30 



THE IEKIGATION AGE. 



Scientific Horticulture at Lew- 

 iston Idaho 



The earlier orchards that were planted in the north- 

 western country were handled on the principle that man 

 would plant and God would do the rest. Every grower 

 tried to get as many trees on an acre of ground as he 

 could and he tried also to get a crop as early as possible 

 and pruning was conspicuous by its absence. Spraying 

 was early known to be essential, but due to faulty plant- 

 ing and faulty pruning it was not effective. The advance 

 in years and knowledge changed all this, but changed it in 

 individuals and not as a whole. The great fruit districts 

 contained hundreds of owners who have developed horti- 

 culture to a science, but hundreds also who handle their 

 properties in the bygone ways. 



Every district contains the anomaly of first-class prop- 

 erty immediately in contact with an orchard which would 

 shame the grower of thirty years ago. It is not infre- 

 quently known that orchards have been sold at prices 

 varying from $1,500 to $3,500 an acre, when the orchard 

 alongside has failed to market at $500 an acre, the trees 

 being ai equal age and the varieties the same. The dif- 

 ference is due, of course, to the amount of profit derived 

 from one and from the other, and the sole reason of the 

 one being profitable and the other unprofitable is due to 

 the good horticultural care on the one hand and the lack 

 of it on the other. 



That district which lies at the junction of the Snake 

 and Clearwater rivers, immediately in the suburbs of the 

 city of Lewiston, Idaho, has inaugurated a system of hor- 

 ticultural care which is a radical step in the evolutionary 

 process of fruit growing, and this district, unsatisfied to 

 have only a percentage of first-class properties, has con- 

 ceived it to be possible to make of every orchard a tech- 

 nically perfect property. They have engaged the services 

 of a man who was recently professor of horticulture at 

 the University of California and have given into his hands 

 the domination of the district from a horticultural standr 

 point. 



Those who purchase are compelled to sign a con- 

 tract by which they agree that their property will be 

 cultivated and cared for in a horticultural like and thrifty 

 manner, thus delegating into the hands of a horticultural 

 expert the superintendence of their properties. 



It will not be uninteresting to indicate briefly who 

 was chosen, after persistent examination of the capability 

 of many, for the position of horticultural adviser in the 

 Lewiston country. To that end follows a quotation from 

 a bulletin which is one of a series continuously issued by 

 the Lewiston Orchards Company. 



"The company has employed Prof. E. H. Twight, re- 

 cently from the University of California, to direct its hor- 

 ticultural work at Lewiston. His time will be devoted to 

 the general supervision of the planting and care of all 

 fruit properties in Lewiston orchards, and to experimental 

 work and lecturing, with a view to developing the orchard 

 system of the valley in the most perfect manner, to the 

 end that all orchards within the company's district may 

 receive expert care. Prof. Twight will personally inspect 

 each orchard from time to time and render a report, to- 

 gether with his recommendations, to the owner. 



"Prof. Twight took the B. S. degree at the National 



University of France at Montpelier, after which he spent 

 three years in the College of Agriculture at that institu- 

 tion, taking the degree of agricultural engineer. During 

 his technical course he traveled extensively through the 

 vineyard districts of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, 

 Spain and Algeria. After graduating he came to Canada 

 for the Canadian government, and for two years exam- 

 ined lands and locations, after which he was sent by 

 the British government to Australia for the purpose of 

 experting vineyards. On returning to this country a year 

 later he was employed by the California Wine Associa- 

 tion in the capacity of chemist and consulting expert in 

 viticulture, and was then called by the University of 

 California to the position of assistant professor of hor- 

 ticulture, where he remained for five years. 



"In writing the company concerning Prof. Twight, 

 Prof. E. J. Wickson, dean and director of the College of 

 Agriculture at the University of California, states as fol- 

 lows: 



" 'Mr. E. H. Twight is a thoroughly trained man in the 

 viticulture of Europe and of California, understanding 

 the grape from the choice of the land to the manufacture 

 of the products. He is also trained in collateral studies 

 and is what the French would call a qualified agricultural 

 engineer. His work with us was very satisfactory, and 

 I should consider him well qualified for the undertaking 

 which you have in hand.' 



" 'The company is able to get the services of Prof. 

 Twight because he desires to associate himself with the 

 practical development of commercial orchards and be- 

 lieves that the Lewiston field offers superior advantages 

 for successful orcharding and vine culture.' " 



Prof. Twight has instituted an organization of in- 

 spection from the selection of nursery stock to the com- 

 pleted orchard. So complete in details has his system 

 become that an owner of an orchard property living in 

 the east can receive from him reports as to just the 

 condition of the property at any time during the season. 

 Periodically, whether requested or not, the owners of 

 property are sent a statement as to what work has been 

 done and the condition of the property. 



The result of Prof. Twight's work has already demon- 

 strated itself to the satisfaction of everyone concerned. 

 In all the Lewiston orchard tracts there is scarcely a 

 property from a horticultural standpoint which is not 

 technically perfect. Those which are less well handled 

 are those which are cared for entirely by their owners, 

 and even these, under the advice of Prof. Twight, are 

 better properties than the average of any district in the 

 west. 



The Dahlhjelm Company of Lewiston, Idaho, will be 

 glad to give further information to anyone who will write 

 them. 



NORTHWESTERN IRON HEADGATES. 



The old fashioned wooden headgate will soon be a thing of the 

 past in up-to-date irrigation districts. Water is becoming too valuable 

 to be trusted to leaking, warping, swelling wooden headgates that wash 

 out when the farmer needs the water for his crops. 



When an irrigation system is equipped with iron headgates 

 that are absolutely water tight, the water they save more than pays for 

 them, and the farmer under the system does not have to worry about 

 his water when he wants it. 



C. D. Butchart, 501 Mercantile building, Denver, Colo., specialist 

 in headgates and inventor and manufacturer of Northwestern iron 

 headgates, has perfected iron gates which can be adapted to any size 

 reservoir, ditch or lateral, and they are being used in the best irriga- 

 tion systems in the country. 



Irrigation engineers, irrigators and those interested in the building 

 of irrigation systems should write to him at once for a copy of his 

 latest illustrated catalogue, giving full particulars about Northwestern 

 Iron Headgates. 



