BuEBAU OF Ageicultuke 497 



to the growers alone. The business men take an interest. They 

 realize that the sucess of the fruit grower means their success. 

 They are just as ready as the producer to boost the products of that 

 section. You will find the windows of the banks, real estate offices, 

 and even the dry goods and jewelry stores decorated with apples. 

 They talk apples, think apples, and dream apples. 



The very successful ranches, as they term them there, are 

 mostly small. It seems rather odd to a tenderfoot, at least it did to 

 me, to hear a five or ten acre orchard spoken of as a ranch. But 

 that is the term they generally employ. From five to forty acres 

 is the usual unit, and it is more likely to be the former than the 

 latter. With these small tracts the owner can give his personal 

 attention to each individual tree. Little is left to the hired man. 

 Some of the most successful and wealthy growers employ practically 

 no help in their orchard except at pruning, spraying, and harvest- 

 ing time. 



Varieties. 



When fruit growing was first started in the northwest, most of 

 the varieties commonly grown in the east were tried out. It was 

 noticed that in some sections certain varieties reached a degree of 

 perfection not found in other places. The growers' were quick to 

 take advantage of this fact and limited their future planting to 

 the varieties that obtained this high degree of excellence. Most of 

 the prominent fruit sections are limited to not more than four and 

 some of them to even one or two varieties that they make their 

 leaders. Many places can grow a number of varieties successfully, 

 but they can grow one or two varieties T)etter, perhaps, than any 

 other place and they stick to these and advertise the fact. 



The selling organizations take advantage of this specialization 

 and advertise certain varieties as having been produced in the sec- 

 tion known to grow them to the highest degree of perfection. Form- 

 erly, before there was a central selling organization, each local 

 union bid against the others in the market and probably two or 

 three different sections would be claiming to raise the best apple of 

 a certain variety. But since the organization of the Northwest Fruit 

 Distributors, there is an understanding whereby certain sections are 

 given advantage on the market for certain varieties. For instance, 

 the Ortleys raised in Hood River are offered to the trade at a higher 

 price than Ortleys produced in any other section. The Mackin- 

 tosh Red raised in the Bitter Root Valley in Montana brings a 

 liigher price than that variety grown in any other section. The 

 Rogue River Valley Newtowns bring more on the market than any 

 other Newtown pippins. 



