igii 



BETTER FRUIT 



Pag'^ 55 



CHARLES WILMEROTH has just 

 returned from a trip through Europe, 

 having visited England, Ireland, Scot- 

 land, Germany and several other coun- 

 tries, both as a pleasure trip and in the 

 interest of the fruit business. One of 

 his principal comments is that boxed 

 apples nearly all arrive in a damaged 

 condition, which would make the heart 

 of the fruit grower sore. From him, and 

 from others, we have learned that apple 

 boxes are put into a sling and loaded 

 into the hold in the steamer at this end, 

 and put into sling and dumped on the 

 wharf at the other end. The conse- 

 quence is the fruit grower who has 

 handled his apples like eggs, and the 

 railroad carried them carefully to New 

 York, has them subjected to the rough- 

 est kind of handling in being loaded on 

 the steamer and from the steamer to the 

 wharf. This is a phase of fruit shipping 

 that should be corrected. Mr. Wilmeroth 

 says that apple boxes should be made 

 strong for export. His suggestion is 

 meeting with approval, and it would 

 seem that from his report on the method 

 of handling that the cover ought to be 

 made as thick as the sides. The editor 

 of "Better Fruit" was the first to call 

 for a reduction in the swell in 1903. 

 Swell anywhere from one and one-half 

 inch to two inches was considered nec- 

 essary in packing apples, but the editor 

 of "Better Fruit," who was manager of 

 the Hood River Apple Growers' Union, 

 immediately began to make investiga- 

 tion, and through observation and by 

 correspondence became convinced that 

 one-inch swell on top and bottom was 

 all that was necessary to take care of 

 any shrinkage, and consequently the 

 Hood River Apple Growers' Union fol- 

 lowed this system of endeavoring to 

 pack every box of apples with a swell 

 of not more than one inch, top and bot- 

 tom. It would seem that from what Mr. 

 Wilmeroth says the swell has been too 

 great, and much bruising the result, and 

 it looks now as if it would be necessary 

 for all districts to allow one-inch swell, 

 and it might be advisable to decrease the 

 Hood River standard, from one inch on 

 top and bottom to something less. Mr. 

 Wilmeroth is a man of varied expe- 

 rience in the fruit business, having been 

 a member of a Chicago firm several 

 years, a resident of Wenatchee for some 

 time and located recently in Southern 

 Oregon, and during the year 1910 he was 

 manager of the Southern Oregon Fruit 

 Growers' Association, consequently his 

 conclusions are worthy of careful con- 

 sideration. 



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NURSERYMEN'S CONA^ENTION. 

 The nurserymen's conventions are 

 of great importance to the fruit industry. 

 Every nurseryman should attend the two 

 conventions that are to be held this year. 

 The National Nurserymen meet in St. 

 Louis June 14, 15 and 16. Excursion rates 

 can be secured on June 10 and on various 

 other dates, which can be secured from 

 the Oregon-Washington Railroad and 

 Navigation Company. Every nursery- 

 man and every fruit grower will receive 

 in benefit several times the cost of this 



trip. We presume arrangements can be 

 made also to return via San Jose, Cali- 

 fornia, to attend the Pacific Coast Nurs- 

 erymen's Association, which is to be held 

 in that city June 21, 22 and 23. However, 

 those who cannot make both trips can 

 make arrangements for the Pacific Coast 

 Nurserymen's Association by writing to 

 C. A. Tonneson, secretary, at Tacoma. 

 Washington. We understand the rate to 

 San Jose, California, will be $26.40. 

 "Better Fruit" intends to be represented 

 at both of these meetings if possible, 

 but the work of getting out an edition 

 of "Better Fruit" has become so great, 

 requiring more time every month, that 

 sometimes we are unable to attend all 

 the conventions we would like to. We 

 intend to be represented at the San Jose 

 meeting at least, if it is possible. 



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THE Pacific Fruit Express is prepar- 

 ing a new system of icing for the 

 coming year. While we have not seen the 

 apparatus, we understand there will be 

 a moving platform constructed along the 

 track which will carry a load of ice, and 

 by moving alongside the railroad track 

 the entire train can be re-iced in a very 

 few minutes. This shows the right dis- 

 position on the part of this company to 

 assist the fruit grower, because the 

 quicker the fruit reaches its destination 

 the better it will be on arrival. 



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RETURNS and reports of a reliable 

 nature are not yet in from all dis- 

 tricts. Possibly some districts will have 

 nearly a normal crop, while others are 

 already known to be very light. At the 

 present writing it seems as if the esti- 

 mate of sixty per cent for the North- 

 west in general would be a conservative 

 figure. 



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THE apple market has certainly been 

 peculiar this year. Barrel apples com- 

 manded very strong prices the early part 

 of the season. At the present time the 

 demand for barrel apples is weakening 

 very rapidly, while the demand for boxed 

 apples is very strong. 



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THE APPLE TREE STORY 



PARAGRAPHS have recently been 

 appearing in newspapers that a young 

 apple tree is to be planted to replace the 

 old apple tree under which Lee surren- 

 dered to Grant at Appomattox. This 

 apple-tree legend survives the years and 

 all attacks upon it. It is such a pleasing 

 legend, blending poetry and tragedy, 

 botany and arms, that people persist in 

 believing it. These fruit-tree legends — 

 the Grant apple tree and the George 

 Washington cherry tree — are a great deal 

 hardier than the fruit trees themselves, 

 and live to a riper age. The apple-tree 

 story has very little fact to sustain it. 

 Lee did not surrender under an apple 

 tree, but in the parlor, on the right of 

 the entrance of the house of Wilmer 

 McLean, which set back in a big garden 

 on the main street of the village of 

 Appomattox, about one square from the 

 courthouse. General Lee and his mili- 



tary secretary. Colonel Charles Marshall, 

 entered the McLean house at 1:30 o'clock 

 in the afternoon of April 9, 1865. General 

 Grant was already there, accompanied by 

 Generals Sheridan, Ord. Ingalls, Rawlins. 

 Seth Williams, John G. Barnard, and 

 Colonels Horace Porter, Orville E. Bab- 

 cock, Ely S. Parker, Theodore S. Bowers, 

 Frederick T. Dent and Adam Badeau. 

 The articles of surrender were agreed to, 

 written and signed, the conference was 

 concluded at 4 o'clock, and at 4:30 o'clock 

 Grant sent the dispatch to Secretary 

 Stanton announcing the surrender of the 

 Army of Northern Virginia. 



An apple tree and an apple orchard 

 figure in the events leading up to the 

 surrender, and it may take some of the 

 bloom ofif the story to announce that 

 April, 1865, was a backward month, and 

 that at the time of the surrender there 

 was not a leaf or a blossom on any trees 

 around Appomattox Courthouse. The 

 old orchard long ago disappeared, and the 

 village of Appomattox has very nearly 

 disappeared. The courthouse was burned 

 down something over fifteen years ago 

 and a new one was built at Appomattox 

 Station, on the Norfolk and Western 

 Railroad, three miles southwest of the 

 surrender village. Nevertheless the Appo- 

 mattox apple-tree story blooms perenni- 

 ally. — Washington Star. 



J. R LITTOOY 



CONSULTING HORTICULTURIST 

 Orchard director, orchard schemes examined, 

 orchard plans submitted, orchard soils and sites 

 selected, nurseries visited and stock selected, 

 values examined for farm loans, purchasing agent 

 for land and orchard investments, acts as power of 

 attorney in selection of Carey Act lands. 



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WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



