 

 successful fruit growers in all parts of the country the 

 thinning of fruit on the trees is as much a part of 

 staple orchard work as the final harvesting of the 

 crop. In some fruit-growing regions it is alleged that 

 it is profitable to thin all fruits, though in most places 

 there are exceptions to this rule, at least in practice. 

 It requires careful labor to thin fruit judiciously, and 

 such labor should and does command an advanced 

 wage. But probably no labor applied to the orchard 

 is really more profitable than that devoted to thinning 

 the fruit. Sometimes, to be sure, frost or wind does a 

 large part of the work of thinning, but as a rule it is 

 badly done if left to such agencies, and they cannot 

 be relied upon. The well-known Connecticut peach 

 grower, Mr. J. H. Hale, alleges that he has produced 

 good crops of peaches after 90 per cent, of the blos- 

 soms had been killed by frost. This fact merely em- 

 phasizes the paramount duty of all orchardists to thin 

 their fruit. The proper time, as has been heretofore 

 stated in THE AGE, is just as the pits begin to harden, 

 and before the drain upon the vitality of the tree has 

 become heavy. To all growers of deciduous fruits we 

 therefore say : Thin your fruits with vigorous hand ; 

 it will put money in your purse. 



PACKING FRUIT FOR LONG SHIPMENT. 



Nothing better illustrates the value of painstaking 

 care in the shipment of fruit to distant markets than 

 the experience of Mr. Frank Ailing, of Tacoma, 

 Washington. Mr. Ailing conceived the idea of ship- 

 ping the fine fruits of the Sound region to the Orient, 

 and made a number of shipments of both apples and 

 pears to Japan with very satisfactory results. The 

 distance shipped covered somewhat over 5,000 miles, 

 and the time nearly twenty days; and yet so care- 

 fuHy was the fruit selected, prepared and handled, 

 that it arrived in excellent order and sold at good 

 prices. In view 6f the complete success of these 

 shipments, it is of interest to note the manner in 

 which the fruit was packed. 



The boxes in which the apples were shipped held 

 about 30 pounds each, the top and bottom being made 

 each of a single board, and were as nearly airtight as 

 possible. Each apple was carefully wrapped in four 

 thicknesses of tissue paper, and gently placed in the 

 box, which had been well lined with bright colored 



paper. Between the layers of fruit six sheets of 

 tissue paper were placed, the whole being made 

 tight in the box before the cover was nailed down. 



Pears were handled just as carefully, and the boxes 

 contained only two layers of fruit, the number aver- 

 aging forty-eight to the box. Each fruit was care- 

 fully wrapped, as in the case of apples, and the boxes 

 are prepared in a similar manner. On arrival at 

 Yokohama the fruit was placed in cold storage for 

 subsequent distribution to the markets of Japan as 

 well as China. Mr. Ailing has also sent other fruits 

 to these faraway markets, and in all cases he has met 

 with success. What is of especial interest in this con- 

 nection is that this fruit was always shipped in tight 

 boxes, without the possibility of a free circulation of 

 air, whereas it is stoutly alleged by many shippers 

 that all fruit should have good ventilation, and should 

 not be closely boxed for long shipment. These suc- 

 cessful experiments of Mr. Ailing are instructive at 

 least, and show that a free circulation of air among 

 such fruit is not necessary when shipped in the man- 

 ner adopted by the Tacoma dealer. But the ques- 

 tion of more or less ventilation of fruits en route to 

 market is one of fact rather than theory. If repeated 

 experiments show that fruit packed and shipped in a 

 certain way reaches the market in good condition and 

 sells at satisfactory prices, that is all that should be 

 required, whether or not the experience accords 

 with a preconceived theory. 



INSECT ENEMIES. 



It is announced that the praying mantis, well known 

 to be a formidable enemy of caterpillars, is being prop- 

 agated under the direction of the Oregon State Hor- 

 ticultural Society, for distribution among the orchard- 

 ists of that State. As a general statement it may be 

 said that no better service to horticulture can be ren- 

 dered than the introduction of natural enemies of the 

 insect pests that afflict the fruit grower at every turn. 

 If friendly parasites can be naturalized in our orch- 

 ards and vineyards, they will be found by far the 

 best and cheapest remedies against the ravages of 

 most insect pests. The eggs hatched in Oregon came 

 from Japan, and a full line of experiments is to be 

 tried in order to test most carefully the efficacy of this 

 friendly parasite. The insect receives its name from 

 its peculiar attitude while attacking its prey. 



It is due to the intelligent horticultural societies in 

 the various States of the Union, and to the invaluable 

 labors of the Experiment Stations of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, that very many if not indeed 

 most of the formidable enemies of the fruit growers 

 are at last made controllable, if reasonable diligence 

 be exercised. Whatever may be said by old-fash- 

 ioned horticulturists against the value of book farm- 



