Page S2 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER, OREGON 

 Official Organ of 

 The Northwest Fruit Growers' Association 

 A Monthly Illustrated Magazine 

 Published in the Interest of Modern 

 Fruit Growing and Marketing 

 All Communications Should Be Addressed and 

 Remittances Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



E. H. SHEPARD 

 Editor and Publisher 

 C. R. Greisen, Assistant Editor 

 H. E. \'^an Deman, C ontribnting Editor 

 State Associate Editors 



OREGON 



A. B. Cordley, Entomologist, Corvallis 

 C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist, Corvallis 

 P. J. O'Gara, Pathologist and Entomologist, 

 Medford 



WASHINGTON 



W. S. Thornber, Horticulturist, Pullman 

 A. L. Melander, Entomologist, Pullman 



COLORADO 



C. P. Gillette, Director and Entomologist, 

 Fort Collins 



E. B. House, Chief of Department of Civil and 

 Irrigation Engineering, State Agricultural 

 College, Fort Collins 

 E. P. Taylor, Horticulturist, Grand Junction 



IDAHO 



W . H. Wicks, Horticulturist, Moscow 



UTAH 



Dr. E. D. Ball, Director and Entomologist, Logan 

 Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist, Logan 



MONTANA [ 



O. B. Whipple, Horticulturist, Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W. WooDWORTH, Entomologist, Berkeley 

 W. H. VoLCK, Entomologist, Watsonville 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 



R. M. WiNSLOW, Provincial Horticulturist, Victoria 

 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $1.00 PER YEAR 



In Advance, in United States and Canada 

 Foreign Subscriptions, Including Postage, $1.50 



Advertising Rates on Application 

 Entered as second-class matter December 27, igo6, 

 at the Post Office at Hood River, Oregon, 

 under Act of Congress of March s, iS^g. 



THE FRUIT GROWERS' HOME. 

 Fruit growers are high-class, intelli- 

 gent, educated people, consequently their 

 desires are more or less similar to those 

 of city people, and it is evident that there 

 is a strong desire to make their environ- 

 ments as attractive as possible. Good 

 schools are already established, good 

 roads are being built, the orchard is set 

 and now a movement for beautifying the 

 home grounds is rapidly spreading. 



"Better Fruit" was the first horticul- 

 tural paper to take the initiative in this 

 movement in a big, 'broad-minded way 

 by publishing, in May, 1910, the first 

 entire floral edition ever published by 

 any fruit growers' paper. This edition 

 was so popular that the demand, in a 

 very short time, exhausted the large 

 number of extra copies which had been 

 printed. So, again, we produce in this 

 number a floral edition, furnishing the 

 fruit grower with good articles on the 

 growing of all kinds of flowers, with 

 splendid articles about the best varieties 

 to be planted. The edition speaks for 

 itself, and it hardly seems necessary to 

 comment further editorially upon it than 

 to say that "Better Fruit" hopes the day 

 will come when every fruit grower will 

 surround his house with flowers, shrub- 

 bery and a lawn, and have his home as 

 beautiful as that of any of our city 

 friends. 



Just a wora more. A few dollars and 

 a icw nours' work will accomplish won- 

 ders, and remember — it is the home beau- 



BETTER FRUIT 



tiful, the home attractive that will keep 

 the young people at home on the farm 

 and make your life pleasanter and much 

 happier. 



<3> <$> <S> 



PRUNE PRICES.— The San Francisco 

 Chronicle comments editorially upon 

 the prices for prunes during 1910, stating 

 that the State Board of Control of Iowa 

 said that the inmates of the state institu- 

 tions must be deprived of the joy of con- 

 suming the California prune during the 

 next six months for the reason that the 

 price is twelve and one-half cents per 

 pound. Consumers in California are pay- 

 ing this figure. Growers who retained 

 their last year's crop are getting eight 

 to nine cents; the processing and pack- 

 ing must be added to this figure, and the 

 profit for the retailer, also the freight, 

 before the price is made to the consumer, 

 therefore it would seem that the price of 

 twelve and one-half cents is very reason- 

 able in Iowa. The bulk of the crop last 

 year was sold by the grower at from 

 four and one-half to five cents. Appar- 

 ently the prune supply is not equal to the 

 demand, and the condition of the market 

 indicates that the prune industry looks 

 prosperous for the coming years, and 

 that with 1910 cleaned up, 1911 prices 

 ought to be very satisfactory to the 

 grower. 



Ottawa, April 3, 1911. 

 Editor "Better Fruit": 



I must write you my appreciation 

 of "Better Fniit." It is without a 

 peer as to contents and makeup. I 

 want to know if you have any back 

 numbers available, as I consider 

 they are an acquisition to any fruit 

 grower's library. I did not receive 

 the January number, but February 

 arrived, and was the means of get- 

 ting you two new subscribers. Pro- 

 fessor W. Saxby Blair of McDonald 

 Agricultural College made the state- 

 ment in open class that "Better 

 Fruit" was the best magazine pub- 

 lished. Faithfully yours, 



P. AITCHISON. 



SELLING THE FRUIT CROP.— 

 Never before in the history of the 

 fruit industry of the Northwest has the 

 interest been so keen or so general about 

 plans for disposing of the fruit crop as 

 during the last few months. In previous 

 years the crop has been much smaller, 

 and not only readily, but quickly and 

 satisfactorily disposed of. In 1910 the 

 crop was larger than in previous years, 

 and the increase demanded a wider dis- 

 tribution. This, however, was not fully 

 realized until so late in the season that 

 the growers were unable to organize 

 properly and put into efifect a selling 

 force or system sufficient to adequately 

 distribute the crop. 



A large crop coming during 1910, 

 when, as everyone knows, financial con- 

 ditions were by no means at their best, 

 made matters all the more difficult. The 

 fact that the financial depression was 

 anticipated caused this depression to be 

 all the worse. The political situation 



May 



and the trust agitations were causes that 

 tended to keep capital out of new invest- 

 ments and exploitation work. While the 

 financial conditions during the past year 

 have never been viewed as being critical, 

 everyone realized that money was very 

 tight. It is generally understood, and 

 believed, that financial conditions will 

 improve very materially in the year 1911, 

 and it is now considered that the busi- 

 ness of the country is prosperous and 

 that there is no need for uneasiness, yet 

 a feeling of conservatism must naturally 

 be expected to prevail. 



We cannot help but feel that financial 

 conditions are largely accountable for 

 last year's prices being somewhat lower 

 than in previous years. However, the 

 prices, in a measure, are also due to lack 

 of proper distribution; better prices 

 would have been realized if large markets 

 had not been supplied so heavily. It is 

 a well known fact that a number of large 

 cities, which should have paid good, fair 

 prices, either received no shipments from 

 the Northwest or only a moderate sup- 

 ply, not equal to the actual demand. It 

 is this that is causing fruit growers to 

 think with a view to solving the problem 

 of selling. 



Early in the year — in January — a meet- 

 ing was held in Portland, with repre- 

 sentative delegates from different dis- 

 tricts, to discuss the plan of forming a 

 central selling agency for Oregon, Wash- 

 ington and Idaho. Later a meeting was 

 held in Walla Walla, and a plan has been 

 evolved, which is being submitted to the 

 different districts for consideration. It 

 remains to be seen what will be done. 

 Much progress, however, has been made 

 and a better understanding of the busi- 

 ness has resulted, and in all sections 

 activity prevails. Work has been done 

 along the right lines for the betterment 

 of the selling, and the fruit business in 

 general. 



Southern Oregon has formed a district 

 organization composed of associations in 

 each one of the shipping centers. This 

 is certainly a step in the right direction. 

 The Yakima Valley already has one asso- 

 ciation, and a district organization is 

 being formed in other sections where the 

 Yakima Horticultural Union has no 

 membership. Wenatchee is active for 

 district association to include Wenat- 

 chee, Chelan, Malaga, Peshastin, Leav- 

 enworth and other tributary and similar 

 fruit growing sections in that district. 



In April a meeting was held at Albany, 

 Oregon, with a view to forming an Ore- 

 gon selling agency to include the Wil- 

 lamette Valley, for the sections from 

 Portland to Roseburg. Hood River has 

 the oldest association, which has always 

 been successful, and associations are 

 already formed in the surrounding terri- 

 tory — Mosier, White Salmon and Under- 

 wood. It is evident that the association 

 idea is progressing rapidly, and the dis- 

 trict association plan is also meeting with 

 success in dififerent districts, and the 

 indications are that in coming years there 

 will be very few growers shipping inde- 

 pendently; it is apparent that business 

 will either be done through associations, 

 district associations or a central selling 



Continued on page 55. 



