APPLE GROWING m the
PACIFIC NORTH WES
/"U- '^
Vov
- jmiT*i /-i r 'Miiuui ti^^a.
^o lt:\
ki
^Itbrarg
■^ms'
«i(
5C -y^ \-J' .:^V -.^"(ijmiiiiu r- *
2xaj
LIBRARY RULES.
This book may be kept \j vi/ O weeks.
A fine of two cents will be charged for each day books
or magazines are kept overtime.
Two books may be borrowed from the Library at one
time.
Any book injured or lost shall be paid for by the person
to whom it is charged.
No member shall transfer his right to use the Library
to any other person.
t^r'.^
^c^4^'^''^' '^c€S'''^
olSf^Ut^'^o
/T\VV'
fiii
■lf^j'lA.o.^tS^
Apple Growing in the
Pacific Northwest
A Condensation of Lectures, Experiments and Discussions
Conducted by the Educational Department
OF THE
Portland, Oregon, Young Men's Christian
Association
published by
The Poetland, Oeegon
Young Men's Christian Association
Copyrighted 1911
By
Portland, Oreson
Young Men's Christian Association
Contents
Page
Selection of Orchard Soils C. I. Lewis 7
First Year in the Apple Orchard H. ^Y. Sparks 17
First Things in Apple Culture Chas. A. Cole 29
Management of Orchard Soils C. C. Thom 41
Varieties and Environment C. I. Lewis 49
Building an Apple Tree A. I. Mason 69
Development of Apple Trees W. S. Thornber 82
Pruning W. K. Newell 89
Pcllinizing E.J. Krause 100
The Best in Apple Culture H. M. Williamson 108
Apple Tree Anthracnose H. S. Jackson 118
Injurious Orchard Insects Hailey F. Wilson 126
The Codling Moth A. B. Cordley 136
•_ Apple Scab and Crown Gall H. S. Jackson 146
f Poultry in an Apple Orchard H. L. Blan chard 156
,^acking Apples Chas. A. Cole 178
-^Organization for Marketing Apples H. C. Atwell 184
^The Process of Charpitting H. W. Sparks 197
OTThe Small Farm and How to Make It Pay. . James Withy ccmbe 207
<J
Poi'tland, Oregon
YounK Men's Christian Association
Building in which the Lectures, Experiments and Discussions
recorded in this book were conducted.
Preface
''Apple Growing in the Pacific Northwest" is the condensation of
two years' work of the Educational Department of the Portland Young
Men's Christian Association carried on under the name of the "Y. M.
C. A. Apple Culture Club."
These lectures are by the professors of the Washington and Oregon
Agricultural Colleges, as well as practical apple growers and leading
experts in the Pacific Northwest. We believe this means the leading
authorities on apple culture in the world.
A feature of special interest in this book to those who are or
expect to be engaged in the apple-growing business, will be the ques-
tions and answers at the close of each chapter. These are actual ques-
tions and real answers stenographically recorded during the discussions
following the lectures.
The lectures were attended by from two to four hundred apple
enthusiasts every Saturday night.
These lectures are placed in this book form by the Portland Asso-
ciation for the purpose of placing in a permanent record this valuable
store of expert information in respect to one of the rapidly growing
industries of the Northwest.
The Portland Association has taken a deep interest in the industrial
and agricultural life of this section. Schools in Plumbing, Automobile,
Mining and Assaying, Pharmacy, Carpentry and Electricity, as well
as some fifty other commercial and industrial subjects are conducted.
Large contests have been promoted in poultry and potato growing.
This book is simply another effort on the part of the Association
to help in the constructive development of the Pacific Northwest.
W. M. Ladd, President.
H. W. Stone, General Secretary.
R. C. French, Educational Secretary.
^1^
't0
%
li
^* ..t
T^i
'4'.'^
A famous four-year-old Ortley Apple tree. Hood Kivei Valley, Oregon. The photograph
from which this ensravins was made attracted unusual attention on
account of the size, age of the tree and perfection of the apples.
Selection of Orchard Soils
By C. I. Lewis, of the Oregon Agrieiiltural College.
HE subject of my lecture is, "Orchard
Soils, Their Selection, Tillage and Fertil-
ity. ' ' I want to take you first over West-
ern Oregon Soils, taking the Cascade
IMountains as the dividing line. All of
Eastern Oregon is volcanic ash soil. It
runs from sand to coarse gravel and the
alluvial soils.
The Grand Ronde Valley is in a state
of alluvial soil, w^liich is very fertile. Un-
der these conditions, one will have the
most success after a very rainy season. Freewater, near Walla Walla
Valley, has about as much fruit land as the Hood River Valley, but
because there have been only small orchards there Avith about fifteen
or twenty varieties in one orchard, we have not heard so much
of it. The greater part of the soil is volcanic ash, which is very sandy
and is excellent for pears and peaches. Now comes the Umatilla Valley.
We have an experimental station there and find that the soil will grow
pears better than any other soil. The Dalles Valley grows peaches and
grapes, and it may grow good apples, but the best fruits to grow on this
soil are peaches and grapes, because there are only about seven inches
of rainfall there. In Eastern Oregon there is water to irrigate with, a
condition unlike that of AVestern Oregon. One can grow peaches,
cherries, apples and pears on the same soil under irrigation. Of course,
there are a very few men that can make a success of growing so many
different fruits on the same piece of land for the reason that pears need
irrigating at a different time from apples, and the same way with the
others ; they all need irrigating at different times, so it is a hard propo-
sition to grow" the different fruits on the same piece of irrigated land,
and I do not think it Avill very likely be done, although one may get
some very good results. Taking the Hood River Valley into considera-
tion, there are about seven types of soil : gravel loam, typical volcanic
ash, etc.
Now we come to the Willamette Valley. It covers an area of 160
miles one way and from 35 to 60 miles the other way, with an elevation
a AITLE GROWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
of ]00 feet up to snow line. We will begin at the lowest point and
work up. This lowest part is known as the river bench soil. Some of
these soils are the richest in Oregon, being deepest near the river.
They are, as a whole, ideal peach soils, and grow the best peaches in
the Northwest. I do not know why more peaches are not raised here:
there is no reason for not doing so. The early frosts do not hurt peaches
as they do apples. There is an orchard in this valley 20 years of age,
and the owner told me that he got three crops in five years, which is
considered very good. The soil is a silver sand loam, which is known
to be very excellent, especially, as I have said, for peaches. Apples
may not do as well because they are subject to the early frosts, but
some of this may develop into very fine apple and pear soil in time.
Some of the finest bearing trees have been found on this silver sand
loam and some splendid Yellow Newtown orchards are also to be found
there. One thing you want to be careful of when you select your soil,
and that is the sudden drop from high to low elevation. Where you
find these drops, you may be pretty sure of frost. The Cornice pears do
very well there. These pears come into bearing late, and are very shy
bearers, but do excellently well in the Willamette Valley. Of course,
these are also subject to frost. A frost in April would be detrimental
to the apple and pear, while it would not hurt the peach. That is what
makes it better peach land, or at least, is one of the reasons.
Then there is w^hat is ordinarily known as the White Land, which
include parts of Linn, Marion and Benton Counties. The soil is rather
white in color and is therefore known as the White Land. This soil is
generally very deep and has good drainage. There is no reason why it
should not be good fruit land, because around the farm houses one will
find fruit trees w^hich seem to do very well. This may be on account
of the building changing the drainage, or generally giving the soil a
better drainage. These soils as a rule are very deep; I remember
making one boring with a one-half inch auger and went down 15 feet
and still found good soil. This soil is strong in character, but would
have to be greatly improved for fruitgrowing. It is generally consid-
ered to be free from frosts.
Next comes the clay loam, which is just above the white land.
These clay lands constitute the rolling lands of the valley. They are
the prime fruit lands of the valley, judging from the orchards growing
on the soil. The best orchards so far have come from these soils.
Then come the hill lands or the red lands. There are several kinds
of red lands of which some may grow nothing, while others are some of
the very best. Some of the richest lands we have in the State are red
lands. There are the foothills and the table lands. The foothills are
considered especially good on the south and west sides. If one wants to
SELECTION OF ORCHARD SOILS
be sure he has a good deep soil ; get a four-foot auger and bore a hole
in the ground, and if one can go four feet, it will be deep enough.
Sometimes even the north and east side of the same hills are very rich.
This is very true of the foothills of the Coast Range Mountains. There
are thousands and thousands of acres of rolling land which would make
typical orchards. Of course, with good soil, one wants to get all the
other conditions. Good soil alone will not make a good orchard.
Next we have the Umpqua Valley. The bottom lands are known as
being splendid apple and pear lands. The soil is alluvial here.
One may get the best soil in Oregon and then make a failure of
growing apples. All things should be taken into consideration — all the
necessary conditions. One wants to see that he has good loam, good
soil, drainage, sufficient depth, and see that it is not subject to
strong winds. One wants to choose a location where he will not get all
the east winds for his orchard, but probably the most important thing
is the depth. The soil should also have plenty of nitrogen, but that may
be easily supplied, and the common Oregon vetch is very good for that.
Therefore, if one has vetch he can always have nitrogen. It is one thing
to choose land that will grow any tree, and another thing to grow
trees that will bear for 20 to 30 years. Trees can be grown on five or
six inches of soil, but they will last or bear only about five, six or seven
years. It is easier to grow fruit on shallow soil where it is irrigated
than where it is unirrigated, because the irrigation always supplies the
fruit with water and if unirrigated soil is shallow it will dry out very
quickly.
The way to find whether one has depth or not is to get a common
auger and bore holes all over the ground. Four feet is generally known
to be deep enough, while three feet might do. In going over the land
one must look for a drop ; if there is any rock you will find it there. Of
course, Ave need not expect to find the same depth all over the place
because sometimes there is a difference of a few feet and one must
always expect to find some parts of a tract of land which he cannot
use. Besides looking for good depth one wants to get land that has
good air and soil drainage. Land that is generally rolling is mostly
well drained. That is one point to remember. One of the most com-
mon stones that one strikes in looking for depth in Oregon is soapstone.
Do not get land that has soapstone near the surface. Sometimes this
soapstone is well disintegrated, in which case the roots will penetrate
it, but more often it is not. so one wants to look out for soapstone.
Different kinds of apples and pears take different kinds of soil.
Pears will generally thrive on lighter soils than apples. The Winter
Nellis pears require the deepest and richest of soil. The Spitzenberg
apple requires more attention than any other apple and probably does
SELECTION OF OUCIIARD SOILS 11
best on very heavy soil, such as clay sand loam. If one is going to
plant a Spitzenl)erg apple orchard he will have to make up his mind
beforehand to live with his trees, because they need more petting and
attention than any other apple, not only when thej' are young, but
all through their life. The more one fondles and pets them the better
trees he will have. The Northern Spy is an apple that should not be
grown on the very heaviest of soils. In fact, the lighter the soil the
better the apple. If put in heavy soil it grows very rank and comes in
bearing very late. If put in lighter soil it grows better, that is, it
spreads out and comes into bearing earlier, and it is more tender and
has a better color. It is one of the best apples in Oregon if grown
right.
Another thing that one wants to be very careful about is very
good drainage, insuring a less amount of moisture and frosts. I want
to call your attention to the lands on the side of the foothills. You
will mostly find them well drained. I want you to understand that
when I say good drainage, I do not mean land that never has any
water on it. Oue will find some prime apple and pear lands that are
under water all winter. This is especially true in parts of Oregon
where we have three or four months of winter rain, but that water
must be removed very regularly in the early Spring or as soon as
possible. Some of the best lands in Oregon are of that type.
Where Trees Can Be Grown.
Another point to be looked out for is seepage water. You will
find it mostly on the sides of the hills. I have come across a number
of soils that from outward appearances look all right, but when I M^ent
in a short distance I found that the ground was soaked. I remember
one instance where a man had a well 27 feet deep that had about 17
feet of water in August. Another place we went seven feet and had
between three and four feet of water, and I have struck w^ater at
three and one-half feet. This water comes from the hills and seeps
down through the ground and keeps the roots cool. Trees will not
grow well under these conditions. It is not always at the top of the
soil ; sometimes it is down four or five feet.
How^ should soil be used to get the best results? The first thing
is to work the soil deep, thus forming a reservoir which keeps the
winter moisture in it. A good method for doing this is clean culture.
It means good plowing, deep harrowing in spring until it is in a good
condition, then in the summer months go over it again and again with
some shallow instrument until the soil is like dust. In this way the
moisture will be retained. For example : take a plank, even in sum-
12 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
mer time when it is hot, under that plank cue will find that the
ground is a little moist ; that is the way it is with the orchard soil.
The more one works it the finer it gets, and it acts as the plank does
on the soil beneath, thereby keeping it moist.
In winter the soil is supplied with water, maybe three or four
times what it needs, and there must be a way to keep part of the water
in the soil for the time of the year when it wnll be needed. It should
not go out into the atmosphere unless it goes out through the plant. I
have had people tell me that they worked their orchard 12 and 18
times in one summer and made a success of it, so no matter how many
times one has to work it he must do so until he is sure ho is going
to hold the moisture. Get a good implement to work with. Don't
get something that is not practicable.
One of the best results of good cultivation is the size of the apple.
If one does not work the soil and it is dried cut before the first of
August, his apples are bound to be small and irregular in size. Be-
sides that, there is the difference of color. If one has not necessary
moisture when he wants it his apples are apt to be dull in color and not
bright as they ought to be. Furthermore, the fruit will not have the
form it would have otherwise; keep that reservoir for the summer
supply. The three essential reasons for so doing are: first, size; sec-
one, form ; and, third, color.
Now another mistake that so many people make is that they till
their orchard for the first two or three years, until it gets well started,
and when the trees need it most neglect it, and then they are surprised
because they did not make it a success.
Another trouble is that most people cultivate their orchards too
long, or keep up the tillage too long — too late in the season. Their
orchard ought to be sufficiently cultivated by August 1 every year.
It should have been cultivated at least three or four times by the
middle of August at the latest. Some people cultivate their orchards
until October, which is entirely too long. In some soils one should do
just the opposite. That is true of the sandy soil or volcanic ash soils.
The clay and heavy soils have to be plowed and harrowed over and over
until they are fine, but the sandy soils are already fine and do not need
so much cultivation. Be sure to get the right kind of an instrument to
work with. I have seen people use an implement which required five
or six horses, whereas a man with a harrow or a roller could have done
much better. Many people use the clod masher, Avhich I believe is
very good — probably the best I have ever seen. IMake it in two sec-
tions and in that way it will not only mash tlie lumps in the ground,
but will make the ground fine, even and smooth, as it should be.
SELECTION OF OKCIIARD SOILS 13
I will next take up diversified farming. If a man has 20 or 30
acres of land in orchard, it will take much work to attend to it prop-
erly. When plowing time comes, do not put off plowing a week or
ten days. So it is with pruning and spraying; it has to be done at the
right time. When a man has all his farming to do, he will be bound
to have everything come at once and will have to postpone something
and is likely not to make a success of anything. Do not try to do
orcharding and farming at the same time. Of course the one advan-
tage is that one has the fertilizer, but if he wants it he can buy it. As
that would be too expensive for most of us some other way must be
found, and that way is by cover crops. These cover crops should be
put in early, in the fall and should grow all winter and be plowed
under as soon as the sap begins to come in the spring. Now remem-
ber, I did not say to cut off and feed to the cows in the spring. Plow
under in the spring. This will make better tillage possible and help
the soil hold moisture, and the main point is that it makes the soil
richer. It will furnish plant food and nitrogen which the trees need.
We have tried experiments as to what will do best for this cover
crop and have now practically decided between the hairy vetch and the
Oregon vetch and rye. I believe the Oregon vetch and rye is all one
will want. Do not get it in any later than the last of August or the
first of September. I did not say the first of October. Use the ordi-
nary seeder for putting it in before the first rain comes, so that it will
get a good start right away. The higher it gets the better it will be.
Put in about 40 pounds of vetch seed and 10 pounds of rye seed to the
acre. The land should not be plowed in the fall. Plow just as soon
as the sap begins to come in the spring. If one uses this cover crop
he will not need very much fertilizer, if any, for his trees will then
make a strong, healthy growth. There are very few orchards that are
not benefited by cover crops. The two I have spoken of can be recom-
mended for western Oregon. Vetch makes most land very rich, and
that is why it is so good for a cover crop. In some places they use the
cowhorn turnip, and rape. Use about 20 pounds of the rape and 10
pounds of turnip per acre. This takes up the potash and makes it
beneficial to the plant. They take nothing from the air, but simply
take up the potash, conveying it into such form as will make the trees
strong and sturdy.
Now just a little about fertilizers. I believe that when the time
comes for the crops, if by investing $10 one can save 8 or 10 per cent
he will do so. Consider the sort of fertilizer your land needs. If
something is put on which the land does not need, it may do more
harm than good. Make the experiment yourself. Take three blocks
SELECTION OF ORCHARD SOILS 15
on the first one put phosphorous, on another put potash, and on the
third put both together. In this way one will know just what his soil'
needs and can apply it to the trees.
Questions and Answers.
Q. "Why do you put the rye in the cover crop?
A. To help hold the vetch up. Ten pounds of rye to the 40
pounds of vetch is all you will need.
Q. How can one determine the depth of the soil?
A. I would take a four-foot augur and make a boring of four feet
at least. In some places the soil simply changes color and in others
you wnll strike rock or soapstone or cement gravel or some other form.
If you bore four feet and find the same kind of soil for that depth it
will be all you want.
Q. How are you going to tell if it is good for growing trees?
A. If vegetables and wheat grow well the land is likely to be
good for apples. You can tell a little from some old trees on the land.
Where you find fir trees you will usually have good land.
Q. Does land plaster make a good fertilizer?
A. I would bardly recommend land plaster. It is like giving
whiskey to a boy. It stimulates the trees.
Q. In the different soils would you advise any difference in the
distance of the trees?
A. Well, not harldy, but in the heavy soils you might plant them
a little closer than in the other.
Q. What variety of pears would you recommend for the Willam-
ette Valley?
A. Bartlett, Cornice, Anjou and Winter Nellis pears would all do
well, I believe.
Q. What distance apart would you plant the trees?
A. About 30 feet.
Q. How would pears do near Estacada?
A. I see no reason why they should not do well.
Q. What do you think of the Greening?
A. The Greening does not do nearly as well here as in the Eastern
States. They can ship better Greenings here than we can grow.
Q. How is the Russet ?
A. There are so few trees here that I can tell nothing about them.
Q. What do you think of the dwarf pear as a commercial pear?
A. I think it will be in great demand before long and there is no
reason whv an orchard should not be valuable.
16
APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NOETHWEST
Q. What kind of crop would you put on land just grubbed off to
grow until the spring of 1912?
A. I would grow potatoes or other vegetables.
Q. Would you raise corn on that land?
A. I would not advise you to raise corn.
Q. Would you advise putting in any crops at all on new land just
grubbed ?
A. No, I believe I would not. Still we always do, but when we
put out our experimental orchards we always put a crop in. We
even have an orchard where the stumps are not all out yet. Just take
out enough stumps to plant the trees and take the remaining stumps
out as you go.
Q. What is the character of the soil on the Sheridan hills?
A. It is mostly red clay loam.
A four-year-old Ortlc.v.
First Year in the Apple Orchard
H. W. Sparks, of tlie Washington State College.
I BELIEVE that the principal factor in successful horticulture is
the man himself. I would tell any one if he does not like the
business sufficiently to give it his undivided attention, not to
attempt it. One can fail in that business as well as in any other.
There is nothing in the art of raising fruit that is difficult to learn,
but like everything else of that kind, it requires special attention.
The next factor is to find a location where the soil, climatic con-
ditions, market conditions and transportation facilities are right. These
are all important factors. One of the first requirements of the soil
is that it is well-drained. The location should be a little higher than
the surrounding country. Low places are inclined to be frosty. There
are other conditions beside elevation that make the difference between
a frosty, underisable place and one desirable. Sometimes low places
are situated near a body of water that keeps off the frosts, and some-
times air currents come through mountain passes. Go out over the
land where you are considering planting an orchard on a frosty morn-
ing and see if the frost is heavy. I do not think the difference in soils
is known as it should be ; but, as a rule, avoid heavy, low soils. These
black, humid soils are inclined to produce too much Avood growth.
The volcanic-ash soils are the best. There are tracts of this soil
throughout this state and Washington. Sandy loam soils are sometimes
very good, but there is such a difference in the soils that it is har'd
to say generally which is best. In all these matters one should be
governed largely by his surroundings. If one has an orchard that is
doing well and seems to be in a healthy condition, he can rest assured
that the soil is good in that locality.
Proximity to Market.
The next consideration is proximity to market. One can be lo-
<cated too far from transportation, and often the difference of a few
-cents makes the difference between success and failure in fruit-grow-
ing. That rule cannot be applied too strictly, because districts that
are removed today, in three, four or five years from now may not be.
What might not be valuable for orchard-planting now in four or five
18
AITI.I-; (;U()\VI.\(i IN Till-: I'ACIKIC NOKTIIWKST
Yellow Newtown Apples grown in the Rogue River Valley, Oregon.
years may be. As a rule, one should have a shii^ping point sufficiently
close to deliver two loads at least in a day.
The next great question to decide is what varieties to plant. One
can be governed by what has proven successful in a district, what is
bringing the highest price, what is in best demand. I will not under-
take to name any of the varieties because of the varying conditions
found in apples doing well in one place and not in another.
Best Kinds to Plant.
In Western Washington and Oregon we sliould not undertake to
compete with those places east of the Cascade ^Mountains in highly
colored fi-uits. There are many fruits that do not require color to
sell. I well mention a few. I would put at the head of the list the
Gravenstein. Of course this is not a winter apple. It is standard in
quality and has many desirable features, which make it the best of
all apples. It is not only an eating apple, but is tlie best of cooking
apples, and is l)ottcr for canning than aiiv otlier. Next to tlie Graven-
FIRST YEAR IN THE APPLE ORCHARD 19
stein in Western Washington and Oregon comes the King. This has
good quality in many respects and sells well. Next to the King is
the Northern Spy, which I think is the most valuable apple there is
for west-side conditions generally. When I speak of the west-side con-
ditions, I mean in comparison with the Hood River country east of the
Cascade Mountains. There is one objection to the Northern Spy. It
is a tardy bearer. I believe this fact can be overcome by the right kind
of pruning. I have brought it into bearing in five years, and am satis-
fied that by right methods it can be brought into bearing early enough.
Coming next in order is the Olympia Red, which is an apple of good
color and quality. There is one fact about the Northern Spy which
seems to be true of the Olympia Red. It seems to stand the black-
spot canker better than any other variety. Black-spot canker is one
of the pests we have to combat with on the west side. The Bellfiower
is also a good apple, but is not so marketable. It is desirable for home
use. The Ortley is also good. There is another apple that should be
planted more than it is. That is the Grimes Golden. This is one of tlie
standard varieties that does not require color to sell.
Get the Right Tree.
The next thing is to select the trees to be planted. This matter
is so important that I would rather pay a dollar, if necessary, for
the right tree, than to get a poor one for nothing. If Ave make mis-
takes in the variety of fruit or kind of trees we plant, it may take
five, six or seven years before this mistake can be overcome. It is not
like dairying or poultry raising, where we can correct a mistake in
a year or two. A tree that is well grown, and has matured naturally
in the ground and not been forced in any way, has stronger vitality,
starts out quicker, and makes a better tree than a weak one. I am
going to explain just how you can tell a tree that has strong vitality.
I prefer a three or four-foot yearling tree. I would rather pay an
extra dollar, or five dollars, for a tree of that kind. The three or four-
foot yearling tree that is well grown will be quite strong at the bottom,
and all the way from the bottom to the very end terminal bud the
buds are well developed. If the tree has matured naturally and has
plenty of vitality, lying around each of the buds will be a little swelling.
The digested sap is started in the formation of starch right around
the bud in the spring. As soon as the climatic conditions are right.
and a few of the sun's rays strike this bark, the activity begins in
the starch and that causes the leaf to grow out. As the leaf grows
it makes demand for sap which comes up through the sap wood.
The first start of a tree depends upon the starch stored around the
20 APPLE GKOWING IN TIIK PACII'IC NOKTIIWEST
bud. Be sure and get a tree that has this indication. Sometimes
nurserymen in order to fill early fall orders, strip all the leaves off the
tree to make it mature early. In sucli eases there would not be the
storage of starch around the base of each bud. This storage of starch
begins when the climatic conditions are riglit, when there luive
been a few frosts, and the indications of coming winter appear. The
tree by nature has had warning of this end of the season, and the
starch is stored there for the next spring's start. If the foliage has
been stripped off earlj^, or has been irrigated and forced along, the
starch will not be there. I sometimes advise people to grow their
own trees, or have them grown for you by a nurseryman. That is
the best method to get right trees. I would suggest that you com-
mence in time to select your scions growing in the district where you
intend to plant. Select them from the very best bearing trees you
can find. Graft these scions on to the roots yourself, or have your
nurseryman do so, then you will be sure not only to have a good tree,
but to have the tree you want. Sometimes nurserymmen are careless
and send out trees that one does not order, and sometimes this is done
purposely, so if you grow trees you can ])e sure to have the trees you
want. It may take several years.
Preparing the Ground.
Have your ground plowed and well harrowed. Give the ground
as good preparation as possible. I have heard a great many say they
would not plant an orchard until the laud was thoroughly prepared.
I have cleared the ground and planted trees the same year with suc-
cess. I would rather plant as soon as the laud is cleared rather than
wait two or three years to prepare the soil.
The next thing is to stake out the. field. If the land is rough
it is quite difficult to get it exact without surveyor's instruments, but
one can get very good results in rough ground. First run a line at
some point where you can get as near a level as possible, and then
line right through. I have found it convenient to have all stakes pre-
pared. I first split up some stove wood 18 inches long. The stakes
need not be larger than half an inch square. After they have been
pointed a little, mix some lime in water, making a thin white wjish,
ihen dip the top end into the whitewash. This makes them easy to see.
As a general thing trees are planted too close together. If I Avere
planting an orchard today I would not plant trees nearer than 30 feet
apart. Take a soft piece of wire and make it just 60 feet long.
Put a mark at the center of the wire. The man at the rear stake,
looking at the stake across the field sets tliis SO-foot stake at the mark
Branch of th'-- Winter Banana Apple grown in the Hood River \ alley. Oregon.
This apple is at present the most expensive grown, commanding
in the East as high as 25 cents apiece.
22 APPLE GROWING IX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
on the wire, and at 60 feet as he advances. He always lias two stakes
to look across, and the tliird stake at the end of the row. The reason
for two stakes is that on uneven ground the end stake can be seen.
When two stakes are used one can go considoral)!*' distance and not be
much out of line. Sighting across the field, next establish a line at
right angles with the first. For the benefit of those who do not know
exactly how to do that, I will state a very simple method. Go out six
feet on one of these lines and eight feet the other way and it will be
exactly 10 feet across that angle. Then you can be sure you have an
exact right angle every time.
Setting the Trees.
After the land is staked make a planting board about four feet
long with a notch in each end, and one in the center. "When ready to
plant put this center notch over one of the stakes, and then put a
stake in each one of the end notches and take up the stake where the
tree is to go, and dig a hole. Set the two stakes back and put the tree
in the notch in the center. The tree will then be where the .stake was.
One does not have to look in either direction. This is the most simple
method that I have used. I have planted large tracts by this method.
It works so perfectly that one could not notice but what it was exact.
When digging a hole for planting be governed about the depth
of the hole by the nature of the soil. I would not dig as deep a hole
in heavy soil as in light soil. Set the tree, when it is planted, about
an inch or two deeper than it was when in the nursery. Before set-
ting out a tree, I would prune each root. I would not want to plant
any tree that did not have from three to five strong roots, lateral
roots, running out each way from the main stem. I would not plant
a tree that had roots on one side. That tree would not be feeding
evenly from the ground. Prune off each root lliat will not grow, if
not more than two inches is left. I would not care to have more
than 4, 5, or 6 inches of the root left. Prune them off on the lower side
with a good sharp knife, making a long ent. When the tree has been
placed in the hole and some soil put around on top of the roots, get
into the hole and tramp the soil down hard with both feet. Just as
soon as the leaves have started and the demand for sap begins there
is a flow of sap.
If you have anj^ reason to believe that the soil is not ricli enough,
use a little nitrate of soda right around the roots of the tree. A half
a pound or less will make a wonderful difference. It is as essential
that one has a good start in a tree as it is for him to have a good start
with a pig or calf.
FIRST YKAR IX THE APPLE OHCIIAKI) 23
At this poiut I iniglit tell .voii of my own experience in planting
fruit trees, I had several varieties, and had prepared the land in such
a way that I had not cleared off the full extent that I wanted to
plant on. I ordered a certain number of each variety. I had a little
pride in the matter, and w^anted my orchard to appear the best it could.
I selected the trees, taking the best variety, and setting the best trees
next to the road where they would show the most. In after years, 1
do not think one of those trees at the end of the row survived. They
were weak, attacked by insect pests and climatic conditions, but every
one of the first choice trees produced a good tree, and I believe
that the first third of each one of those rows produced more fruit
than the remaining two-thirds. My wife had considerable poultry and
we saved the droppings all through the winter, keeping them in bar-
rels so that nothing was lost. We also saved wood ashes gathered
from the burning log heaps and mixed them togethcT and used them
around the trees, and we got just as good results as with nitrate of
soda. Then put on your surface soil. Do much packing, so that it
will not bake or dry out.
The next thing to determine after the trees are planted is what
top to start the tree with. There are many places where a head rea-
sonably high is much better than a low head. The tree needs plenty
of sunshine. Damp weather and misty conditions are conducive to
fungus and black spot canker. These pests seem to thrive under these
conditions. The sunshine will dry them up and kill them. Where
there is not enough sunshine the trees should be headed up high
enough so the air will circulate freely around under the tree and the
sun get down there once in a while. This makes it much easier to
cultivate. Having decided the heads of the trees after they are planted,
cut them all off uniformly to that height. If there is a strong pre-
vailing wind, set the trees on the slant a few degrees toward the wind.
I do not know" that there is any other method that will do as much
as cultivating the land. I believe it is just as well to put in some
kind of a crop, but never a grain crop. I have seen a number of fairly
good orchards and as soon as they get a little too much seeded dowm
to clover, they never did as well. Be careful to take care of an orchard
from the start.
Questions and Answers.
Q. Is the present time a good time to set trees (February) ?
A. If the ground is in good condition and can be worked. I would
suggest that you book your order for trees early. Get your trees home
FIRST YEAR IN THE APPLE ORCHARD 25
as early as yon can. I wonld stipulate not to have the trees forced in
the growth. Bury them, heel them in.
Q. If you planted trees this time of year, would you cut the
tops off. Are you not liable to trouble from insect pests?
A. To your last question, yes. I never at least experienced any
with healthy trees. There is sometimes difficulty with the skip jack
beetle, which climbs up the tree and eats the buds. They are not par-
ticular what bud they find, so one cannot guard against them very
well without dipping in arsenic.
Q. What is your observation about dwarf apples and pears?
A. For fillers? I think they are all right. Plant as fillers those
varieties of apples or pears that come into bearing early. We have
some varieties that are noted for their early bearing qualities, and I
think it a good plan in planting trees to plant in a few here and
there, one in ten is a good rule to follow.
Q. Have you tried burning cedar stumps out by char-pitting f
A. I have only had a limited experience in that. I tried one
cedar stump in the winter time when it was very wet, and I failed.
Q. Does your bulletin give full information about char-pitting?
A. Yes, the bulletin is written and has been published in the State
of Washington and by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Q. How does char-pitting work upon green stumps?
A. My experience has been limited; I have to rely upon what
others tell me. I have met several who have had success. They say
that after a green stump is fired once it burns better than old stmups.
In burning green stumps chop through the sap wood to get the fire
into the interior.
Q. How will it work on extra heavy, wet ground?
A. All this winter I have not stopped for wet ground. Of course
if you were burning in soil that would soon become saturated to the
extent that water would stand in holes, it would not be likely to work,
but with a soil that will drain reasonably well it will not make any
difference how wet it is.
Q. What varieties w^ould you use for fillers?
A. The Jonathan is good. The Wagener and Pearmain are good
fillers.
Q. What do you mean by a filler?
A. A filler is a tree between the other trees. Sometimes they
are put between the other trees as a temporary tree to occupy the
ground until they are too large, then that filler is supposed to be re-
moved. They are just temporary until the space is needed by the per-
manent tree.
26 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Q. What sj'stem for shading the tree would you suggest? Which
is the most desirable, a shingle, white-washing, or the Yucca palm?
A. Whitewash is all right in some places where the heat is not
too intense. The simplest method is the shingle. Sometimes a piece
of paper is wrapped around the tree and brought down to the ground
a little below the surface, and is then kept in place by a clod of dirt.
That is a very good protection against borers, which sometimes are
very bad. Whitewash is also good for borers, but I would add a
little carbolic acid.
Q. Have you planted trees among stumps?
A. I have, but I would not plant a tree too close to one that I
wanted to burn. A stump can be })urned by the char-pitting method,
by taking good care, right up close to a building, but it gets pretty
hot down there in the ground.
Q. How often do you spray your trees?
A. I spray the young trees only when it is needed. When a pest
appears, spray it. There is one exception ; the trees west of the
mountains should be sprayed at least every fall about the time the
leaves are dropping, to prevent the black scab canker. Spray every
fall with lime-sulphur. That one spraying would be sufficient to check
most of the scaly insects.
Q. Should nitrate of soda be used then?
A. No. There is danger of over-feeding young trees. There is
not any danger of overfeeding young trees during the early part of
the season, but there might be in the latter part of the year, and the
wood would not mature early in the fall. Check that growth by throw-
ing some grain around so as to take that food awa^' from the trees.
Q. If the soil needed lime and phosphate, how should it be put in
when one plants?
A. If it needs lime (acid soil) a general application of 500 pounds
to two tons per acre is the way to apply the lime.
Q. Have you ever tried grafting one pear to a larger kind to in-
crease the quality?
A. No.
Q. AVould grafting one pear into the top of a Bartlett pear ma-
terially affect the size without affecting the quality?
A. The bulletin on cross-pollination will answer that question.
Q. What is the best method of improving tlie soil:
A. By turning under clover or vetch.
Q. Should this be done two or three years lieforc planting an or-
chard ?
A. Plant your orchard, and if there is plenty of rainfall in the
fall of the year, sow vetch. Vetch grows late during the winter. Sow
FIRST YEAR IN THE APPLE ORCHARD 27
it in the fall between the trees, and as soon as there is a satisfactory-
growth in the spring and the weather gets warm, plow it under.
Q. How near would you sow the vetch to the trees?
A. Within two feet. Just as near as you can plow.
Q. What height do you recommend to head the tree?
A. About two feet. If I were planting further east, where there
are high winds, I would probably head the tree 12 to 18 inches, but
not less than two feet.
Q. In burning out a stump do you dig in under?
A. No. Do not do much digging where there is sandy soil. Just
dig out a little around the base of the stump, just about enough to
remove one shovelful.
Q. How can one tell when to irrigate an orchard?
A. Take up a handful of soil and if it falls apart that shows it
has not moisture enough. A cultivated orchard should be dry for
three inches. That is what we call a dust mulch on top of the soil.
Q. Is there any objection to raising potatoes between the trees?
A. No. Of course potatoes take a little potash from the soil, but
that can be returned.
Q. Wliat effect has raising strawberries by irrigation between
trees?
A, Eaising any crop, especially strawberries, takes away a little
of the potash. Any cultivated crop is all right.
Q. What is the lowest elevation suitable for raising apples?
A. I do not know of any reason why they could not be grown
practically at sea level provided the soil is not heavy, but the apples
would not have as good keeping qualities as those raised at a higher
elevation.
Q. What is a good method to keep squirrels away?
A. Shooting, trapping and poisoning.
^^^<^
.J^?^
i'ine specimen vi a tfiiilzi-nli ik Ap|il'' tii • ui 'wn .:
lecturers in this course.
of the
First Things in Apple Culture
Charles A. Cole, of the Oregcn Agricultural College.
W^F A MAN were to come to me and ask what is the first thing to
^X_^^ do in beginning an apple orchard, I would not hesitate to tell
him to look into the proposition very carefully and see just what
returns are being received by different growers and talk with the man
who is getting the highest returns and find out all he can about it,
and after he finds out just what he can expect from an occupation of
this kind, then take a look at himself. One of the important rules of
business is to find out just what you want to do and are able to
do, and it is more so in apple culture than in anything else.
You want to find out whether you have patience or courage enough
to wait several years for returns, or whether you have endurance to
go out and live with your trees. If you find out that you can do so,
it is a pretty good thing to go into apple growing. If you cannot,
there is nothing in it.
Now if one finds that he wants to grow apples, the first thing is
to look for a location. There are many mistakes made in this line of
business, for in looking for a proper locality for apple growing there
are many different points that have to be taken into consideration,
and one of these is markets. You do not want to do as a man I heard
of, who had been raised in an eastern state and lived in Chicago,
or some eastern city all his life, and finally decided to come to Ore-
gon. He did not know Oregon conditions, but was sure he would like
them, so bought land in Eastern Oregon and was going to grow apples.
When we looked him up he was 150 miles from a railroad. That is
what I mean about good markets. Be sure and have good trans-
portation if you are going to make a success. Buy near a railroad, for
country road transportation is very difficult. If you lay out an or-
chard a long way from a railroad, but are sure that there is going
to be a railroad in five or six years, it is all right. It makes a great
difference whether apples have to be hauled five or ten miles.
There are two or three different kinds of markets to be taken into
consideration. Some people like special markets. They have so many
(Customers, and those customers will pay them a good price, like some
people have markets for chickens, eggs, butter, etc. If you want a
market of that kind, you must go near a big city, and you want a lot
30
APPLE GROWING IX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
«l
tiijiaj iiiy an apple t
ji'chard in the
of money to start with, because it is going to cost a large amount to
put this market in shape in order to bring high prices.
The market almost all apple-growers want to go to is the whole-
sale market. It does not make much difference where you go, just
so you go near a railroad. Some time ago people used to ship apples
in sacks. They did not know the best way to get apples to market,
nor understand packing as we do. With our up-to-date packing ap-
pliances and our much improved expressing, we can grow apples right
here and put them on the market in Europe just as easily as a man
can get apples in Ohio and send them to New York City, because we
have the first-class means to get them there. After we have taken
these things into consideration, we have decided to buy near a rail-
road, of course. Two railroads are better than one.
TJien you want to take a look at the lay of the land in regard to
drainage. Avhieh is one of' the most important things to apple land. I
mean both air and water. It is just as important to have air drain-
age as water drainage. Get land tliat is free from frosts, for by so
doing you are likely to have land that has good water. If you select
a piece of land that lies doAvn in the bottom, that lias no outlet to allow
the air to pass in and out. you will be pretty sure to lose a number of
crops by frost. If you choose a piece of land out in a large valley, you
will be sure of the same troul)le. I have seen land wliere thev were
FIRST THINGS I.V APPLE CULTURE
31
•»t^i-V^«kl i^t'-.^'H-*, '
(Jne ot tlie lamous apple orchards of the Rogue River Valle.\-, Oregon.
showing smudge pots.
troubled very much by frosts, and a man going 100 feet higher up
never lost a crop, so be sure you get just the right height. See that
the land is up high enough and that the valley is not blocked, for if it
is the air will not pass in and out freely and you will be troubled with
frosts. Sometimes a group of trees will do that. An orchard can be
planted in the valley the same as on the hillside, if the valley is not too
large and is not blocked in. You will find if you get near a river, that
is, if there is a pretty good slope toward the river, or if there is a large
body of water, you will not be troubled with frosts, because the rivers
or body of water keeps off the spring and the fall frosts. It keeps the
air from getting warm in the spring, and hence keeps the fruit from
growing too soon and retains the warmth in the fall and prevents the
air from cooling down to frost point. These are all things you want to
take into consideration when you are looking for land.
Then also the soil must be considered. This is a matter of very
great importance. You must see if it will produce a good crop of
wheat or is good for vegetables. If it Avill grow these things it will
grow apples, but you want to get down into the soil. Take a soil
augur and get down into the earth four or five feet; bore holes all
over the tract of land. Find out whether it is of good depth or not.
If it is hard you cannot grow apple trees, because they will strike
c
- f
r^ J
^^y -r ■ m
n^:r. ' -1
>
1
\
m ^.^'1
1
-'^««i
t
^^
H r*7^
■A
IT . •■. V. r .' ' •
('■.
, ^_^
i *»?,i^
if?^
TIm' results of careful apple culture in Oregon.
FIRST TIII.NCiS I.\ APPLE CULTURK 3S
that hard ground and that will keep them from groAving deep and
strong, and also there will not be enough moisture. In July and Au-
gust, when you want a large amount of moisture, you will not have
any, and your apples will not grow large enough to be marketable.
You should have at least four or five feet of good soil, because, as T
have said, if you have not, it will not retain moisture enough to grow
apples, and just when you want to put the growth on the apples you
will have nothing there to groAv them, and the apples will be small. I
have heard of a man who grew apples on 18 inches of soil, but he had
to irrigate his orchard. A large per cent of our orchards are not near
irrigation. These things should be taken into consideration, even
where there is a good irrigation system, because one wants to be
sure of his crop, as sometimes when water is needed there is none to
be had, and another crop is lost, and then even if you do not irrigate
just at the right time, your crop will be brought down in market
value. If you buy land that has deep rich soil, you will be sure to have
moisture just when you want it and a good marketable crop. There
are certain ways of doing things and you want to find out the best
and then do it that way. You either want to make good or make a
failure, so you want to select land that has fertile soil.
Another important question is whether you want land that is.
already cleared and planted or not. If you have the money to put
into a growing orchard in a highly cultivated section, all right, but
many of us have not. You can get a good piece of land in an un-
cultivated district, but generally the difference in the price is not
enough to warrant you to buy land with timber on it. It takes from
$25 to $250 per acre to clear the land and get it ready for trees. You
might be able to get it cleared and in cultivation, but you might pay-
out five times that much before you get it into cultivation, so you
want to take this into consideration. Then it would be best to planr
the land to something else for the first year or so, especially an oak
grubbed land. Allow the roots to die out before planting apple trees.
Most people have not enough money and patience to wait any longer
than they possibly have to for the orchard to bring them some kind
of an income. In new soil you want to get all the roots and other
matter out, and in old soil you want to plow very deep and harrow it
down thoroughly.
After the soil is ready for planting the trees, select what varieties
you are going to grow. That is a very important point. It mostly
depends upon what market you are going to supply. If you are going
to grow" a home orchard of about 150 trees or so, get a number of
different kinds, but not so with a commercial orchard. You must
stick to your locality and the market there, and find out what kind of
34 APPLE GliOWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Apples have the best market, that is, a commercial or wholesale market.
In some localities you can grow Spitzenbergs, in others Jonathans,
and still others Newtowns, while in others you may be able to grow
and make a success of all three. Therefore, before selecting your
variety, the best thing to do is to find out just what variety you can
set out. You do not want to set out some kind with which no one has
made a success.
A man in Texas wanted to find out how to grow Spitzenbergs there,
because they were growing them in Hood River and making a suc-
cess, and getting $3 per box, and he wanted to get the same result.
We wrote and told him that we knew nothing about growing Spitzen-
bergs in Texas. There are many varieties that bring high prices to
some people. Some people grow Spitzenbergs in one place because of
iiigh prices, while in another place they grow some other kind because
Spitzenbergs do not pay. The Newtowns bring in more money than
Spitzenbergs, because Spitzenbergs produce only about every other
year. From Newtowns you can expect and have a good crop every
year. Inquire of the apple-growers in the locality where you have
the land and plant the kind that they have had the best success with.
Now about mixing varieties. You have undoubtedly heard a great
deal about that. We usually plant about four or five rows of New-
towns and one row of Spitzenbergs or Arkansas Blacks for polleniz-
ing. The pollenizing question has not been thoroughly threshed out
yet, and many people make fun of it, but they are taking more notice
of it now than years ago. There is something in mixing apples, that
is by pollenizing one variety with another. You can set one row to
five and get good results; that is, four rows of Newtowns and one row
of Red Fall Pippins. I would not advise putting them in closer than
that. Some people put a branch in the top of a tree. They have a
Newtown tree with an Arkansas Black branch in the top, but the
trouble is when they pick them all together. The Newtowns are liable
to get mixed with the Arkansas Blacks. Arkansas Blacks should be
kept in one tree and Spitzenbergs or Newtowns in another, and you
will have just as good results.
After you have decided what kind of variety you want, then find
out what kind of trees to plant ; which class, first or second. If I
had my own orchard I would want to plant it in nothing larger than
one-year-old trees. They grow better than two-year-old trees. Some
prefer budded and some grafted trees. In setting out grafted trees,
3'ou have a two-year root system and a one-year top, so I think that
would be the best tree to get. It does not pay to get a number of large
trees, becanse the others make the best growth. I met a man the other
daj^ who had taken over several liundrcd trees from his neighbor
FIRST TIHXGS IN AI'I'LE CULTURE
35
A Spitzenberg orchard, Hood River Valley, Oregon, in full bloom.
who had too many trees. They were all large trees and he lost about
12 per cent of them. Then he got several thousand small trees — not
much larger than a lead pencil— about one-half inch in diameter, and
he got a good growth out of them. You want to get a tree with a lot
of fiber shoots. If you have a big tree wnth a long, straight root, and
no fiber shoots, you will not get a good growth, and it will not make
any better tree than the small one. In the second year you will note
the difference, so to get a good growth of trees be sure to get a small
tree with a great bunch of fiber shoots. Do not try to get too much
for your money. This is the main point to take into consideration.
You want to pay as much attention to the roots as you do to the top
of the trees.
Now, in laying out orchards, what is the best time to plant trees
> — Fall, spring, or when? If you can get first-class trees, now is the
time to set them out. There is no danger of their freezing to death be-
fore spring, or, if you have to wait until spring, set them out early
before the growth starts. Your trees will be 50 per cent better if set
out at the right time. About February or the first of ]\Iarch when
we have some nice weather, would be a good time to set your trees.
36 APPLE GHOWING IX TIIK PACIFIC XOKTIIWKST
The one advantage of planting trees in the fall is that they can start
to grow at once in the spring. If they are kept over imtil spring you
may not be able to get them until late, and they will be almost a
year behind. If yon cannot get your trees in the fall, take adantage
of the first nice weather in the early spring, about February to set
them out. I set out a thousand trees in March and lost three out of that
thousand. My neighbor lost about three to every hundred set out,
so it depends upon how j^ou plant trees more than upon the time.
Another very important thing is how far apai-t trees should be
set. In some localities of the state you can set tlicm closer than in
others. Consider the conditions of the section in Avhich you buy your
land. The trees ought to be from 30 to 35 feet apart. Ahoul 50 trees
to the acre. A great many are as close as 25 feet and iiuiiiy closer
than that. You ma,y set your trees close together. Init they will bear
so much and no more per acre. You save money hy setting them far
-aj^art. They should be 30 or 35 feet apart to get a maximum crop.
In laj'ing out an orchard what system should be used? I like
the square system better than any other. Set out in squares about
33 feet apart. In this system you always have a roadway to haul your
machinery through in fall and spring. Another system is wliat is
called the cpiincunx. This is an arrangement made by planting four
trees and one in the middle. All five trees measure exactly 33 feet from
each other. If you get 100 trees in a field by the square system, you
will get aboiit 175 by the quincunx system. Now, there is another
system that is called the hexagon. There are seven trees in a group
instead of five. Just place one in the middle and six around it; all
exactly 33 feet from each other. By this system you can get in 15
per cent more trees than by the square system. It heing used
very successfully. The main advantage is that you can get more
trees to an acre and still not crowd them, Imt you cannot have a
road to drive through in lliat system as in the square system. If
you. want to grow something betAveen the trees, the square system is
very beneficial. The filler system is very successfuland especially so,
if you want peach trees because they grow about three or four times
as fast as apple trees and can therefore be used very successfully for
fillers. The trouble with the filler system is that most people will not
grub them out when they ought to, even when tliey know that it is
detrimental to their trees not to. Apple trees are also a g(md filler,
if taken out in time, but most jx'ople neglect to do so and the first
thing they know they have pruned their orchard to dcalli. Everything
that is done in an orchard should be done to bettor the li-cc. Keep
this in mind when you go into the filler business.
Now, another thing you want to be careful about, is to get your
FIKST THINGS IN Al'I'LK ClLTlltE
Vista of the Hood River Valley, Oregon, showing Mt. Hood in tlie distance.
trees in perfect rows. The}' always look better and are easier worked.
One way to accomplish that is to take a wire long enough to reach
clear across your orchard and get a stick as long as the distance you
want your trees apart, say 30 feet, measure the wire and solder a
little piece of wire on it every 30 feet. Wire is better than bicycle
tape or rope, as it will always be uniform. After you have soldered
the wire, you fasten it at one end and use a little pulley at the other
to pull it perfectly straight, and in that way your trees will all be
exactly even, then move it along as you go. You may use a rope and
pegs, if you are not planting too large a piece of ground, and you will
have to do more measuring than with a soldered Avire. You can make
the pegs as you go along, or either pull them out after you have
planted the trees. One man told me that he always split pegs because
it was easier than pulling them out. One test Avhether your rows
are straight or not is to look across diagonally. If you look across
the field that Avay, you will have an idea of just how much out of
line you have the trees. An inch or two out shows very plainly that
way. Of course, several different methods are used in getting them
in line and their rows straight, but I think the wire method is the
most satisfactory. The main point is to get your rows perfectly
straight from all sides, or from any direction you may look at them.
Questions and Answers.
Q. Is there a difference in the taste of apples grown in irrigated
or unirri gated land?
A. I have seen a difference in the taste of peaches grown on
irrigated and unirrigated land. The difference was for the reason
38 AIM'I.K tatOWING IN TIIK rACIl-IC NOKTIIWKST
that the land was lioodcd just at tlie time when tlie peaclies were
ripening, and the result was a very watery taste. Hence you may do
the same thing with apples. Otherwise I thiidv there is no differen(;e.
Q. What is the main advantage for preferring the square sys-
tem ?
A. The main advantage^ is that you can work it easier, and can
drive through between the rows witlu>ut any trouble.
Q. What is the use of pollenizing, does it make the apples any
better, and what kind of apples would you use?
A. The main purpose of pollenizing is to get a better color.
You want to plant five rows of Newtowns and one row of Spitz-
enbergs, or five rows of Spitzenbergs and one row of Arkansas Blacks.
Use the Spitzenbergs for the Newtowns and the Arkansas Blacks for
the Spitzenbergs.
Q. How about burning smudge pots?
A. I do not know much about smudge pots, but they claim that
it is a success in some places, while in others it is not. It depends
upon what locality they are used, and also upon the size of the valley.
They will do more good in a small vallej- than in a large one.
Q. Is fern a good fertilizer?
A. Fern is almost too much of a fertilizer for me. It grows
too fast. The best thing to do with fern is to pull it out with all the
roots you can and burn them, and keep the small ones down as they
come up. The fern land is usually good for apples, if you can keep
the fern down.
Q. How about growing potatoes between the fruit trees?
A. Well, that might do, if you keep them far enough from the
tree. You do not want to do like a man I once talked to. He had
strawberries among his apple trees, and one-half of them were aliout
five feet from the trees and the other half he had the trees setting in
the strawberr}^ hills, and tlien he wondered why his trees there did
not do so well as the ones where the strawberries were five feet from
the tree.
Q. Does it make any difference whether j-ou set trees on the
north or south slope?
A. Xo, I think not. Of course, it depends upon the climate and
on how much sun you have in the summer. If the sun is very hot,
I would prefer the north slope, otherwise it makes little difference.
Grapes must be planted on the east and south slope.
Q. What is a good fertilizer for new land before planting trees?
A. I would not use any fertilizer for new land, l)ut I would allow
the land to lie idle for a year or so in order to rot out all the roots and
also kill some of the insects.
FIRST TIIIXGS IX APPLE CILTURE 39
Q. Is it a g'ond plan to raise liay in an orchard;
A. No, because the hay takes out all the moisture in ]\Iay and
June and in July and August, "when you need it to make your apples
big and marketable, you have none.
Q. How about clover?
A. That is worse yet, because you do not sow that everj' year
and it draws moisture all around.
Q. How about planting- berries?
A. That may be all right, provided you do not come too near
the trees, and I would grow nothing among my trees after they are
four or five years old. If you plant berries, plant them about five
feet from the trees and each year plow out a few more, so by the
time your trees are about four or five years old j'ou have ploAved out
all the berries.
Q. How is vetch for a fertilizer if sowed early in the fall and
plowed under in the spring?
A. That is very good, provided you sow it early enough. It
ought to be about three inches high by that time, so it is about eight
inches high when you plow it under.
Q. How about growing apples on land where nothing else will
grow ?
A. Apples are not likely to grow there either. Grow apples on
land where vegetables and wheat grow good.
Q. What is the best way to keep trees over winter, put them in
a cold storage cellar or not?
A. A cold storage cellar may be all right, but I prefer laying
them out on the ground and covering their roots with dirt.
Q. In setting out a home orchard would you get a tree of each
kind or several trees, say about 50 trees?
A. I should get a tree of Astricans and one or two of Graven-
steins and several trees each of the winter apples, such as Jonathans,
Newtowns, Spitzenbergs, Arkansas Blacks, "Winesaps, etc.
Q. How about Baldwin apples?
A. They are all right as long as they do not get the Baldwin
spots. "We do not know what causes them, but they start in the middle
of the apple and come out.
Q. How about elevation? Would 2.200 feet be too high.
A. I would not go over 2,000 feet, but it might be all right up
that high, provided it is not near a mountain.
JHraciiL-ally a perfect specimen of a Yellow Newtown Ai)ple ti-ec growing in one
of the famous apple districts of Oregon.
Management of Orchard Soils
By Prof. C. C. Thorn, of the Washington State Collage.
IT HAS been said that agriculture and horticulture miglit l)c lik-
ened to a man. The growing of crops, fruit and trees might rep-
resent one hand of a man ; the raising of live stock and the mar-
keting of stuff, the other hand ; but attached to and supporting all
that, is a man's body or trunk, which we will liken to the soil. Above
all is a man's head, which we will liken to the man himself.
I will leave it to you to decide which is the most important, but
it seems to me that aside from all things, one must have the trunk
for a support before he has the right or left hand ; this brings one
back to the soil. I believe I am right when I say that the soil is the
most important part of agriculture. On it depends every other phase
of that art. I venture to say that because the soil is so common and
we tread it every day, we know so little about it. One will hesitate
to say why. "We till the soil because it is a most common practice.
It is my purpose tonight to explain why it is necessary to till the
soil and keep up its fertility. I will liken the soil to a manufacturing
plant. A large manufacturing establishment must first have a build-
ing, also raw material and workmen. These three essentials will turn
out a finished product. Consider the soil as an establishment for man-
ufacturing purposes. First consider the plant itself, which we Avill
liken to the soil; next consider the raw material, or the chemicals in
the soil on which the plant feeds. As you all know, these chemicals
and materials have to be bred before the plant can feed upon them.
Next comes the workmen. Possibly this subject has not been men-
tioned before, as we profess to know little about it, but I am going
to tell you that the workmen in that large establishment are bacteria.
"We will begin with the plant itself and analyze it. An ordinary
soil is composed of two great bodies or parts ; the mineral part, or
inorganic matter which has come from broken down rocks, and the
organic matter. These constitute the raw material with which these
workmen have to Avork. The inorganic matter comprises sand, silt
and clay. Organic matter is the decayed remains of plants and
animals. Sand and clay may vary in color. Sometimes they are
almost pure white, and at other times they are very dark. There are
all types of clay, but sand is nearly always gray or whitish in color.
42 APPLK GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
It is composed of inorganic substances and hard particles. Sand is the
coarser particles of the soil; clay is the same material only it is broken
into finer particles. One can grind sand like coffee or pepper and
make pure clay out of it.
We will now consider the organic matter. Humus is always black
in color, therefore black soils are rich in liumus. From organic
matter we get part of the plant food ; from inorganic matter we get
part of the soil solution that goes to make up the plant ; from sand
and clay we get, first of all, lime. Lime is essential to the life of a
plant. Next comes potash, phosphate and nitrogen. These four
essentials, with the addition of a little iron and a few other substances,
which are never lacking, build up a plant. With these alone plant
growth is impossible. A plant must have water. We likened the soil
to a manufacturing establishment and the soil itself to a building;
these are the raw materials ; we will liken ^vater to the transporta-
tion facilities that bring these finished products to their place of con-
sumption. For instance, there might be plenty of bread in Boston,
but if there were no wheat, no flour, and no railroads, it would not
do us any good, so if there were no means of bringing these sub-
stances through the medium of water to the plant, it could not grow.
These essentials in available form constitute fertility. If any one is
in an unavailable form, that constitutes unfertilit3\
Possibly some of you have read bulletins from our Agricultural
College setting forth the fact that the soil contains water, phosphates,
lime and nitrogen, and drawing the inference that the soil will grow so
many tons to the acre for a certain number of years. The author of these
bulletins assumes that these are not in a raw state, but a finished
product and they are manufacturing elements for the plant to use. It
is a mistaken idea that lone can analyze the soil, add a chemical, and
determine how many crops can be grown in a certain number of years.
I am fully convinced that this is an erroneous statement. I read a
statement in a bulletin not long ago about a certain valley not far
from here in which there are orchards bearing 600 boxes of apples,
but that in twelve years they cannot produce anything, and I said most
emphatically I did not believe it. One Avould think from such state-
ments that if a plant contained an element of plant food the plant
.would grow. Those elements are present, and yet the soil may not
be fertile. We must have workmen to produce the finished product,
and they are bacteria. In every manufacturing establishment there
are some men that pay their employer a good profit on all they do,
and others who are barely earning their Avages. There are some bac-
teria in the soil which, under all conditions are working, but under
some conditions barely earn their wages. In other conditions they
-".- J
A famous apple orchard in the "Walla Walla Valley, Washington.
44 Al'l'Lt: GliOWING IX THK PACIl'IC .NORTIIWKST
give you a g'oocl dividend. This brings us back to the point that the
condition of the soil makes tlie difference l^etween a good and a poor
crop, and that the condition of the soil makes either a good or a poor
environment in which l)acteria may do tlieir work. It is not lime that
liberates the potash; it is bacterial action that does it. 1 have a piece
of chalk about a third of an inch square every Avay. If it were com-
posed of ordinary soil there would be over eleven million bacteria
in it. In my private lal)oratory I had some soil which had been pro-
ducing wheat for forty-two years; for the last eleven years it has
averaged twelve bushels to the acre. I obtained some other soils that
had only been cropped for five years and averaged -"^G bushels to the
acre. Those two soils were placed side by side. It is reasonable to
suppose that the plant food was gone from the soil which had been
cropped for forty-two years, but that in the new soil there was plant
food. I had the idea that bacteria had something to do with them,
so I took three pots of soil from the field that produced wheat for
forty-two years. I put these pots in a soil oven and heated them to
a boiling point. This was done to kill the bacteria. If I had put
acid in the soil it would have killed the plant food. I took some
virgin soil from the field which had been cropped for five years and
planted these pots with wheat the same day, under the same con-
ditions. When -we harvested' that wdieat, the pots that came from
the poor soil that had been sterilized had three and one-fourth times
as much wheat as the pots which came from the good soil. I didn't
add a grain of fertilizer, but simply killed the bad bacteria in the
soil and the plant was able to grow. In other words, the soil that had
been cropped for forty-two years had become so contaminated Avitli
undesirable bacteria that the plant refused to grow good crops.
The time is coming wdien a farmer will not go out into his field
and supply artificial fertilizer, but will send to some laboratory and
get certain germs that lie can spread over his field and in that way
produce results. One can put bad germs into the soil and the crops will
refuse to grow; good germs can be put into poor soil and good crops
will be produced. We are not the only ones that have been doing that.
I can refer you to papers and reports from England and France that
will verify my statement. It is not a question of what is in the soil or
the plant food, but of the condition of the workmen who are making
that food so that the plant can use it. Remember that it is not lime,
phosphate and manure that make it all. but bacteria. If one can get
rid of the undesiral)le workmen and put in skilled workmen he can
get much better results. These workmen must have the raw material.
Now comes the next point. Why is tlie soil tilled.' If the soil
is hard and compact, this condition leads to the growl li of bad work-
JIAXACK.MKXT OK OIUIIAUI) SOILS
45
Irrigation as practiced in thu Lewiston distinct, Idalio. Orchard land witli young trees.
men. Bacteria are plants, very minnte in size; they are not animals.
They will grow under all sorts of conditions and materials, snch as
stumps, roots and branches. A plant will not grow in darkness, con-
sequentlj' it must have light; it must also have moistnre. Plants can-
not grow without food, consequently the bacteria must have food to
live on. Think of this for a minute and you will see the reason for
cultivating the soil and putting it into condition. Plants must also
have air. If one tries to grow a tree where there is no air, it will die.
It must have air, light, heat and moisture. Therefore we till the
soil to bring about a condition necessar}', not only for the plant above
the ground, but more particularly for an ideal condition for these
workmen that are so busy underneath the soil. If the soil is loosened
up more air gets into it ; it gets more sunlight, and holds more moisture.
A soil that gets air, light and heat has greater bacterial action and
more plant food is going to be manufactured, especially for plant use.
Hard material must be made soluble before a plant can use it. That
is the purpose of the workmen. They take the raw material and make
it soluble. Remember they cannot do this unless they have the raw
material to work with.
If the soil in j'our orchard is in an undesirable condition your
trees will not grow. How many of you have noticed that if potatoes
are grown on the same patch for a number of years, the scab on the
46 APPLK GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NOKTIIWKST
potato will soon get verj' bad and it will begin to rot, much more
than if they had been grown on different patches? The same thing
is true of wheat. These diseases are bacterial diseases. There are
■good and bad bacteria. These diseases are called parasite diseases. A
parasite is an animal that lives on another, consequently one plant
lives on another. There are diseases on nearly all Ihc routs of plants
.as well as on the leaves.
There is a method of killing them, and that is by rotation of crops
in between the trees, such as potatoes, clover or vegetables. You
must divert your attention sometimes from the orchard itself to some
other crop and introduce other bacteria that will compete with the un-
-desirable bacteria. Clover when plowed under supplies the humus
which is chiefly the food of these bacteria ; that is, while they are
working and putting these others into shape (potash, phosporic acid
.and lime), they are living on this humus.
You have read that humus must be put in the soil because we
thought humus nourished the plant in some w^ay, but Ave find that it
does not nourish the plant so much. There is one point I want to
state above all others. There must be plenty of humus in the soil.
It is very desirable from the fact that it is a means of transporting
moisture. It has been said by possibly one of the greatest authorities,
Mr. F. H. King, that more crop failures were due from lack of mois-
ture than from any other thing, and I heartily agree with him.
Questions and Answers.
Q. How can a badly run down farm tliat has ])een cropped for
-thirty years be built up?
A. First loosen up the soil to the deplli of about eight inches, so
that it will hold plenty of moisture, and make it possible for these
bacteria to grow. After it is well loosened up put in a clover crop and
plow it under.
Q. When you spoke of sterilizing the soil, didn't you kill the
good bacteria with the bad?
A. I forgot to say that we added the good.
Q. Is there any beiictit in adding better soil on top of tlie bad
■soil?
A. Possibly for a short time, but it would soon become inocu-
lated with the bad bacteria again.
Q. For instance, if one were going to grow a clover crop wouldn't
it be better to first inoculate the soil?
A. When starting clover on new land, inoculate the soil with
the nodules of the old soil.
MANAGEMENT OF OKCIIARD SOILS 47
Q. Is clover a better crop to plow under than vetch?
A. Vetch is also a legume, same kind of a plant. Peas are just
the same. Peas, beans, vetch, alfalfa, clover, all belong to the same
family and all serve the same purpose.
Q. How about ferns? Are they easy to raise?
A. We have found by analj-sis that ferns are almost as rich in
nitrogen as alfalfa, consequently the fern would be a very good fer-
tilizer, but is not as deep.
Q. Do these bacteria produce humus in the soil by cultivation
of the soil?
A, They don't produce the humus; they lie on the humus and
produce soluble forms.
Q. How can one tell the difference between good and bad bac-
teria?
A. One can tell that they are present where crops are running
down. For instance, where potatoes are grown for a number of years
on the same soil there is a large percentage of scab. In order to get
rid of this, stop that crop and grow some other.
Q. Is the color in red shot soil due to humus or is it due to iron ?
A. It is due to iron.
Q. At what stage would you plow under alfalfa?
A. When it is sufficiently large for convenience. If it gets too
large it is hard to plow under.
Q. What depth of soil should one have for planting an orchard?
A. Four or five feet will produce a good orchard. The deeper
the soil the better.
Q. Is the north slope better than the south slope?
A. I believe the north slope is better for protection against frost.
For color I prefer a south slope.
>
*^
/> -V ( W I >il I
A four-j-ear-old Spitzenberg Apple tree, Hood River Valley, Oregon.
Varieties and Environment
C. I. Lewis, of the Oregon Agricultural College.
CUE subject of variety adaptation in each locality is a very dif-
ficult question. If one will stop a moment to think and analyze
the conditions in this great state of Oregon, he will find that this
is so. Take the rainfall for example ; it varies from 23 to 130 inches.
There are elevations from sea level to very high altitudes, and all sorts
of soil. There are various exposures and great changes in climatic
conditions. There are more changes in this state than would probably
be found in all the territory from the Atlantic seaboard to the ]Missis-
sippi Eiver. One can go out into a single locality and within a few
miles find the rainfall cut in tAVO, the elevation practically doubled
and the soil absolutely different ; so I have a very difficult problem
on hand and need your help in this work. I hope to have two field
men start work soon, and this will be one of their problems — "Variety
and adaptability in the State of Oregon."
The popularity of a variety may be controlled by a number of
factors, and may be divided into several heads :
First: Varieties that are popular because of their general scar-
city, coupled with a fairly good quality. These include grape fruit,
the Comice pear, and the Spitzenberg apple. At the present time the
better type of grape fruit is sold for as high as 50 cents apiece, and
it ceases to be a poor man's fruit. This is due partly to scarcity, and
perhaps, partly to fashion. The Spitzenberg apples bring a high price
because of their rarity. The Comice pear brings a very high price
largely on account of its scarcity, as well as on account of its good
quality.
Second: By wide adaptability: the Concord grape, the Bart-
lett pear and the Baldwin apple. Take the Concord grape, for in-
stance ; this has received the largest vote as being the best ; then the
Bartlett pear. Nearly everybody knows the Bartlett pear. It is the
only pear grown under many different conditions, climatic and other-
wise. The Baldwin apple is grown over a large area.
Third: B3' quality alone. Varieties may become popular be-
cause of their high quality. That stage has not been reached in
America. The "country is apt to go through several evolutions on such
problems. Before the commercial days, amateurs grew high-quality
50
APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTriWEST
,:^::^-
^•ij: -/'.f ,^A- -
An apple orchard in liil
Mjin, Yakima Valley, Washington.
fruit. Perhaps a little later, when the country becomes more popu-
lated, and there is more wealth, there will be a set of men in Oregon
who will grow a good qualit}^ of fruit and the world will appreciate
it. The degree of perfection of a variety is controlled largely by a
combination of such factors as elevation, exposure, soil, general cli-
matic conditions, and the skill of the grower.
The subject of variety adaptation in the Pacific NortliAvest is still
in its infancy. Since the great acreage in orchards is still not in a
bearing state, it will be some time before final conclusions can be
adopted concerning the best varieties to grow under the various con-
ditions to be found in each locality. There is a tendency in tiie state
to plant in some cases too few varieties, or rather to try to adapt a
very few varieties to all conditions. Among the principal varieties of
apples is the Spitzenberg, one of the most popular. This is adapted
to a deep, rich soil. This variety is subject to all the troubles a tree is
heir to, and needs constant nursing and careful handling. It is profit-
able only when grown to a high degree of perfcctiitn. Tlie second
and tliird grades of this variety are often a drag on llie market.
The Jonathan is an apple of quite wide adaptability, but to be
at its best it should develop a high degree of color. It needs careful
VARIETIES AND ENVIRONMENT
51
Yakima Valley, "Washington, apple tree in full bearin
handling at the time of picking, as it develops core rot and breaks
down rapidly if allowed to hang on too long.
In most sections of the Northwest the Northern Spy is of rather
poor quality, but some sections of the Willamette Valley have been
especially successful in growing this variety. It should not be grow^n
in too rich or too heavy soil, and rank growth should be discouraged
by the use of summer pruning. It is a very desirable apple when high-
ly colored and if not too large in size.
The Gravenstein is a very popular apple, and is becoming a fall
product in most sections, like the Hood River Valley, the Willamette
Valley and the Eogue River Valley. In some of the coast counties
and in some of the uplands of Eastern Oregon it has long-keeping
qualities. By careful picking the keeping season can be prolonged.
The King of Tompkins County has a tendency to over-grow and
w^ater at the core, but when grown to a high degree of perfection will
find a ready market as a fall apple.
The Wagener is especially good as a filler and comes into bearing
early.
The Gano is in some w-ays an improvement over the Ben Davi:^,
52 APPLE GROWING IX THE PACIFIC XOKTIIWEST
having better color, and it is thought by iiuiuy to be of superior qual-
ity, and, although it is a low-grade apple, it has been fairly profitable.
The Rome Beauty is rapidly becoming one of the leading apples
for baking, and its popularity is steadily increasing throughout the
state. As a rule it is profitable in most sections.
The York Imperial is grown to a considerable extent in the Grand
Ronde Valley, but it has not been tried to any extent in other sections.
The Winesap is grown well to perfection in parts of Washington,
but is grown sparingly in most Oregon districts. It has a tendency
to grow undersize.
The Macintosh Red is grown but little in this state. As a high-
class Christmas apple it would be adapted to the high elevations and
to localities of the most severe weather conditions.
The Russian apples are usually adapted more or less to hardship
and succeed on high elevations or exposures where others fail.
The Delicious has been grown very little in Oregon. As yet it is
now only in the experimental stage. The same may be said of the King
David.
Of the light-colored apples the Yellow Newtown is easily the
leader. It has a wide adaptability and is now being grown to a
high degree of perfection in the Hood River, Willamette and Umpqua
Valleys.
The Ortley is a popular apple in the Hood River district. It is
planted considerably with Yellow Newtowns as fillers and pollenizers.
It is a high quality cooking and eating apple.
The Grimes Golden is increasing in popularity, especially in the
Willamette Valley. It is a high-class apple. l)ut at times grows rather
small and has a tendency to drop badly; still, it is one of the most
promising varieties.
The Winter Banana has as yet no commei-eial rating. T believe
it is adapted to the higher elevations, similar to the upper Hood River
Valley, rather than to other sections of the state.
The White Winter Pearmain is grown splendidly in Oregon and
is an apple of splendid vitality. It is a very good pollenizer with ])r<ic-
tically everything that has been tried, and in certain sections it should
be tried more than at present.
The Rhode Island Greening is, where grown to a good degree of
perfection, of good qualit}-. and should receive more encouragement.
It is successfully grown in Eastern Oregon and is increasing in popu-
larity in some sections of the Willamette Valley.
As to pears, it is the general belief that varieties like the Bartlett.
Cornice and Bosc are grown to a higher dagree of perfection on light
rather than heav}^ soils. Whether they will keep as wril when grown
VARIETIES AND ENVIRONMENT 53
on such soils is a question still to be investigated. Wliere it has been
reported that they have not kept as well when grown in such condi-
tions, it may have been due to the fact that the crop was prepared in
regions having only light soil against regions which had both light and
heavy soils.
The Cornice is being grown in larger ciuantities than is justified.
While it is, when grown to a high degree of perfection, a high-priced
pear, it is a shy bearer, comes into bearing late and is not as much
of a money maker as other varieties. The Bartlett and the Anjou are
steadily increasing in popularit3^
The Winter Nelis should be planted only on the richest soils.
Pear districts should try varieties not very commonly grown. Se-
lect the Glou Morceau, Patrick Barry, Berre Hardy, etc.
As a guide for the proper selection of varieties of fruits for differ-
ent localities I have prepared a list which might be foLowed with ad-
vantage.
Varieties of Fruits for Various Localities.
For the lower altitudes of Wasco, Moro, Crook, Gilliam. vSherman,
and Umatilla counties, the selection can be made from the folloAving
varieties :
Apples — YelloAV Transparent, Gravenstein, Jonathan, Winesap,
Rome Beauty, Wagener and Ben Davis ; the latter for spring use.
Pears — Practically any commercial variety, including Bartlett,
Clapp's Favorite, Seckel, Anjou, Winter Nelis.
Cherries — Lambert, Eoyal Anne and Bing, for sweet cherries.
Early Richmond, English Morello and Olivette for sour cherries.
Prunes and Plums — Use any of the standard varieties such as Ital-
ian, Hungarian and Peach Plum.
Peaches — Alexander, Early and Late Crawford and Lemon Cling,
Grape — European varieties are generally covered to be protected in
winter. They are such as Black Hamburg, Muscat, Rose of Peru and
Tokay, American varieties are : Worden, Concord, Niagara and Del-
aware.
Strawberries — Clark's seedling is the best. Practically any of
the early, medium or late varieties would give a good family supply.
Raspberries — Cuthbert, Gregg, Marlboro and Cumberland.
Blackberries — Lawton, Eldorado and Kittatinny.
Currants — Fay, Cherry and White Grape,
Gooseberries — Red Jacket, Champion and Industr3^
For the lower elevations of Union, Baker and Wallowa counties,
the following varieties are found to be the best adapted :
54 Al'l'Ll-: GKOWIXG I.\ TIIK I'ACIilC .XOKTUWKST
Apples — Yellow Transparent, Oravenstein. Kinf?. Jonatlian. Rome
Beauty, York Imperial.
Pears — Bartlett, Clapp's Favorite and Anjou.
Cherries — Lambert and Bing, for sweet cherries ; Early Richmond
and Olivette, for sour cherries.
Prunes and Plums — Italian and Hungarian.
Peaches — Any of the early varieties, such as Early Crawfords,
Hale's Hardy, Alexander, etc.
Grapes — Worden, Concord, Niagara and Brighton.
Strawberries — Clark's Seedling, Sharpless and ]\Iagoon.
Currants — Fay, White Grape.
Gooseberries — Red Jacket, Industry and Champion.
The higher elevations of Eastern Oregon suffer more or less from
the severity of winter and drouth in summer, and the same care in
the selection of varieties should be exercised.
Apples — The Russian varieties will be the hardiest. These va-
rieties in loAV altitudes are summer and fall varieties, but often in high
altitudes they are long keepers. Red Astrachan, Gravenstein, Duch-
ess. Wolf River, Wagener and ^Macintosh Red are the best and most
satisfactory to plant. Occasionally nearly any of the standard varie-
ties grow sufficiently well for family use. Varieties of some promise
in such sections are Rome Beauty. White Winter Pearmain. Delicious
and Gano.
Pears — White Doyanne, Seckle, Clapp's Favorite.
Peaches — Peaches as a rule should not be grown in the higher ele-
vations of Eastern Oregon, but occasionally such varieties as Alexander
and Amsdeu do very well. The Gobb's apricot is often successful.
Cherries — Lambert and Bing for sweet, and the Early Richmonl
and Olivette for sour.
Raspberries — Cuthbert and Turner's Red.
Blackberries — Any of the standard varieties, such as Kittatinny.
Lawton and Eldorado.
Gooseberries — Red Jacket and Champion.
Strawberries — Clark's Seedling. Warfield and Bederwood.
Varieties for Hood River.
The varities considered best ft)r llooil River are:
Apples — Yellow Newtown. Spitzenberg. Ortley. Jitnathan. Red
Cheek, Arkansas Black.
Pears — Anjou is the leading variety, and seems to grow well.
Other varieties Avorth trying would be the Bartlett and Patrick Barry.
The varieties at Mosier are similar to those at Hood River. Very
VARIETIES AND ENVIRONMENT
55
Apple tree. Rogue River Valley, Oregon. This photo took first prize at tlie National
Apple Show at Spokane for the best photograph of a single apple tree.
few other fruits are grown in this district.
Raspberries — Cuthbert.
Strawberries — Clark 's Seedling.
In the upper Hood River Valley it is still in an experimental
stage. The Winter Banana seems to do well, and it may be that the
Delicious will be good for that district, also the Jonathan, Gano, etc.
In the vicinity of The Dalles we find a district especially adapted
to peaches, prunes, cherries and grapes. The district above The
Dalles is being cultivated to apples, varieties of which are given in a
list attached hereto.
For peaches, the principal ones are Early Crawford. Late Craw-
ford, Sahvay, Elberta, Muir, Orange and Lemon Cling.
For cherries, such as the Bing and the Lambert do well.
For grapes, such varieties as the Tokay and ^Muscat are growing
well.
Willamette Valley.
One of the hardest vallej's upon which to give advice as to the
variety of fruit, due to the large area of the valley and the many
varied conditions found, and owing, also, to the fact that, with ap-
56 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
pies especially the industry is still in its infancy, is the Willamette
Valley.
Apples — Yellow Newtown, Jonathan. Grimes Golden, Rome Beau-
ty, Gano, Rhode Island Greening, Gravenstein, Ortley, Wagener, Spitz-
enberg and Vanderpool Red.
Pears — Bartlett, d'Anjon. Comico. I'atrick liarry and C'lairgeaii;
and worthy of trial are the Glou Morceau, Beiirre Hardy, Rode and
Howell.
Peaches — Early Alexander, Amsden Jnne,. Watei'loo, Triumph,
Early Columbia, Hale's Early, Mamie Ross, Lovell, Champion, Early
Crawford, Early Charlotte, Tuscan Cling, Golden Cling, "Slnir, Late
Crawford, Elberta, Globe, Fitzgerald, Salway. These rarities are
named in their fruiting order. Some of the most promising in this
list are the Amsden June, Early Crawford. Early Charlotte. ]\Iamie
Ross, Muir, Elberta, Globe and Sahvay.
Prunes — The Italian.
Plums^ — The Peach Plum and the Satsuma. The ^Maynard is a
good home plum.
Cherries — Royal Anne, Bing and Lamljert for sweet cherries ; the
Olivette, IMontmorency and Early Richmond for sour cherries; and
May Duke and Late Duke, which are especially fine for local cherries.
Walnuts — Francjuette, Mayette and ^Maylan.
Grapes — Worden, Concord, Niagara, Delaware. Breighton.
Such fruits as apricots and almonds should be groAvn sparingly in
this valley.
Red Raspberries — Cuthbert, IMarllioro, Superlative Antwerp.
Black Raspberries — Cumberland and Gregg.
Blackberries — Evergreen, Snyder and ]\Iammoth.
Gooseberries — The Oregon. Downing. Industry and Smith.
Currants — Perfection, Fay, Victoria and AVhite Grape.
Strawberries — Gold Dollar, Sixteen to One, ]\Iagoon and Clark's
Seedling. Also the Autumn Bell.
Umpqua Valley.
The principal apples grown are the Yellow Newtown. Spitzen-
berg and Jonathan. Pears have been planted as yet but sparingly.
Bartlett, Anjou and the Cornice are in the lead. As this district is
very early, more of the early types of cherries, pears, apples and
peaches should be grown than at present. These would find a local
trade throughout the Northwest. Tlie leading cherries are the Royal
Anne, Lambert, Olivette, Montmorency, Early Richmond, Early Purple
and Guiype.
VARIETIES AND E.\ VIKOX JIENT 57
For small fruits in this district I Avould advise :
StraAvberries — Gold Dollar, Ever Bearing, etc., while the Clark's
Seedling, Mag-oon, Sixteen to One, etc., will thrive.
Grapes — Worden, Concord, Delaware, Breighton. Possibly in
some of the sections a few of the European grapes, like the Muscat and
Tokay will thrive.
Rogue River Valley.
Apples — Yellow Newtown, Spitzenberg, Jonathan, Winesap.
Pears — Bartlett, Anjou, Cornice, Howell, Winter Nellis, Bosc are
commonly grown. Such varieties as Glou Morceau, Patrick Barry,
Beaurre Hardy are worthy of trial.
Cherries — Lambert, Royal Anne, Olivette, ^lontmorency. Early
Richmond, May Duke and Late Duke.
Grapes — Muscat, Tokay, Thompson Seedless, AVorden, Concord
and Delaware.
Peaches — Practically all the commercial varieties thrive in this
district.
Prunes — Few prunes are grown except for local consumption,
such varieties being the Italian and the Petite.
Apricots — Royal and Tilton are the leading varieties.
Almonds — Soft Shell, I. X. L., Languedoc and Drake's Seedling.
The Texas Prolific is recommended as worthy of trial.
Coast Countries.
All the varieties of small fruits seem to grow to a high degree
of perfection in these coast countries. Most of the pomoceous fruits
are still in the experimental stage. Locations should be chosen that
are not exposed to the strong ocean winds. The Gravenstein is sup-
posed to be one of the finest apples in these sections. Quite a number
of our commercial varieties are groAving to a fair degree of perfection.
Peaches, cherries and grapes as a rule Avill probably only groAV
for home consumption.
Dwarf Fruits.
Before concluding, I should like to say a Avord on the subject
of dAvarf fruits. The dAvarf fruit as a commercial proposition is still
in an experimental condition in this state, but the dAvarf pear looks
Ciuite promising to be used in plantings by itself or to be used as a
filler. There is one pear orchard in Idaho, and a number in this state,
but fcAv are bearing as yet. The trees can be planted close together.
VARIKTIKS AND EXVI150XMKNT 59
They come into early bearing, and generally proilnee a fine crop. They
are generally worked on Angers Quince or Portnguese stock, and then
■worked over to Duchess or Koonee, and finally they are worked over
to whatever variety is desired.
The dwarf is obtained by using a root that is slow growing, and
then pruning. Pruning should be done in such a way as to throw out
the laterals and spurs. Summer pruning is practiced much more with
the dwarf stock than with the standard.
Dwarf peaches are also being grown, and come into bearing quite
heavily the first year. There are several plantings in our state, and
it Avill only be a short time before we will know more of these.
The dAvarf apple has been tried very sparingly. When it is put on
Paradise stock it is more of a curiosity, but when planted on the
Doucin stock it may make a satisfactory tree for Western Oregon.
The dwarf fruit offers a splendid opportunity for a home garden
and a good conservative field for trial in the commercial orchard.
Questions and Answers.
• Q. How about the King David apple?
A. To my knowledge it has been grown sparingly in any section.
I saw one box at Hood River and another at the National Fruit Show.
It is still purely experimental and seems to be at its best in Eastern
Washington. As to adaptability, would say go at it gradually.
Q. Are many Rambo apples grown?
A. Some of the commercial orchards grow a few. In an orchard
I own myself there are two Rambo trees 7 years old this year; very
heavily grown, first-class. They are encouraging from that point of
view.
Q. Is it too late in the season to plant apples or cherries?
A. It is a little too late for cherries; and by planting apples noAv
one would be losing just so much money. Apples to be at their best
should be planted before this time, but should there be a wet April
it would make little difference. In most parts of the state apples
should be planted about the middle of March. If you haven't ordered
your trees, wait until fall and get your order in early.
Q. Is the Northern Spy a late bearer?
A. Yes, it comes into bearing very late, but by proper summer
pruning and intense cultivation one can to some extent overcome that.
I have 10 acres myself, and think I can reduce the time considerably.
If I could grow as high-class apples as my neighbor, Armstrong. I
would be well satisfied. There is very little winter pruning done ou
the Northern Spy.
60 APPLE GKOWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Q. Would you try tliat method on any other variety than the
Northern Spy?
A. Do not try it on the Jonatlian or the Wa<>ener. They come
into bearing about the fifth year. Encourage the Northern fSpy and the
Yellow NcAvtown. I find in most cases that they are over-pruned. They
head in too much and the YelloAv Newtown fills out lacking growth.
Q. "Would you recommend the variety system in planting an
orchard?
A. Not very much. In my talk here last fall I remember coming
across a man Avho grew quite a variety. It can be done all right. In
fact, there are several such old orchards and some of them are worth
as high as $2,000 an acre. Of course they wouldn't be worth that
in four or five years unless very highly cultivated. When at Payette,
Idaho, three years ago, I saw an orchard where there were four rows
of dwarfs a quarter of a mile long, and the owner told me that if he
were planting again he would plant nothing but dwarfs. Steve Ham-
ilton, of Bashaw, Wash., made c[uite a success of growing dwarfs. He
is very enthusiastic about them. He has a fine grade of pears from 3-
year-old trees this summer.
Q. Are dwarf trees as long lived as other trees?
A. Under some conditions there is not much difference. In Japan
there are trees centuries old.
Q. How many varieties of apples would you liave in an orchai'd?
A. Not over three.
Q. How" about the soil for cherries?
A. The soil in the locality of IMosier is very good. They do the
best on deep rolling soil where there is good drainage. There is a
bright future here in the Northwest for cherry growing, and I don't
know why more people are not interested in cherries. Willamette
cherries as a shipping proposition are very inviting at the present time.
I don't know why more people don't engage in prune growing. When
one stops to consider the value of land, and what it costs to produce
trees and grow a crop, it is tlie best proposition in the NorthAvest.
While pears probably pay as mncli as anytliing else, they require more
skill, but the prune industry lias now come to a point where it is very
profitable. There are prune men in Oregon wlio ai-e making an aver-
age of a hundred dollars an acre a year. A 40-aere prune (U-chard can
be handled as easily as a 10-aere apple orchard.
Q. Do you consider the Lambert a good shipping cherry?
A. Yes, there is no question that tliey ean be shipped from all
over this state. They have been shipped In New Voi'k in splendid con-
dition. When we get large nreas liandling cherries, so that they can
be ship[)ed in carload lots and c.-in be handled (|niekly for connnercial
VARIKTIES AND EXVIRONMEXT 61
purposes, there is goiny to ])e a. bright future here for the cliei-ry in-
dustry. AVe liave the entire country as a market, as Califoi-nia cherries
are practically off the market when ours come in.
Q. When does the Lambert cherrj^ ripen?
A. Last year, about the 8th or 10th of July.
Q. What elevation is best for cherry-growing?
A. I am inclined to think they can be grown best on an elevation
of 1,000 or 1,200 feet. Such an elevation would bring into bearing
and cause them to ripen earlier than a lower elevation. Cherry-grow-
ing is a very encouraging industry on some of the tablelands. Don't
put them in heavy, wet, solid soils, as they will die. When put on suit-
able soil there will be less of that so-called gumming. INIany cherry
trees die from lack of proper care. There is a foolish notion that they
must not be pruned or cultivated.
Q. Why is it that the Roj^al Anne cherry is more subject to gum-
ming than others?
A. I havn't observed that it is.
Q. How is the Bing cherr}^ for shipping?
A. It is fine, especially at The Dalles, and in this valley it seems
to be good.
Q. How about prunegrowing in the Lanpcpia Valley?
A. There is not much doing just now. They used to groAv Petites
there, but the industry does not seem to advance much in that valley.
Historical Notes.
(As given in ''The Apples of New York," by Beach.)
Spitzenberg.
Spitzenberg — Originated at Esopus, Ulster County, New York.
We find no authentic account of the date of its origin, but it is scat-
tered throughout the state in the oldest orchards, and was known in
Eastern States more than a century ago. It is known in cultivation in
Europe, and is one of the recognized commercial varieties in certain
apple-growing districts of the Rocky Mountain region, Washington
and Oregon.
Yellow Newtown.
Yellow Newtown — The "NewtoAvn Pippin" Avas the first American
apple which attracted attention in Europe. After the receipt of speci-
mens by Franklin while in London in 1759, and the subsequent sending
of grafts to Collinson hy John Bartram, numerous attempts were made
62 APPLE GHOWIXG IX THE PACIEIC XOKTIIWKST
to grow the variet}' in Eiiglaml. As early as 1768 it was cultivated
in the Brompton Park luirsery uiidcr the name "Newtown Pippin of
NeAvYork."
It is prol)able that the large apple exports of 1773 included con-
siderable quantities of the Newtown, for it was at that time quite
generally distributed through the apple-growing districts of the At-
lantic slope. Thomas Jefferson recorded in his "Garden Book" that
in March, 1773, grafts of "Newtown Pippin" received from Mordecai
Debnam, at Sandy Point, were "ingrafted by P. Morton," and in
March, 1778, he noted that the grafted trees were planted out at
Monticello.
Prior to 1803 Forsytli said of the variety in England, "The New-
town Pippin is a fine apple in good season, but seldom ripens with us.
It is held in great esteem in America." McMahon, in 1808, included
Newtown Pippin in his select list of "long-keeping apples," and also
in a list of "cider apples."
Previous to 1817 we have no record that more than one type of
the Newtown was recognized, but Coxe, whose work appeared in that
3^ear, described as distinct varieties the "Large Yelloj^ NewtoAvn Pip-
pin" and the "Green Newtown Pippin," characterizing the latter as
"a variety of the preceding kind." Since the time of Coxe the two
types have been recognized as distinct by our leading American pora-
ologists, though fruitgrowers are by no means unanimous on this point.
The original seedling tree of Newtown Pippin is alleged to have
stood near a swamp on the estate of Gershom ^loore, in Newtown,
Long Island, until about 1905, when it died from excessive cutting of
scions and exhaustion. Its origin is credited to the early part of the
eighteenth century. It is not clear at this time whether the original
tree was of the "green" or "yellow" type, nor has any record of a
distinct origin of the two been discovered.
Though first grown in commercial orchards in New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, the excellent quality of the frnit from some
of the Potomac counties of Virginia was noted as early as the time
of Coxe.
In Albemarle county, Virginia, where it reached a high degree of
perfection, it became known as the "Albemarle Pippin" at an early
day, and was for many years considered a distinct variety of local
origin, and was so propagated.
An export trade in the fruit from Albemarle county was inaugu-
rated under favorable auspices by a happy circumstance which oc-
curred in the first year of the reign of Queen Victoria.
The identity of Albemarle and Yellow Newtown seems to have
been recorded first by the late Franklin Davis in a letter from Staun-
VAUIKTIKS AM) K N V I HON M K.NT
63
y
Mu-^l
YoiiUK' ai)i)lc; treu in 'J'lie DaiJt-s district, Ofeyun. Note metliud ot pi-oiiping u]) the
limbs, which originated in this district.
ton, Va., which was published in the Hortieiiltiirist in 1857. Since that
time most pomohjgists have accepted their identity, ascribing the
slight variations which are observable to local soil or climatic condi-
tions. But in the absence of an authentic record of the introduction
of Yellow Newtown to Albemarle county, many orchardists in the
Piedmont and mountain regions have continued to believe in the Albe-
marle as a distinct variety of local origin. Eecent investigation by
Messrs. H. L. Lyman and Samuel B. "Woods, prominent citizens and
fruit-growers of Charlottsville, Va., have resulted in an apparent
clearing up of the historical uncertainty and establishing a clear con-
nection between the supposed original Albemarle tree and the older
variety.
The Yellow Newtown has for many years been considered the bet-
ter apple for exportation, however, and in commercial orchards has
almost superseded the Green Newtown on account of its larger size.
brighter color, and better keeping quality. Both sorts are exceedingly
variable and susceptible to the influence of soil, climate, elevation above
sea level, etc. They are successfully grown in but few portions of the
64 APPLK OROWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
apple-producing area of the United States at the present time, the prin-
cipal localities being the lower portion of the Hudson River Valley
in New York, the Piedmont and mountain regions of Virginia and
North Carolina, and portions of California, Oregon and Washington.
Northern Spy.
Northern Spy — Originated in a seedling orchard at East Bloom
field, N. Y., which is famous for the production of this variety, the
Early Joe and the Melon. This orchard was planted by Herman Chapin
with seedling trees grown from seeds brought from Salisbury, Conn.,
about the year 1800. Sprouts from the original tree were taken up
and planted by Roswell Humphrey and by him the first fruit of the
Northern Spy was raised as the original tree died before bearing.
In 1847 nine of the trees set out by Humphrey were still living. The
variety was confined to the vicinity of its origin for many years, and
it was not until about 1840 that it began to attract the attention of
fruitgrowers in other localities. Its great value then came to be more
widely recognized and in 1852 the American Pomological Society not
only listed it as a variety of promise, but also as a variety w^orthy of
general cultivation. Since that time it has become extensively planted,
not only in New York, but in various otlicr portions of the more north-
ern apple-growing regions.
Ortley.
Ortley — This is an old Ncav Jersey variety which Coxe described
under the name Woolman's Long Pippin. In 1825 Floy sent fruit of
it to the Royal Horticultural Society, London, under the name of
Ortley, and in the transactions of that society for that year Lindley
described it under this name, giving Woolman's Long as a sjaionym.
Kenrick Manning, Thomas Elliott, Charles DoAvning and other Amer-
ican Pomologists, have followed Floy instead of Coxe and described
the variety under the name of Ortley. Emmons gives Ortley as identi-
cal with Warren Pippin of Coxe, but it is quite doubtful whether he
was correct in this ease. In portions of the Soutli and West Ortley
is an old favorite for planting in home orchards, and has there been
known under many dilferent names prominent among wliich are
Wliite Belleflower and White Detroit.
Ben Davis.
Ben Davis — Tlie origin oi' this ;i|)[)h' will probably never de defi-
nitel}' known. It has been variously ci-fMlited 1 ) Tennessee, Kentucky
VARIETIKS AND ENVIRONMENT 65
and Virginia. It is supposed to have originated about tlie beginning
of the last century. This view is supported by the fact that before
the Civil War it had spread througliout the states just mentioned, and
following the routes of migration had been carried into Southern In-
diana, Illinois and generally disseminated throughout Missouri and
Arkansas. Downing does not mention it in his first edition, but it is
described in the first revision of his book on ''The Fruits and Fruit
Trees of America." Warder refers to it as a comparatively new sort
in Ohio and the Northwest, but common in the South and Southwest.
During the last quarter century it has been disseminated extensively
through all the apple-growing portions of the United States.
Gano.
Gano — Origin obscure. Brought to notice in Missouri about 25
years ago and disseminated under the name Gano. It is supposed by
some that the original stock came from Kentucky. Some believe
that Gano is the same as Black Ben Davis. It certainly resembles
Black Ben Davis very closely, but the preponderance of evidence at
present seems to favor the opinion that it is of distinct origin.
Rhode Island Greening.
Rhode Island Greening — The locality of the origin of the Rhode
Island Greening is not known with certainty, but there is little reason
to doubt that it originated in the state of Rhode Island and probably
in the vicinity of Newport, near the place now known as Green's End^
where, in olden times, there was a tavern kept by Mr. Green, who
raised apple trees from seed. Among the trees thus produced was one
which bore a large green apple. The scions of this tree were in. such
demand by the people who stopped there as guests that the tree died
from excessive cutting and exhaustion. The fruit which resulted from
grafting with scions was known by different names — in Rhode Island
as the "Apple from Green's Inn," while in adjoining states' it was
called the "Green's Inn apple from Rhode Island." In the town of
Foster, upon the farm of Thomas R. Drowne, at ]\Iount Hygeia, stands
an old Rhode Island Greening tree, which is supposed to be nearly
200 years old. This, to the knowledge of the members of the family
now living, has borne uninterruptedly until within a few years. On
the farm of Frederick W. Winslow, a few rods southwest of the lime
kiln on the northern verge of Fruit Hill, stands a Rhode Island Green-
ing tree, which is locally known as the "Daughter Tree." This tree
is a limb of the mother tree, which was broken off in the September
66
Ai'iT.i: c;kowi.\'g i.\ tiii: 1'.\( ii k .nohtiiwhst
gale of 1815, and which, iipDii Ijcing thrust into the rich moist soil,
took root and l)ecame an independent tree. Tiie mother tree was
planted in 1748. It was, therefore, 141 year-s ohl wlien it was cut
down in 1889. Authentic records of trees of this variety tliat were
planted ahout 150 years ago in the soil of Noi-th Providence on the
farm of the late Lemuel Angell, are still in possession of that family.
It was introduced into the old Plymouth colony from Newport in
1765; from there it was carried into Ohio in 17i)G by General Putnam.
While we have no record of its earliest introduction into this state,
it is Avell known that Khode Island Greening was pretty widely dis-
seminated in the older settled regions of New York during the 18th
century. It is often found in the oldest orchards now in existence in
New York, and also ranks as one of the most imp irtaut varieties in
recently planted orchards.
Grimes Golden.
Grimes Golden — Originated in West Vii-ginia. Fruit from the
original tree was sold to the New Orleans traders as long ago as 1804.
It has become generally disseminated throughout the Ben Davis regions
of the South. West and Southwest, where it is often planted for home
use and is highly esteemed as a dessert apple, but it is not grown in
many localities in the commercial orchards. It has long been known
in scattering localities in New York and old trees of it are found in
some orchards, but it has not l)een gencn-ally planted.
Apple wagon in one of the big orchards of Oregon.
VARIKTIKS AAD ENVIRONMKXT 67
Wagener.
Wagener — The first published reference to the Wagener wliich
we find is that given in the report of the New York State Agricultural
Society for 1847, in which it was stated that it was awarded second
premium as a seedling of merit. In 1848 it was again presented for
competition and was placed by the committee in the list of first-class
apples, awarded an additional premium and also a diploma. An illus-
trated description of it was published in the report of this society
for that year, Avith the remark, "This very fine apple the committee
consider a desirable addition to the list of first-rate fruits. Its ap-
pearance is prepossessing, as is also its size and form." An account
of the history of the Wagener was also given, in which it was stated
that in the spring of 1791, Mr. George Wheeler brought with him from
Dover, Dutchess county, Ncav York, to Penn Yan, Yates county, a
quantity of apple seeds which he sowed that spring in the nursery
upon his farm which he was then reclaiming from the wilderness.
In 1795 Abraham Wagener, from whom the name of the apple is de-
rived, bought this seedling nursery and planted trees from it upon
his place, in what is now the village of Penn Yan. In 1848 it was re-
marked that the old tree was producing an annual and abundant yield
of beautiful and delicious fruit. It continued to bear full crops till
about the year 1865. After it was brought to the notice of the State
Agricultural Society the Wagener soon began to be propagated quite
extensively, and it has since become widely disseminated throughout
the country. In 1892 the Wagener was being offered quite generally
by nurserymen throughout the country, except in the North Missis-
sippi Valley, the Rocky Mountain region, and the plains from Ne-
braska to Texas. It is generally known throughout New York but
is not planted extensively in any section of the state.
Winter Banana.
Winter Banana — The Winter Banana originated on the farm of
David Flory, near Adamsboro, Cass county, Indiana, about 1876. It
was introduced by Grooning Brothers, Monroe, Mich., in 1890. It has
as yet been but little planted in this state.
Gravenstein.
Gravenstein — The following excellent account of the history of
this variety was given by Hovey in 1851 : "The origin of the Graven-
stein remains in some doubt. It is said to have been originally found
68 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NOUTIIWEST
in the Duke of Aiigiistinberg's garden at Gravenstcin, in ITolstein,
and that the original tree was grown there in the middh; of the last
century. Another statement is that it derived its name from being
found in the garden of the castle of Crafonstein in Schleswig, and Diol
says it was supposed by some to have been introduced from Italy.
Be this as it may, it is a common apple throughout Germany and
Sweden and was received from thence into English collections. It is
undoubtedly of similar origin with the Red Astrachan and Duchess
of Oldienburg, possessing the peculiar habit of growth, form of foli-
age and texture of fruit which distinguish the German apples.
"At what time it was first introduced into our gardens we are
not aware, but as neither Coxe nor Thacher describes or names it,
we suppose it was some time subsequent to the account given of it in
the transactions of the London Horticultural Society in 1822. It is at
the present time considerably cultivated though not to the extent its
merits deserve."
In 1857 Captain De Wolfe stated that the Gravenstcin was im-
ported by him from Denmark in May, 1826. In a letter dated October
11, 1829, published in the "New England Farmer." Judge Buel, of
Albany, called attention to the importation of the Gravenstein and
other German apple trees which he had presented to the mem])ers of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Hovey states that in view of
this it appears that the Gravenstein was imported to the vicinity of
Albany probably prior to 1826. After these early importations Graven-
stein gradually found its way into cultivation in various portions of the
country. For many years it has been pretty generally disseminated
through NcAv York State, but in most localities it is grown to a limited
extent only.
Delicious.
Stark Delicious — Delicious was originated at Peru, Madison coun-
ty, Iowa (near Des Moines), by the late Jesse Hiatt, and on his farm
the original tree still flourishes, bearing annual crops of as beautiful
fruit of this variety as we have ever seen.
In 1895 the Stark Bros, undertook the propagation and intro-
duction of the Delicious, purchasing outright from ^\r. TTialt the sole
right to it.
The original tree of Delicious is now about fifteen years old and
is thirteen inches in diameter at the ground. It makes a strong, vigor-
ous growth, similar to the Winesap, except that the branches are
stronger and need little or no pruning. Both tree and fruit are per-
fect models. The tree is strong and has finely molded limbs, which
are adapted to bearing great weight of iniit. It does not sprout or
sucker, does not suceunil) to ])liglit. and has never shown signs of ten-
derness.
Building an Apple Tree
A. I. Mason, of Hood Kiver.
XWANT to state to yon with all sincerity that there is no part
of orchard work as interesting as prnning. If I were to put a
man thrcugh a test to ascertain whether or not he would become
a successful orchardist, I would take him into an orchard and try to
interest him for one hour in pruning. If I could not do that, I would
tell him to sell out and let some one else have the job. If he could not
become interested in forming a nice symmetrical round tree which can
bear and retain fruit, I do not know another part of orchard
work that would interest him. It is the most interesting part of the
Avork to me. It was stated by one of the previous lecturers here that
the subject of priming is the most difficult of the whole proposition,
or rather the one upon which there was a greater difference of opinion.
This is true. If I do not put things here tonight as you have heard
them before, you will simply have to do like the rest of us did when
we started in the business — use your own judgment. I know that I do
not agree with all of the growers, and I do not believe any two persons
can be found who do.
When starting to build an apple tree properly, it should be built
like a house. Before one begins to build a house he studies what style
of structure he wants, and he can almost see just how it is going to
look when it is built. In building an apple tree, the same rule should
be followed. Determine what style of tree you want, start out with
that end in view, and follow it to perfection. That is the only way
an apple tree can be successfully built. Before starting to build, one
should be careful in selecting his material, the same as in building a
house. This part of the work Avas thoroughly gone over by Mr.
Newell.
I have two kinds of two-year-old trees with me this evening;
one has side limbs, the other none.
Mr. Mason used lantern slides to illustrate his lecture. Exhibit-
ing the first slide, he said:
"This represents the laying of the foundation of a tree; the be-
ginning of it. The corner stone is being laid, so to speak. The hole
has been dug. In one of the talks here something was said about a
man at Hood River who digs holes 30 inches deep. If that is so, I
have never heard of him, but we do dig holes 30 inches across and
70
AIMM.K (JHOWINC IX TIIK I>A(II<IC NOUTTIWEST
An apple orchard near The Dalles, Oregon. Note tlie poles fiom which ropes or wires
are strung- to support the limbs. This method of support was
originated in this section.
20 inches deep, so as to have plenty of surface soil. This little board
across the hole is a tree setter. The sticks were put there when the
hole was dug and then this boai'd put back and the tree set in the
same notch. Consequently, when the orchard is laid out. the hole dug
and the tree set, the tree will be where the stick was. It was said in
one lecture that we plant our trees eight or ten inches deeper. This
is a mistake. I believe I have been the cause of advocating the plant-
ing of trees deeper than some others. Tlmt eight or ten inches means
from the top of the ground — ciglit or ten inclies deep, not deeper.
About 18 or 20 inches above the surface of the snil is the riglit i)lace
for a tree to be cut after being planted.
Slide No. 2 represents the second year's growtli. The tree Avas
grown one season and is now ready to enter the next season. This
tree when originally set was a one-year-old tree with limbs on it.
About tile iiii(hU(' (if .luly 1 cut the limbs oil' hei-e. then tlu> followiuir
spj'ing. or in the latter part of the winter the inside of the tree Avas
cut out. One of the lecturers here stated that a young tree should
not be pruned in the miibUe of the summer. Pruning an olil tree in
sumnu'r pi-oduces fi'uit spurs, but young trees sliould be allowed to
gi'ow as much as they will in sunnner. Xo d(Hibt before that tree was
]»rune(] in the spring thei'e were many li;nl)s mi the insiih". but lliere
;ire now four limlis Avhich mean so mucli aliead. One need not think
lie is going to get apples bj' pruning of tliat kiiul. I sliould have
BUILDING AX APPLE TREE
71
■f^ • ""•■»»
One of the famous apple orchards of the Rogue Hi\er Valley, near Medford.
suggested that on straight switch growth as soon as the growth starts
out. along the limbs, rub these oif, leaving four or five at the top.
Later on they become the center or whirl for the top. I would prefer
three or four for the main upright stalk, but one can not always get
them as he wants them, consequently he should let four of them start
from the most symmetrical points around: the body of the tree.
Slide No. 3 represents a tree one year older. Of course that has
been doubly pruned in summer and winter, although I always prune
my young trees twice a year, which is perhaps not in accordance with
other advocates, but we ditfer in opinion. I presume some of you
think that is an older tree, but l)y counting the growth you will find
it is pruned the same way. You will notice that I always have an
open center to a tree. In other words, I leave the limbs all pointing
outward toward the light. By all means, permit the center stalks
which are to become your framework to grow ahead of all side limbs.
After that I do not cut the ends of the limbs. You will notice
(Slide No. 4) I have cut the laterals, but I cut them to laterals, leav-
ing them to start out. It is simply a repetition of keeping out the in-
side. This shows the fifth year of a tree. The entire growth is very
stalky.
Slide No. 5 represents the sixth year. No more cutting back of
the top of the tree is necessary, with the exception of long willowy
growth tree. This is a Newtown. I cut my Spitzenberg trees back
further whenever needed in the summer time. Some advocate the
middle of August. One time I pruned three trees to test summer
72 APPLE GKOWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
pruning. I selected three-year-old trees, all aljout the same size and
as equal in condition as possible. I pruned one tlie fifteenth of June;
one the fifteenth of July, and one the fifteenth of August. I marked
the trees with a knife on the side of the trunk, so no one could steal
the mark away. The tree pruned on the fifteenth of June had almost
a thicket of brush all over it and inside, and anywhere from three to
four-growth terminal limbs. Remember, I pruned all three trees alike.
The tree pruned the fifteenth of July did not have more than one-
third of the inside growth that the tree pruned June fifteenth had, and
the limbs that started out on the terminals that I cut off were about
one-half in number. The fifteenth of August pruning did not have
inside growth, except now and then a little short sprout, perhaps three
or four inches long, and the terminals only started from three to five
inches and never matured. The winter was very mild. Had it been
a hard winter, perhaps all that latter growth would have l)een lost.
I have explained to you how to form or build a young apple tree —
a tree that has not borne any fruit, but a tree with an open center
that often times requires support. (Exhibits slide No. 6). I am
amazed when I read an article from some professor or orchardist almost
calling a man an ignoramus because he advocates an open-center tree,
saying that it will not hold fruit, that it will split down with the
frost and sleet, and using almost every argument that can be thought
of. I am frank to admit that if a tree is not given some kind of a
mechanical construction it will not be as strong as a center-top tree
would be, but I propose to show you wherein we can add the genius
of man to nature and make a far better tree than nature made for
itself.
Slide No. 7 represents a cross section of a tree about five or six
years of age. These little black spots at "A" represent the main up-
right stalk. Of course I have left off all the limbs. The lines in-
dicated by "B" are two-ply hemp manila twine. Around each stalk
is tied a twine string. By taking twice as much twine to circle them
it is not as difficult as to put it around twice. Yon will notice that
with these strings holding the limbs on all sides, it would be impos-
sible for a heavy wind to blow the tree into any kind of shape. The
moment the pressure of the wind left, it would go back to its natural
position. The reason I prefer to go around in one loose lap, placing
one end of the string here and there, is because I do not gird the
body of the tree and prevent the flow of sap. Tliis is put on the tree
at the age of five or six years for the purpose of holding it in an up-
right position until something better can be placed upon it. The twine
used in the former illustration will last at least three vears under
BITILDIXG AN APPLE TKEE 73
our eliiiiatic conditions AVlicn llic t]-ee is eight or nine years old, the
strings have rotted and are no longer strong enough to hold these up-
rights with safety, for they are bearing fruit and under a heavy wind
they are liable to be broken down. I put in my mechanical construc-
tion for a lifetime. ''A" represents the upright stalk of the tree. ''B"
represents a galvanized wire. This is a harness ring galvanized. At
"A" this wire is fastened to the limb with a small screw eye about an
inch in length. When they are all fastened to a center point of
the tree, it is almost like an umbrella, absolutely impossible to break
a tree at the crotch, to ever split it down with fruit, sleet or snow,
•or by anyone climbing it.
The object of getting the system of supports as high from the
ground as possible is to have a foundation, a point of contact
from which one can begin to tie up limbs. The higher up the support,
the better and stronger it will be, easier to put on the string, and easier
to make the side limb support. The boy standing under the tree in
this picture is about 5 feet 10 inches high. The limbs are about three
feet above his head. It is only a matter of time when I will have to
put another system of supports still higher, and I believe that will be
the last. That part is experimental with me. It costs about 20 cents
per tree to put in the wire support. The string support costs about 5
cents. No orchardist can haul props out into his orchard and haul
them back to his barn. A prop cannot be put in an orchard for less
than three cents. One cannot go to the woods and cut them as we
used to. They must be sawed at the mill, and then it costs about half
a cent to put them up, and half a cent to put them back into the barn
or throw them up along the fence row. In four or tive years they are
rotted out and, if you Avant to put in a cover crop, you have an army
of props under your trees all in the way, and it takes from 15 to 20
props for each tree. I have seen orchardists in our valley with that
many under their trees. From an economic standpoint this sj'stem is
far ahead of anj^ I have ever seen.
Questions and Answers.
Q. How far apart do you plant?
A. Twenty-five feet. I would never plant them that close again,
but would plant 30 to 32 feet apart.
Q. What system do you use in planting?
A. I have always advocated the hexagonal system, and I be-
lieve yet that it is the best, but there is one strong argument in favor
of the central system, and only one. You must determine whether you
have the grit to go through with the proposition and at the age of 15
74 AI'l'LK GROWING IX TIIK I'ACIl-IC NORTHWEST
or 20 dig out vxvry other tree. There is not one man out of 10,000 who
will take out a nice tree when it is IT) years old. so I say plant in
hexagons.
Q. How deep do you plant?
A. From six to eight inches. Some stock grows deeper than oth-
ers. Generally you have a small tree now and then planted from
two to four inches deep. When that root has grown eight inches in
diameter it is out of the ground and lying on top because it is growing
upward.
Q. Do 3-ou put your graft of the tree above or below the plant-
ing board?
A. Pay no attention to it. I want the roots on the under side.
Q. What would happen if they were planted 12 inches deep?
A. Nature overcomes all difticulties. If it could get a lot of side
roots started from the top it would soon start out another root system
near the top. I do not think the roots of a young tree would amount
to much that deep, and I do not think it would grow strong and
thrive if planted 12 to 16 inches.
Q. What time do you plant?
A. That depends upon where j'ou are planting. If your soil is
light loam and in a good condition, I would plant any time of the
year after the tree is dormant in the winter; if the soil is heavy, wait
until spring until your soil is dry. One party told you to make a
muck to dip your trees in. Do nothing of the kind. Put your tree in
a barrel of water. The water makes the roots fresh, and it is far
better than muck, to put roots in. If you make muck to put roots in
you will have a hard crust formed around the roots in a short time.
Q. Is it possible to prune an open-headed tree so it will retain
its fruit without artiticial support ?
A. It is not. in my opinion. An open-headed Ircc wouUl not be
safe witliout ai-tilicial supports. As has been stated many times, the
orchardist has to study his conditions under which he is working;
climate, soil, etc., must all be solved. You have a different problem
to solve; you have a stronger soil in the Willamette Valley. A tree
will grow more rapidly, and >'ou people down here prune too niueli
at one time. As I told some t)f the people in Washington, they had
stopped dehorning cattle and went to dehorning apple trees, and they
have cut them all l)ack. You <-;imiot get any fi-uit buds in that way.
In some of the orchards tliey just cut the tree to deatli.
Q. Are there any prominent orchardists using the center-top
tree?
A. I do not Iviiow what you mean by "center-top tree." The
most of them iti our valley cut out the main limb, ll is not as popu-
BUILDING AN A?PLE TREE
75
->*:,
Plcking^ apples in the Hood River Valley.
lar as it was ten years ago. An open-headed tree and an open-center
tree are two different things. I want the whole inside of the tree ont
so you can stand in there and work, so that I can get that tripod plat-
form in there. I do not want any center stalks in there.
Q. Do not the screw eyes injure the wood of the tree?
A. They do not. The onh- objection that I ever heard offered
to this wire sy.stem was that those wounds might create a spot in which
the fire blight might enter the tree, or the pear blight, as it is some-
times called. I have never had any trouble. I have not a single Avound
in my orchard caused from screw eyes. After about three years those
screw eyes are embedded under the bark. I have 75 Spitzenbergs that
would have been rotted long ago. When they were six years of age
we had a very heavy snow which came about midnight, and it thawed
off the next day about noon. It came the 11th day of November. The
leaves had not dropped and the snow hanging on those leaves simply
weighted the tree down and they split all to pieces. That is why I
adopted this system and they lay flat on the ground. With the help
of a neighbor we drew these trees up and tied, bolted and nailed them.
In one tree today there are five bolts and fourteen nails, and it is as
perfect a tree as you ever saw. I have 69 of those trees and they
76 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
were in as l)ad condition as you ever saw, and you cannot see a scar
on them. If the iron were injurious I surely would have found it
out by this time.
Q. What prices were realized for the first-class apples at Hood
River this year?
A. $2.10 for Spitzenbergs and $2 for Newtowns, and I do not
knoAV what Ortleys did sell for. I believe something like $1.75 to $2.
Q. Which brings the most money?
A. NcAvtowns. The Spitzenberg is my favoi-ite to eat, but I
grow them for the other fellow.
Q. In 'what part of the Hood River Valley do you live?
A. About the middle. Six hundred feet elevation.
Q. What is the name of your orchard?
A. That is an embarrassing question. "Liberty Home." Never
had any liberty until I got there, either. That is no joshing. I worked
on a salary for 40 years and had to keep my mouth shut and say
nothing on public questions.
Q. Is there any advantage in white-washing the bodies of trees?
A. Yes. First it prevents the tree from absorbing the sun's rays
and heating up the body of the tree. Second, you mix that with some
kind of disinfectant or germ destroyer, such as concentrated lye. and
it cleanses the tree; lastly, it beautifies your orchard.
Q. Do you do that every year ?
A. I try to. It is not an expensive job if you know how to do it.
Use your steam sprayer. I started in with a brush until the bodies
of the trees got so large it took too long, so I rigged up the steam
sprayer and went over the whole orchard in about half a day.
Q. What strength do you make it?
A. Just a thin paste, adding concenli-ated lye to it. That is as
good a cleanser as I know of. I also add salt to make it stick to the
tree.
Q. Would it hurt to paint the body of the tree?
A. Under no condition would I allow a man to put paint on a
tree of mine. I prefer grafting wax. It is as cheap as paint and
easier to put on, and no comparison in results. I have trees that have
been grafted with wax live years ago. The limbs were from three to
four inches in diameter and when the wax Avas scraped off they were
about as bright as when they were cut. You eannct paint a limb and
leave it for 38 months withoul having a check down through it from
three to eighteen inches deep, and down at the t)ottom you will find a
little fungus growth, especially on end cuts. I keep a 10-pound lard
bncket of wax on liand all Ihe lime.
Q. Wliat is the cause of black heart in trees?
BUILDING AN APPLE TREE 77
A. I do not know. There are many things that might cause the
center of a tree to rot. It might start from the wound of a., limb that
is broken or sawed oft", or from a freeze. I would say cut out such a
spot and fill it with grafting wax.
Q. How many times do you cultivate?
A. The cultivation depends upon what you start it with. As a
rule I disc my orchard three times and then I spring-tooth harrow.
One should have clean cultivation. Keep your cultivator going. Do
not think about irrigation if you want to raise apples in the "Willam-
ette Valley. You had better put some kind of a screen over the trees
about the time the apples begin to ripen to keep the rain off.
Q. Do you irrigate?
A. No. I never had a drop of irrigation on my orchard.
Q. How often do you sow a cover crop?
A. I have had it in my orchard for three years. If next year
is a light crop, I am going to sow it again next season. You can grow
three times the amount of a cover crop here in the Willamette Valley
that we can. as you have a moister soil.
Q. What time do you sow it?
A The first of September, so as to get the benefit of the first
moisture.
Q. What kind of a fertilizer do you use to bring the trees to early
maturity ?
A. I should want some kind of a machine to extract all the fer-
tilizer out of the soil. That is after you get your first bearing tree.
You do not need any fertilizer after the orchard has borne several
crops of fruit. The kind of fertilizer is another of our future prob-
lems to solve, and we are trying to head it off with vetch.
Q. AVhat do you use to stimulate the growth of the tree?
A. Any kind of a fertilizer will do. The best that I can give is
ordinary barnyard manure. There are a dozen kinds of commercial
fertilizers. Several big companies are carrying on results in our
valley now.
Q. Do you believe in putting fertilizer" in with the roots in
planting?
A. No, I do not. I do not think it necessary unless the soil is
very poor, then you show poor judgment in planting it.
Q. Do you summer prune your old orchard?
A. Now I am going to be like the preacher. I am going to tell
you what to do, whether I do it or not. I do not cut back except on
Spitzenbergs. Newtowns do not need it. You should take out all this
inside growth. It shades your tree, prevents circulation of air through
the tree and destroys the coloring of the fruit.
Apples from Walla \\'alla Valley, Washington.
nrir.DixG ax apple tree 79
Q. How do you do grafting?
A. With a knife, pair of shears, wax and a cloth. I cannot il-
lustrate that very well unless I have some tools.
Q. What time of year do you graft?
A. In the spring, about blossoming time.
Q. AVhere do you get your sprouts"?
A. The previous year I get them off the larger trees. Cut it now,
put it in the cellar and in the spring take and cut that up into a scion.
Use two buds. Cut a pointed: wedge and put it on the outside.
Q. What is the limit of the size of stub capable of grafting?
A. I cut limbs off up to five inches through.
Q. Could it be done eight inches through?
A. I lielieve I would allow a water sprout to grow and graft
a bud on the water sprout.
Q. Do you advocate more than one graft in the wound?
A. Yes. but do not allow but one of these grafts to form and
become an upright limb, because they form a crotch that would never
unite. Suppose I had two grafts growing out of the same stub, and
they were three or four inches apart, and I let them lioth grow. After
a while they are going to increase in diameter and will come together,
but will never unite, so there will be a crotch.
Q. Is burning log and brush piles injurious to the land?
A. No. I wish I could have all the brush piles and logs in Oregon
burned in my orchard.
Q. Do you advocate planting immediately after the land is
cleared ?
A. I did, and have never regretted it. I will admit this, that
if you cultivate your land one year, you will get a better growth by
planting the second year, but you will never make up for what you
lose the first year. When I bought my land it had not been surveyed
for 41 years, and when we came to resurvey it the first time after the
government survey, I got 29 feet of my neighbor's wheat field that
had been cultivated for 11 years. The first few years these rows of
trees on the old wheat field were far ahead of the others, but one
cannot tell the difference now.
Q. Do you advocate a filler crop?
A. No. Between ray house and town there is a beautiful illus-
tration of a filler crop. Trees were planted 21: feet apart and a peach
tree in the middle. It Avas a combination affair. One was to take
charge of it for so many years. This man was going to get rich the
first ten years. The result was that this was the first season he has
had a crop of peaches, and they are 5 years old. He had a few year
before last, and last year the frost killed them. This year there was a
80 APPLE GKOWIXG IN TITK PAflllC NORTIIWKST
lieav.y crop and tliey lay on the grouml and I'ollcd. Vdu [x-ople would
not have given 35 cents a l)ox for tliem. This man and his employer
had a row and every one of these peach trees are out now. Tlie peach
trees got the strength that the apple trees needed now that they are
read}^ to bear. It is an expensive proposition to pay 2 cents for a
peach tree, plant it, cultivate it for five years and then get one crop
not worth 35 cents a box.
Q. How do grapes grow in the Hood River Valley?
A. They do not grow well. The nights are too cold and they will
not ripen.
Q. "What do you think of strawberries between the apple trees?
A. Just the same as I think of any kind of a tiller. I would
never have them in my orchard. Strawberries require Avater to make
money out of them. One must irrigate and that almost drowns the
trees.
Q. How about clover?
A. You cannot grow clover and cultivate. That is an impos-
sibilit}'. You people here perhaps can, but we cannot.
Q. How would tin cans buried under the trees att'ect them?
A. I do not know. I know of someone who is getting all the
iron screenings and burying them under his Spitzenbergs to find out
what effect they will have on color. I will let you know in ten years.
Q. At what elevation do they plant Spitzenbergs in Hood River?
A. Do not be misled by altitude. Sometimes it means something
and sometimes it does not. My orchard is 600 feet above sea level,
and in IMissouri and Kansas orchards are from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in
elevation. An orchard would freeze in Hood River at that elevation.
You want to figure on the proximity to the snow line. The climate
60 or 75 miles east of The Dalles is very different from ours. We
are right up against ]\Iount Hood and Blount Adams.
Q. How about the Delicious?
A. That is a nice eating apple and has as good a flavor as I
ever tasted, but I would not plant it commoi-cially in our valley. It
is hard to get color on and is ugly shaped, which makes it hard to pack.
Q. Why do you not plant Spitzenliergs, when tliey l)ring the
highest price?
A. The price which you pay for a box of apjtlcs is not always
the most money to the grower.
Q. Do you use pollenizers for Spitzenbergs?
A. I do not know anything about pollciii/at ion. anl I never
found anyone Avho did. not even our college men. 1 believe the cross-
pollenization of tlu' fruit family should be the same as in tlie animal
BUILDING AN APPLE TREE 81
kingdom, but I do not know what varieties crossed with others will
produce best results.
Q. Do yon believe with the present rate of planting there will
be an over-prodnction in a few years?
A. Yes and no. Yes, if we are all a set of fools and are going
to fight each other on the market and not use business judgment.
Q. Do you think it honest to buy land for $16 per acre and sell
it for $265 ?
A. I have a piece of land that cost $9.25 per acre and I Avould
not take $2,500 per acre. Would I be honest? I know of a man who
bought two acres for which he paid $500 per acre and it is just as
nature put it there. It has never been touched by mortal man. That
$500 is community-made value. If you want to turn this into a single
tax proposition I could talk all night. I can talk ''single tax" better
than apples.
Development of Apple Trees
W. S. Thoriiber, of the Washington State. College.
QRUNING is done for various reasons. Tliere are different ideas
npon this subject. One of my college friends has thirteen rea-
sons for pruning, and I want to give you two or three tonight.
First of all a tree should be pruned because it develops many more
buds and branches than it can possibly produce. Nature is waste-
ful. A tree may develop anywhere from 120 to 200 buds the first year
■of its life, and the next year only three or four will develop any limbs,
so nature must be taken in hand, as one might say, and helped control
these tendencies. Secondly, to secure the shape and size of tree that
is wanted.
There are three distinct seasons of the year when pruning can be
done to advantage in our state. Your state is so much like ours that
I think one can follow in the same line. The first pruning is done in
the early spring, before the buds leaf out. The pruning done at this
season of the year always has a tendencj'^ toward the production of
wood. That is a good thing in young trees, and in ones which one
wishes to rejuvenate. The second, or early summer pruning may be
done in June. The third period of pruning is in tlie late summer.
As an experiment we had started several hundred young trans-
planted apple trees about five j-ears old. We started on June 10, and
pruned a portion of them very severely. On June 20 we pruned the
next lot, and on June 30 we pruned another lot. anil so on iluring the
entire sunnner. The trees pruned on June 10 made the greatest wood
growth I ever saw. The limbs were three feet in length, and I could
see the scale of growth running up to August 30, when the growth in
this case was only about four inches. The trees pruned August 10th
ceased growth entirely, and I secured buds about an inch in length.
That is where I got my first fruit. If your orchard is a cultivated one
it must be i^runed later. If an orchard in which one grows hay and
raises calves, goats and cows, one must prune eai-liei-.
Now comes the formation of a tree. There are three types of trees:
High-headed trees, low-headed trees, and l)ush trees. These three types
are found all over the Pacific Northwest. The low-headed type is the
one I am going to urge very strongly tonight — a tree that is from 12
to 20 inches — very near the ground. There is danger in heading the
DEVKLOPMKNT Ol' APPLE TREES 83
bush tree too low. Hrandu's comint; absolutely from the ground do
not form as perfect a union with tlu' trunk as they should, and in a
short time they will stai't to pull apart.
The next subject is the shaping of a tree, the head, and a good solid
short trunk. First of all is the pyramid head. Our Canadian and Eng-
lish friends are very partial to this system. The pyramids are exposed
to a small amount of light, which gives a poor quality of fruit, and in
times of storm they break down quite readily.
The second type of tree is the open base, which is just the reverse
of the pyramid and might be called a vase — clear open in the center.
That is the best tree.. Just a few words about the frame work. The
branches must be on all sides of the tree and a long distance apart. If
bunched together they produce weak branches, and one side of the
tree Avill become lopped. The limbs should be well spread apart to
give them strength. I do not want anything in my orchard but a tirst-
cla^s tree, from three to four feet in height, with a good sturdy system
and a heavy stem, with buds all the way down. Cut a tree off 24 inches
from the ground. That is the most important pruning that one will
ever give his tree. Do this if you never do any more. No other prun-
ing should be necessary for the first year.
I was traveling through the Yakima Valley some time ago, and I
noted a peach orchard of nice trees. The man who was pruning them
put his arms around the limbs of a tree, bringing them to a single
bunch, and sliced the top otf. I said to him, "What were you before you
became a horticulturist?" He said, "I was a barber." Do not j^rac-
tice any barbarous systems on your trees.
Questions and Answers.
Q. How about walnuts?
A. I would prune the walnut trees straight up, giving a good
straight shape.
Q.^ Do you advise mulching or digging around them?
A. I would pulverize the soil and keep it Avell cultivated. A good
dust mulch, is the best that can be provided.
Q. What is your recommendation in regard to dwarf apples for
fillers ?
A. In Western Washington and Oregon, where there is clay soil,
I would recommend the pear as a filler.
Q. How deep do you advise planting ?
A. Two inches deeper than what they were in the nursery.
Q. Is there any advantage in putting them four or six inches
down ?
84 APPLE GROWING IN THE I'ACII'IC NORTHWEST
A. I do not think there is any.
Q. Do you recommend the square or hexagonal system?
A. That depends upon conditions. If it is to develop a big com-
mercial orchard, I would plant the hexagonal system, but where one
must grow something among the trees and have as wide a space as pos-
sible, I would recommend the square system.
Q. How is the Wagener tree for a filler?
A. It is one of our best fillers and comes into bearing early. It
produces fair crops the fourth year after planting, and some the
second year.
Q. Do you recommend fillers for a commercial orchard?
A. Yes, I want to get all the returns I can just as soon as I can.
The only danger is that the filler will be left in the orchard too long.
Q. Would it be better to use pears?
A. Pears make a better filler.
Q. How about strawberries?
A. They are very good if not planted too closely to the trees. I
do not Avant any permanent thing growing closer than four feet to a
two-year-old apple tree, and no closer than six feet to a four-year-
old apple tree.
Q. Don't you think it is best to plant trees so as to make a spe-
cialty of l)erries and keep that up indefinitely?
A. I have no doubt about that. There are splendid returns being
made in that wa}^, but they must be fertilized.
Q. What is the principal objection to starting only three limbs
on a tree?
A. One may lose a limb and then he will have the worst kind of
a tree.
Q. Have you been trying any of Burbank's productions?
A. Yes, but they do not work well with us. My last big loss was
rhubarb. Probably 2000 roots died. Some of their plants are very
good, but they are not adapted to our conditions.
Q. How about irrigation?
A. That depends upon the soil. We ii'i'igatc tlireo times a year.
Other places irrigate five or six, and some 10 or 12. Three good irriga-
tions should be sufi:'icient.
Q. Do irrigated apples keep well?
A. Yes, if they are not over-irrigated.
Q. Wliat do you think about irrigating where it is not necessary?
A. I would not irrigate in that ease. It is not necessary until
there is a ci-op on the tree, and not alway.s then, l)ut it is mighty good
insui-ance to have. I l)elieve in irrigating- all things in an orchard.
developjikxt of apple trees
85
Q. HoAV soon can yon bring the Xorthern Spy into ])earing hyi
summer pruning?
A. I have brought it into bearing in Eastern Washington in the
fourth year. I had a. strong tree to start with, and the tree developed
five or six limbs in June the first j^ear. I pruned that tree in June as I
ordinarily would the following year, and got a growth where the
branches were from 18 to 24 inches in length. I made a 3-year-old tree
of it in two years.
Q. What is considered a good growth for the first year?
A. From 18 inches to three feet. If I do not get 18 inches, I think
there is something wrong, either a lack of moisture, or late planting.
Q. What would you think of trees in an orchard that grow to an
unequal height — some 40 inches and others four feet, when they have
been newly planted?
A. I will answer that by asking you how you take certain trees
from a bunch, some living and some dead? The answer is that trees
coming from the center of the bunch have frecjuently dried out, and it
may be the same in j^our planting.
Q. Do you have any white mildew, and what do you do for it ?
Exhibit of Hood River Valley (Oregon; apples, showing; various methods of packing
86 AI'IM.E CROWIXG IN THE I'ACII IC NORTHWEST
A. Yes, 1 think we have everything there is in the AVest. We use
lime-sulphur spray each year.
Q. What is the per cent of new trees tliat die?
A. That is rather a difficult question. I should .judge that we lost
on an average 30 per cent last year in our State. Usually the per cent
is not so much as that.
Q. What is the best time to plant?
A. Early in the spring. In Western Oregon, possibly fall plant-
ing would be better, or very early spring planting.
Q. How do you trim the roots?
A. I turn them up so I can look right at the bottom of the roots,
and trim them from four to eight inclios in length. Any fibrous roots
I i)ull out, as they are usually dead.
Q. How do you plant a tree ?
A. I dig a hole large enough to accommodate the roots, so it will
be two inches deeper than in the nursery row. When the tree is set, I
get down into the hole with both feet and tramp all the Avay around it,
When a tree is planted in this manner it is very rarely that one is lost.
Q. Where the soil is very dry and sandy, Avouldn't it be better to
plant two or three inches deeper?
A. No, I would rather get it by cultivation. We have that kind
of soil and are not planting any deeper. We use. however, a little
heavier stock where the soil is lial)l(^ to lie lilown about and \ho sand
cuts the trees.
Q. How al)out Clark County?
A. It is a gravelly loam and a wash soil. Any soils of that kind,
where there is not a hardpan closer than three feet, is all right for
orchard work.
Q. What slope do you recommend?
A. In orchard work generally, where there is any danger of
-hortage of color, I prefer a south slope. Ordinarily we get plenty of
color anyway, so I pay little attention to the slope. In Eastern Wash-
ington, where there is danger of freezing a northern slope is preferable
— north or northeast.
Q. How about sul)soils?
A. 1 want a porous subsoil.
Q. Clark County orchardists are going out of prune-raising a
good deal.
A. I notice the orchards that have been taken care of have been
moneymakers right straight along in Clark County, but there are some
conditions tliere that we have not been able to meet yet. In spite of
that, they are planting more prunes now than during the last 12 or
14 years.
Q. What influence has the soil?
A. It depends upon the chemical contciil of the soil. A light
quality soil colors apples more readily than a dark (luality soil.
DEVELOPilENT OF AI'l'LE TREES 87
Q. Does pollination affect color?
A. The eft'ect is very slight. However, I would take advantage of
it. If I had apples that were liable to run light-colored, like some of
our Spitzenbergs, I would plant some dark ones in the orchard, like
Arkansas Black.
Q. What variety of apples would you suggest?
A. Baldwin. Northern Spy, the Wagener and possibly the Jona-
than. These are for red apples. For yellow apples, Yellow Newtown,
Grimes Golden, Ortley and Red Cheek.
Q. How do the Yellow Newtown and the Spitzenberg do in the
Yakima Valley ?
A. Very Avell. I do not think the results are as good as in the
Hood River section, but our YelloAv New^towns are coming out well.
Q. Do snow mountains affect orchards?
A. Only as the cold air comes down.
Q. What do yon recommend for White Salmon?
A. Spitzenberg, Yellow Newtown, Ortley, Baldwin, Wagener.
Q. How do pears do on clay soil ?
A. They are right at home in clay soil. Some of the best pear
land I know of in the United States is over here north.
Q. Does it make any difference in the elevation?
A. Not very much. Of course, one gets a little smaller sized
apples on heavy dry soils.
Q. How about this central selling agency ?
A. I think we will have to get to that. We will have to get to-
gether on some basis of that kind. In California they have been get-
ting on with their orange problem in that way very nicely.
Q. Has pear blight ever done any damage here in the Northwest?
A. Yes ; 14 years ago a good many pear orchards were destroyed
by pear blight. I do not dread it at all. It is not a serious problem. I
do not think there has ever been any pear blight between Portland and
British Columbia. I have never seen any indication of it.
Q. Does it attack the young trees ?
A. Yes. I have seen near Walla Walla a 2-year-old pear orchard,
90 per cent of which was killed by pear blight.
Q. What is its first appearance and how does it look?
A. The first appearance that you will see is when the trees are in
bloom. The blossoms become rusty and the leaves turn black.
Q. Does it attack apples?
A. Yes. I got my first experience with pear blight with apples.
Q. How about keeping bees in an orchard?
A. Keep bees by all means to carry the pollen.
Q. Don't they die from the poison spray?
A. One can spraj^ at such a season of the year that it will not
harm them, say after the petals are off. It is wnth the early spraying
that one catches the bees.
Picking apples in tlie Walla Walla Valley, ^^■ashing■ton.
Pruning
Hon. W. K. Xewcll, President of the Oregon State Board of Ilorticlture,
CO plunge into my subject at once, that of pruning, I think it is
best to say first that it is perhaps one of the most difficult sub-
jects to present clearly before an audience without a tree or two
to illustrate with. If I could take you into an orchard, I could illustrate
very much better the plan or practice of pruning than I can possibly
do here this evening.
I think there is not a single branch of the subject of horticulture
in which there is such a wide diversity of opinion among horticulturists
ns in the practice of pruning. It is harder to lay down any definite
rules in regard to pruning than in regard to almost any of the other
related branches. We all agree very closely how trees should be
planted, cultivated and sprayed, but when it comes to the matter of
pruning the tree, it is much more a matter of opinion. Hence the be-
ginner has the greatest difficulty in getting proper advice. I have
brought some trees here so I could do a little bit of illustrating.
First a few words about selecting a nursery tree before we come to
pruning. These trees represent the different grades. They are all root-
budded trees. I wish to impress upon you first the advantage of get-
ting a budded tree instead of what is frequently sold, a piece-root
grafted tree. These budded trees usually come from France as 1-year-
old seedlings. A great many of the French peasant farmers make a
business of growing them. The seeds are gathered throughout the
country. They grow them one year and then dig them up in November
or December and ship them to the United States, mostly to our nurseries
as apple seedlings, where they are planted out in February, March or
April and grown until August when they begin budding them 12, 18
and 20 inches. They cut a bud from the bearing tree that they wish to
propagate, make a slit in the bark of the seedlings and insert that bud
under the bark and tie it there, and the bud immediately joins with the
tree. It remains dormant until the following spring. Then the seed-
ling is cut just above the bud, which grows and makes the tree. Here
is a tree one yenr old from the bud, but it is practically three years
old. You know the difference between that and the piece-root grafted
tree is that when that seedling comes from the nurseryman he will
take and prune it, leaving about four or five inches of the root on the
top and plant that to bud from. This will be pruned and watered
90 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
thi'op^'lioiit the season, thus forcing- the root ^vhich will sell llu; same
ye.'ir, and to all appearances it is just as good a tree as the budded orie,
hut Aou can readily see that it is impassible for that tree to have the
same root system as this ■\vliich lias ])een growing two years lonjier.
There is a distinction again between grafted trees as they are fre-
quently grown and between these piece-root grafts. If that bu.l fails to
grow in August, the nurseryman will go in February or ]\Iarch and cnt
that seedling off next to the ground and insert a graft hen; on the
seedling root, which will come on and make a tree by fall that '.vill
practically be as good as the budded tree, because it has the same root
system. A tree that has been budded on a 3-year-old root is worth
double or treble the piece-root grafted tree, and that is a point one
should always look for in purchasing trees. There is another point.
The nurseryman grades his trees. First grades are four to six feet
high, and what is known as No. 2 grade runs three to five feet in
height, and No. 3 are trees under three feet in height. The great
tendency among purchasers is to fasten upon the biggest tree that it is
possible to get. They want a four to six-foot tree rather than a smaller
one, but height alone should not he the guide in selecting the tree. It
is fully as important — I should say more important — ^that the tree
should show good caliber here than that it should show height alone.
We should pay more attention to that. ]\Iany times you can get the
trees for much less money of this size than you can for the larger.
Now, as regards pruning: If this tree could be taken up from
the nursery with all the dirt left on it. of course it could be transferred
without much of the root pruning, but if this tree is dug in November,
as is usual, and carried over the winter to January, February or March
before it is planted, it is inevitable that these smaller roots would be-
come dry and dead, so when this tree is planted all these small roots
should be pruned off. The reason is that those roots are so dry that the
tips will die anyway and the tree would make a start quicker if the
roots are cut off than if they were left to encumber its growth. The top
should be pruned vigorously and the roots should be left from four to
six inches long, and headed back by making a cut on the under side of
the root and sloping in that manner so that when the tree is plautel
this cut surface will point clown to the bottom of the hole that will tend
to form a callous where it is cut and throw out the first feeding roots,
so that the cut does not liave a chance to dry. Tliis will then force
itself down and anclior the tree good nnd solid, bul if all these slender
roots were left every ^one of them would be lui'iiing up. and the ten-
dency of the roots would be to grow to the top of the soil. A tree
pruned in that shape is very easily plan.ted and has all the root sys-
tem that is necessary to thoroughly anchor the tree in the ground. It
PRUNING 91
should then be set down to about two inches below where the bud was
inserted as it stands in the nursery — just barely above the ground —
and that puts the roots down far enough so that when the dirt is prop-
erly tramped around it (tramp it good and solid with both feet) it is
going to start growth at once. This pruning should not be done until
you are ready to plant. If it is a sunshiny or windy day, it is a good
plan to puddle the tree. This can be done by dipping the tree into a
barrel of liquid mud. Place the barrel on a sled, and as soon as the
tree is dipped, take it out and put it into the hole at once.
If you allow the surface to dry it will harden over and not start
to grow for a long time. In this climate it is always preferable to
plant trees in the fall if possible. There is another point that you must
remember. If trees are to be planted in the fall, do not get trees that
are too green. If you are in a hurry and insist upon the nurseryman
taking out these trees and shipping them before they are ready, he
must strip the leaves off and dig them prematurely, before they have
perfectly ripened. Trees are sure to suffer from that practice. If
not able to plant trees in the fall, it is a good practice to buy them in
the fall and have them shipped to your place and heel them in. The
trees will winter very much better in an orchard heeled in than they
will in the nurseryman's packing shed. When purchasing trees use
good business sense as you do in buying other things. Do not wait for
an agent to come around and coax you into buying a tree. No nur-
seryman likes to do this, but they have been almost forced to because
people will not buy otherwise. ]\Iake it a practice to go to the nursery-
man direct and, if possible, go to his nursery and make your selections.
If trees are planted in the fall head them back about 18 or 20
inches from the ground the latter part of February. Cut about half
an inch above the bud. That allows bud room enough there so it will
heal over nicel}' without dying back or allowing any dead wood. That
is the way a tree wants to be pruned the first year. Always plant
one-year-old trees; not two. (Exhibits tree.) One can prune and
spread just as one wants to. It has been headed in the nursery row
about a foot higher than it ought to be in the orchard. That is another
practice which demand forces the nurseryman to follow. Nearly
everyone who goes to buy a tree wants it like this, and the nursery-
man naturally has it up here to make a good big tree — the kind you
want. Otherwise this tree has grown very nicely. At the end of the
first season this has made a very good branch. You will notice that
these limbs are very well scattered all over the trunk of the tree and
do not all come out just at one point. When this is headed back in
this manner everj' bud practicalh^ all over the tree from the ground
up will grow in the spring. In fact, they seem to grow two or three
92 APPLE GROWING IX TIIK PACIFIC NOKTIIWKST
inches longer than one Avant.s them. Rub off the lower ones, leaving
from six to eight of the top buds (certainly not less than five). Do
not leave just the four or five top ones nor rub all in one place. This
is practicallj^ all a tree should have in the way of pruning the first
summer. Some people make a practice of pruning in August if the
trees are making too much growth. That may be all right in windy
locations where the wind whips the twigs over to one side in order to
make them stiff enough to stand up against the wind, but that only
happens in a few localities. Let the tree grow as tall as it will the
first year.
What we want to do is to frame up the skeleton of a tree in such
a manner that it will begin to throw out and form width, yet grow up
instead of growing out and falling down to the ground so that one
cannot get near it to cultivate. Bring it out and tone it up so that it
makes a vase shape, keeping the body of the tree close to the ground,
heading it up sufficiently so that an extension harrow with three
or four horses abreast can be worked throughout the orchard and
clear under the tree. When three limbs grow out close together they
will not be properly distributed, so the first thing is to take a limb
right out. It should be pointed up so that it will get plenty of sun-
shine inside and still allow most of the liml)s to remain. There is an-
other point that must be borne in mind ; that is the kind of tree to be
pruned. Some trees, like the Northern Spy, tend to grow straight up
and make twice the growth in height as they do in width. Other trees,
like Jonathans, for instance, tend to grow out and fall down. When
pruning a Northern Spy tree, prune invariably to an outside bud the
first two or three years so the tree will spread out. Ou a Jonathan
tree these limbs have a downward tendency and should be pruned to
an inside bud in order to keep it from spreading out and lopping over
too far. The Newtown Pippin has not a very pronounced tendency
either way. It grows quite nicely and sliould bo pruned something like
this: (Exhibits tree.) Begin with this bud. throwing it in that di-
rection, and this twig here. This tree should be down 18 inches from
the ground with this top. Tbat would ])ring these limbs within 10 or
12 inches of the ground. This sliould be done in Fel)ruary. Pruning
of young trees should never be done until the fi-cczin^' weatlier is past.
After the trees get older they can be pruned any time with safety. If
one prunes a tree at this time of the year these end buds might kill
back. Of course, every bud on these limbs will start as soon as the
limbs start, and they want to be rulibed off within 12 inches of the
ground. Along in June if they get too thick, prune out a portion of
the inside buds that are starting. 1 would not practice any heading
back this second summer except in a vciy windy location. Every tree
PRUXIXG 92
should be induced to grow fast and strong for -wood growth, and this
is accomplished by pruning in the winter time. The general practice
of pruning in the winter for wood growth and in the summer for fruit
growth holds good.
At the end of the second year and at the beginning of the third
head these limbs again, which should then be from two to four feet
long, and the same general principle should be involved, heading these
back one-half to two-thirds of their growth, thus making the limbs
strong and stocky so that they will not break down under the load of
fruit. Never let two limbs start at the same point making a ''Y," be-
cause invariably they will split down. At the beginning of the third
season, starting in June, thin those limbs out again, and then again
about the middle of August. If the tree is making good, rapid growth,
head back that season's growth anywhere from one-fourth to one-
third of its growth. This will tend to check the limbs. There is no
reason why a tree should grow six or seven years without bearing.
It should begin to bear bj^ the fourth or fifth year, and it is simply a
question of proper pruning to bring them into bearing. The Northern
Spy takes from 10 to 12 years, but it can be forced into bearing in four
years by proper pruning. The third summer is the time to begin the
encouragement of the formation of fruit buds. The time of year to
do this depends upon climatic conditions. As a general rule it can be
done the first three weeks in August ; sometimes a little later, perhaps.
The wood growth is largely over by the first of August, and the tree
then begins to spread out and increase in caliber rather than in height.
That will tend to force out these bud into fruit buds and the tree should
bear a few apples the next season.
Practice thinning in the winter time and head back in the sum-
mer. A tree can be kept bearing practically regular crops. Of course,
it is impossible to keep any tree bearing a full crop regularly, but
wonders can be done by this system of pruning.
A bud, if allowed to grow all summer, naturally goes into the end
buds, and the fruit buds do not have an equal chance. The other one
has to be cut off in order to force the sap back. It naturally goes to
the end of the limb. The fruit buds cannot get any sap until after
the end of the limb has gotten all it wants.
(Exhibits limb with half-grown apples.) This is a very interesting
sample of what can be accomplished by summer pruning. This limb
came from the orchard of Mr. J. E. Stanbury, inspector of horticul-
ture for Multnomah county. It was headed back the 9th day of Au-
gust, just as I have been trying to illustrate to you, by cutting back
a year's growth and trying to force the formation of fruit buds. These
I'RrxiXG 95
fruit hiuls, which luit urally would have heen very small, have been
forced out here this fall and have blossomed and borne that much of a
crop of fruit. You ueed not be alarmed about doing this. This is
largely due to the climatic conditions this year, and the excessive
amount of sunshine. ]\[r. Stanbury is located on the Columbia Slough
where the trees grow very vigorously all summer on account of ex-
cessive moisture.
The further point that is necessary to make the tree bear as much
as possible is the thinning of the fruit. A single bud naturally cannot
produce two crops in succession. One bud produces this crop, and
that is the end of that particular fruit bud, but where this fruit is
borne this year it will start to grow right beside that fruit bud. If
that grows as it does on some trees, particularly like the Spitzenberg,
eight, ten or twelve inches long during the summer, that should be
pruned also in the middle of August, that is, after the tree is in full
bearing. That will tend the rest of the season to develop other fruit
spurs downi along this spur the following season. That is rather a
difficult point to make clear, but the general practice is, as I said
before, head back, cutting oif the ends in the summer, and the thin-
ning out of what we call suckers in the winter. It will tend to de-
velop a lot of undesirable suckers. The limbs that are goine- to be
taken out should be taken out in the winter, but after the tree is in
bearing you can do that most any time. Thinning out should be done
in the winter and the topping off of the summer's grow^th should be
done in the summer. The tree should have a system of good, strong
limbs that are strong enough to carry themselves and all the fruit
that they should bear wnthout bending down, and these main limbs
should be filled w'ith fruit buds clear back dow^n to the trunk of the
tree, instead of allowing these limbs to grow up 10 and 20 feet and
allowing the fruit to form on the end of the tree. The only way to
keep them back is to follow a regular system of summer pruning. An
apple that is formed along these limbs on a short fruit spur is in much
better shape to be grown than if it is way out on the end of a limb.
That is even more particularly true of the peach tree than of the
apple. At the end of six or seven years the peach tree has got noth-
ing to prune, whereas, if the orchardist had pruned that tree back as
it should have been, very small, keeping the fruit buds down next to
the trunk, it would have lived and borne just as long as the average
apple tree.
Questions and Answers.
Q. How can one tell the difference between a piece grafted tree
and one that is grafted at the root?
96 APPLE GROWING IN TIIK PACIKIC NORTHWEST
A. That is somethiug one will have to notice very carefully. In-
sist upon the nurseryman telling you.
Q. What does the term "heeled in" mean?
A. That means covering the trees up to protect them during the
winter; dig a trench about a foot deep on the best high, dry ground
in the orchard, and set the trees in as they come in bundles from the
nursery. Cut the bundles and spread them a little, then throw a thin
layer of dirt over the roots with considerable force and pack it down
well to fill up all the space between the trees so that the water will
run off. If it is very cold weather, start covering them with straw.
A tree carried over in that shape is in much better shape for planting.
Q. How can one distinguish the fruit spurs from sprouts?
A. The fruit bud is always larger and of lighter color. That will
blossom and bear fruit.
Q. Should one try to prune a leader up from the first year's
stock?
A. No, not exactly, yet one must be left a little bit longer than
the other in order to make sure that the tree will not split open and
break down. I do not believe m cutting the inside of the tree out.
Q. Would it be wise to prune a little high, say 30 inches ?
A. No, do not start the tree 30 inches from the ground, because
this would simply move the limbs up higher. The tree should grow
low enough so that one can do most of his thinning and picking from
the ground.
Q. Is it better to get trees from a nearby nursery than from a
distance ?
A. Nearly always. If you can get good trees at home do not
go away, and furthermore, you have the advantage of seeing them.
It is a difficult matter to ship trees a couple of hundred miles or across
the continent without doing them injury.
Q. Should one prune for fall planting?
A. Yes, practically the same. If a tree has just been freshly dug
out of the ground, the fine roots need not be pruned quite so much.
The very fine feeding roots are nearly always broken off.
Q. In case trees are left over how far apart should they be
planted ?
A. I would not plant them at all. A tree that has been left out
of the ground during the season, then replanted in the nursery, and
then replanted again is not going to be of nnich value.
Q. What time in August should a tree be trimmed?
A. .Vhout the middle.
Q. Is there not a tendency for the new shoots to freeze this
winter?
PRUXIXG 97
A. Yes, but that would not be of any particular consequence.
Q. How many limbs should be left?
A, All that the tree will carry.
Q. You spoke of something like eight limbs?
A. I mean leave eight buds so there will be that many to select
from.
Q. Is it not a fact that the limbs get farther apart as the tree
gets older?
A. They grow out, also increasing the diameter, so they are prob-
ably about the same relative position as before.
Q. Some orchardists in Hood River plant eight and ten inches
deeper than others. What do you think of that?
A. That depends upon climate and soil. Their soil is drier and
requires deeper planting than in the Willamette Valley.
Q. One man up there is digging holes 30 inches deep.
A. If he puts the trees down 30 inches he is going decidedly to
the extreme. About two inches deeper than the tree stood in the
nursery row is about right.
Q. Is it necessary to paint small wounds?
A. No, not at all. Any cut less than an inch will heal over if
cut properly.
Q. What instrument should be used?
A. I use a sharp knife on these small roots. It makes a cleaner
cut. For larger pruning I would suggest a pair of two-handed shears ;
a pair that will make a sliding cut, but is hinged so that the knives
slide together. These are very handy for cutting large limbs.
Q. Can trees that have been neglected for two or three years
be made successful?
A. Yes, but in that case more vigorous pruning would have to be
done in the winter than otherwise. Pruning wants to be done regu-
larly twice a year. Do not wait longer and then do it all at once.
Prune in February, then go through your orchard and head the trees
back.
Q. Is there any advantage in whitewashing the trunks of young
trees ?
A. No, unless there is a very hot sun. Sometimes they may be
shaded with the whitewash. By adding a little arsenate of lead to
the whitewash the apple tree borer may be prevented. This worm
girdles the tree in summer.
Q. What are water sprouts?
A. A groAvth that is forced out of the old wood where there is
no visible bud.
Q. Is it not possible to make a bearing limb out of a water sprout ?
98 APPLE GKOWl.NG IX THE PACII IC NOUTIIWK.ST
A. Yes, if it is given time enough. If a limb is broken off a
■\val('i- sprout can be forced out and frequently there will be a new top
on the tree.
Q. Is an irrigated tree as good as one raised without irrigation?
A. Yes. if it is not over-irrigated, but the tendency is to give
it too much water.
Q. How can one get up to a tree that grows so low to the ground?
A. The tree should be grown up without spreading out or slop-
ing to the ground.
Q. In forcing the tree to bearing, docs it not affect its life?
A. Not necessarily, if properly taken care of. There is no rea-
son why one should wait six or seven years for a tree to l)ear. A
Northern Spy frequently will not 1)ear for 14 years, but there is no
reason why it should not the sixth or seventh year. The Jonathan
will bear a few apples in three years.
Q. Should the Spitzenberg be headed up more than the XowtoAvn ?
A. Yes.
NcwtowB Fippm.
A good example of careful apple packing which has done much to advertise the fruit
of the Pacific Northwest.
P o 1 1 e n i z i n g
Professor E. J. Krause, of the Oregon i\grieiiltnr;il College.
I AM sure that the question of pi)lliiiatii)n of our orchard fruits
will be of immense interest to you, both from the practical stand-
point and from the standpoint of the experimental work which
is being carried on at Corvallis. Every orchardist, or every man who
expects to become one, should know exactly what he is going to do
al)out the matter of pollination. The reason w^hy he should is this:
Some varieties are known as the self-sterile and others as self-fer-
tilized.
Before I come to that I desire to take up some other reasons why
fruit trees do not set fruit other than through pollination. "We w^ould
like to solve, if possible, the whole reason of pollination. If that were
possible, we would easily remedy it. That is why so many questions
arise from so many places throughout the states. "What is the matter
with my trees? The fruit is all falling off." Go and investigate, and
nine times out of ten it can be told very quickly what the matter is.
One of the points, then, which I wish to make other than a matter
of pollination in this: A great deal of trouble is caused l)y freezing
during the winter. There is a severe freeze and one may think that the
trees are not injured, but if we cut open the buds we will think other-
wise; the flower buds will hardly ever stand late freezing. The poster-
ior of the stamen of the flower is injured in that case. There will be a
great many blossoms on your trees, but no fruit. Somehow it cannot
set fruit. Another point that I might mention is this. Naturally some
varieties will shed their fruit. It is not a matter of pollination in
that case. The Spitzenberg is one such variety. I suppose many of
you know that the Spitzenberg will thin itself down to one or two
in a cluster? The Cornice pear will do the same, that is, thin itself
down to 'One pear. Many who have orchards of Cornice pears do
not think it necessary to go over their trees to thin them down, and
frequently if two do stick they will mature all right, l)ut frequently
also the fruit will drop from the cluster. That is to say. you have eight
or ten fruit sprigs on a fruit branch. Usually it will thin itself down
to what you wish.
Another point in that line is the care of your orchard. If your
orchard is in very poor fertility — very poor cultivation — your fruit
poLLE^'IZI^-G 101
will have a tendencj^ to fall. Pollination will have nothing to do with
it in that case. The same is true if your orchard is in intense culti-
vation. That is to say, if your trees are growing too fast — are form-
ing too much wood growth. I am sure you have all noticed young trees
laden down with bloom set no fruit; instead of maturing fruit, it
drops all its blossoms, and you have nothing but the wood growth.
As the tree grows older the wood becomes less.
Another point is when your tree is disease infected. If your tree
has anthraenose, or any of the other diseases, there will be a ten-
dency toAvard falling off of bloom. Naturally, a tree in an unhealthy
condition will not set as much fruit as otherwise. Pollination has
nothing to do in that case.
Now I will come to pollination proper. By the term of self-
sterile is meant when a variety is planted in large blocks by themselves
they are incapable of setting fruit. By self-fertile we mean capable of
setting fruit without the intervention of any other variety. Probably
some of you would like to know what we mean by pollination. We
mean simply the transfer of the pollen, or the male element, to the
stamen, or the female element of the plant. That is true pollination.
You can pollinate until your hair is gra^' ; if your pollination does not
occur, you will not have any fruit set.
Some of the agencies which affect pollination are these : First
of all, insects. This is the primary factor in all of our orchard fruits.
Then the other factor is the wind. Certain trees, such as the walnut,
depend almost entirely' on wind for pollination. All those trees that
have a very light, dusty pollen depend on the wind. All trees which
have sticky pollen depend on insects, such as the apple, pear, peach
and plum trees.
In order to be sure of pollination, I would advise keeping some
bees in the orchard. If your neighbor does it for you, so much the
better. As probably some of you know, bees do not generally work
closely at home, so thej^ will be apt to work in your trees as well as
your neighbor's. You must depend upon insects. Pear blight is
carried by insects. The sweet, honey-like liquid, which is simply alive
Avith the bacteria of pear blight, is sought by insects, and right there
they spread the disease. The disease runs down the blossom into the
branch; down the branch into the trunk, and the tree is gone. It
sounds quite simple, but when ycu 1 ose an orchard tree it is a serious
matter. You have to depend on domestic bees. You cannot depend on
the Avild bees. An orchard that is kept in a good state of cultivation
should be supplied with a hive of bees.
When we come to consider that we need a pollenizer, the point is
102 APPI.i: GKOWINf; IX tiik pacikic nortiiwkst
what it shall be. Many think it is a good thing to have one variety
of trees and that they get better fruit. The question is, should I plant
a mixed variety? By no means. It is not necessary. If you have two
varieties, one being pollinated by the other, that is what we are work-
ing for, to find varieties that have a mutual affinity, as we call it. That
is to say, we have Newtowns and Spitzenbergs. The Newtown will
pollenize the Spitzenberg.
Before I go any further I had probably better take up some of the
effects of pollination. The first one of them is this : If a variety is
self-sterile, it becomes fertile, that is to say, it will set fruit with the
other pollenates, and the next point is that it is stated in some cases
the fruit of the cross pollinated apples is larger. Another point is
this : It is stated that it affects the color of one variety. For the last
two years I have seen no evidence whatever that would support that
statement. It is stated on good authority that such does occur. Some
of the Western authorities state that if a Spitzenberg is pollinated by
the Newtown it will be of a poor color. I cannot support that state-
ment. The Spitzenberg colors just as well with the Newtowns as it
does with the Arkansas Blacks. The NeAvtown and the Spitzenberg
are the same color.
In size there is no increase or decrease. I think there has been too
little done on this in an experimental way — mostly chance observation.
When you get a man who is an ol)server, rather than an experimenter,
he will attribute it to some cause which has absolutely nothing to do
with it, but if a man is an experimenter, he will try to discover the
cause. Of the commercial varieties grown in Oregon, as far as I know,
for the last two j'ears, we have had no evidence to support such a state-
ment that the color of the variety is affected or has been affected in
tiny Avay — absolutely none.
Another statement is tliat an effect of pollination is that one
gets more seeds in tlic apph'. Of course, that has notliing to do with
it. It is oidy of interest in an experimental way. There is this to be
taken into consideration: I'sually the grcalcr iinnil)er of seeds the
fruit contains, the lai-gcr will he the 1'ruil. That is ;i point worthy of
note. The statement is also nwuh' tiiat si/c deci-eascs by pollination.
In the case of Bosc pears when llic Uosc was pollinated with Bartlett
they were big pears; when pollinated with Comiee they were of medium
size, and with Winter Nellis. they were of small size. On the other hand,
when Comiee Avas pollinated with Winter Xellis it gave us the largest
pears, so Ave haA^e got to determine for vwvy variety Avhat pollination
will do. You cannot predict Avhat is going to happen. You liaA'e got
to experiment — not one yeai". but two or thi-ee. and the result tliat you
POTXKNIZING
103
may attain one year may be contradicted the next. You cannot say,
"Well, that is going to come out so and so." It does not work that way.
We have found that certain of our varieties are l)ctter adapted
for good pollenizers. First of all we should be sure that the varieties
will blossom at the same time, because if one blossoms one week and
the other comes into bloom the next, there is no chance for cross polli-
nation. The next point is that they should both be commercial varie-
ties. No use planting those that are of no commercial value. The next
point is that they shall be of mutual affinity ; that the one shall be
able to fertilize the other — for instance, the Spitzenberg and NeM'-
town should be reciprocal. The next point is this — that they should
come into bloom about the same day. As you know", some varieties
come into bloom much earlier than others. That can be obviated. For
instance, a dwarf will come into bearing in about four years and will
blossom in the third year. As you all know, dwarf trees are being used
for fillers, so you can use dwarf trees which come into full bloom in
three years, and in that way not lose your crop, and when you have
no further use for them for that purpose, take them out.
Some have recommended that you plant about 10 rows of one and
then 10 of the other. That is a little too far apart. I believe I would
An apple orchard in full bloom — Yakima Valley, W'ashington.
104 APPLE GROWING IX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
prefer to plant four of one and I'oui' of tlic otlior. You see that makes
it quite convenient in harvesting. I would rcM^oiuniend four rows of
Newtowns and then four rows of Spitzenbcrgs, then four rows of New-
tOAvns and four roAvs of Spitzenbergs, for they will cross any two
roAvs and that is all the distance they have to go. If you were to use
ten and one. as is sometimes recommended, the one row has too much
to do for the rows on each side. If the row you are using as pol-
lenizer is deficient in pollen, it will hardly do. That is certainly all
wrong and the bees cannot do their work. They would have a great
deal further to go with five rows on one side and five on the other.
You would not be as likely to get as good results as if planted two
rows apart as described. Then there is the matter of harvesting. You
have four roAvs here and four rows there, so it makes it well worth
while to consider. You can well atford to go down through your or-
chard covering four rows and both being of a commercial variety
will make harvesting easier. I have in mind one of the very finest pear
orchards in the State, and probably the United States, Avhich is set that
wa^^ First it has four rows of Bartletts, then four rows of
Anjous, and so on. Then comes the Winter Nellis and the Comice in
the same way. They found it very convenient in harvesting; no more
trouble than if they had all been of one kind. In case you have an old
orchard I would recommend that instead of going through and graft-
ing a little dab here and there, you go over a whole row of trees at a
time.
As a pollenizer the Winter Pearmain is par excellence. At the
present time that variety is not used or is not grown much. I under-
stand, however, that that variety is going to be grown much more
than it is at this time. For two j^ears it has given us the best of re-
sults by far of any we have ever used.
For the pears — For the Bosc I will recommend Comice; for the
Comice, Winter Nellis, and for the Bartlett. Anjou. Winter Nellis and
the Comice work magnificently together. We have worked for several
years along this line, and we are getting results down now where there
is no longer a lot of hot-air. We know^ that we can recommend aiul
recommend definitely what shall be planted of certain varieties. AVe
have experimented for several years and will liave to experiment for
several more years.
This must be borne in mind: Tliat as a variety is self-sterile in
one locality it may be absolutely self-fertile in another. Some pears
that are self-sterile in the East are perfectly self-fertile out here. There
is no w^ay of accounting for that. As I said before, they are affected
by food supply and the state of cultivation of your orchard. In our
work we are endeavoring to find out the best pollenizers for our com-
rOLLENIZING 105
mercial varieties that we can recommend to those that are best suited
to various districts. We may find that a variety for the Willamette
Valley, for instance, is not adapted to Hood River, and that a variety
■\vhieh is adapted to Hood River is not adapted to the Willamette
Valley. All these points have to be taken into consideration.
The matter of pollination really means dollars in a man's pocket
when he stops to consider it seriously. The work in the United States
has been going on since 1894, and it is far from solved yet as to why a
variety Avhieli is self-fertile here is not so in another locality. This is
one of the points that we are trying to find out.
There is a bulletin published by the college (No. 104), written by
Professor Lewis and Mr. Vincent, on the pollination of the apple. One
of the main points of value of this bulletin is that it gives you the time
of bloom of the different varieties and which can be used to pollinate.
Each bulletin is printed with a plain diagram which you can fully
understand.
Questions and Answers.
• Q. Would you put a pollenizer in between the Spitzenberg and
Newtown 1
A. I see no necessity for it. The Spitzenberg and Newtowns will
fertilize each other perfectly.
Q. Didn't one of your bulletins about a year ago, wdien they made
the survey in Hood River, recommend the Arkansas Black or the
Ortley?
A. Yes.
Q. Have you had cause to change your opinion since?
A. Not on that point, but it is not absolutely necessary.
Q. Would you recommend leaving out the Ortley or Arkansas
Black entirely?
A. Yes, if you wish to. The Newtown and Spitzenberg will pol-
lenize each other, or you can put the Arkansas Black and Ortley in if
you Avant to, but there is no advantage in doing it.
Q. If you planted the Ortley or Arkansas Black, how would you
plant them?
A. I would plant them in rows of four — four rows of Newtowns.
four rows of Spitzenbergs, and then four rows of Arkansas Black, and
four rows of Ortleys.
Q. Would you plant the Ortley a long way from the Spitzenberg?
A. Yes.
Q. "Better Fruit" about two years ago had an article advocating
the pollination of Newtown and Spitzenberg.
106 APPLE GROWIXG IX TlIK PACIFIC XORTinVEST
A. That is all right, but it "was not iiecessaiy.
Q. "What variety can be used in connection -with the Northern
Spy?
A. You can use any of the varieties I have named — Newtown.
Arkansas Black, Eed Cheek Pippin.
Q. What do you use with the Ortley ?
A. Use Newtowns and Spitzenbergs with the Ortley. They give
very good results.
Q. What do you use with the Winter Banana?
A. Newtowns or Spitzenbergs. Either one will do.
Q. Is there much difference in the keeping quality of the Bartlett
pear in different sections?
A. Yes, quite a bit.
Q. Do the Newtown and Spitzenl)erg fertilize each other?
A. Yes.
Q. Does that hold good in all our countries?
A. Yes, so far as we know.
Q. How does the Jonathan work in connection with the Newtowm ?
A. All right.
Q. How do the Jonathan and Winesap work together?
A. Pretty well, so far as the Winesap is concerned, but I am
thinking the Jonathan would get the short end of it. The Jonathan sets
fruit pretty well without pollenizer.
Q. Is the Ortley a heavy pollen producer?
A. The White Winter Pearmain is the greatest I know of.
Q. How is that as an apple ?
A. Very good. It is a good winter apple. It is universally suc-
cessful, and is perfectly self-fertile. The quality is excellent to my
notion.
Q. Does the Rome Beauty pollenize with tlie Newtown?
A. Yes.
Q. How about Grimes Golden ?
A. Newtown is the best.
The diagonal apple pack as made in the Hood River Valley.
The Best in Apple Culture
H. M. Williamson, Secretary of the Oregon State Board of Horti-
culture.
IN the past few years I have been asked many times to talk upon
the subject of the probability or improba^nlity of overproduc-
tion of apples. I have come to the conclusion that the time spent
in discussing this subject is practically wasted. Unless production is
limited by natural or artificial monopoly, occasional periods of over-
production are inevitable in all industries. Overproduction is an inci-
dent of progress. It is a factor in bringing about the survival of the
fittest and of raising the standard of those who remain producers by
eliminating those whose methods are poorest. Those who suffer least
in times of overproduction and make the largest profits at other times
are those who use the best methods throughout in production and mar-
keting. This is so plain that every one admits its truth, but a study of
the results obtained in many branches of agriculture and horticulture
will convince the student that, while the truth of the statement may
be generally accepted, there are few who are sufficiently convinced of
its truth to show their acceptance by their deeds. Few appear to know
how much difference there is between the returns obtained by those
who use the best methods and those who use the poorest methods, or
even those of average methods.
Neither the climatic nor the soil conditions in Maine are especially
favorable for the production of a large yield of sweet corn of high
quality. This fact and the resultant, and because of demand for sweet
corn for canning, the farmers there have given so much attention to the
best methods of producing it that they have raised the average yield of
sweet corn in Maine far above that of the country at large, and exceed
the yield obtained in the great corn State of Illinois by nearly 50 per
cent. If the methods applied to the production of sweet corn in Illinois
were equal to those used in Maine, the yield obtained in Illinois Avould
much exceed the yield obtained in Maine.
The climatic conditions in ^Massachusetts are distinctly less favor-
able for the production of tomatoes than are those of a majority of the
other States of the Union, and yet the census of ]900 showed tliat the
average yield of tomatoes in ^Massachusetts is 345 bushels per acre,
while the average yield for the United States as a whole is 165 l)ushels.
This great difference in favor of ^Massachusetts is \\li()lly due to the
better mctliods of tl:e growers of that State.
THE BEST IN APPLE CULTURE 109
In no other important branch of agricultural industry is there so
great a difference in the results obtained by men of the best methods
and those obtained by men of the poorest methods as in the production
of apples. The County of Orleans, New York, leads all other counties
in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains in the volume and
value of apples produced. The industry of raising apples in that county
is highly prosperous. It is not probable that there is any other county
of large production of apples east of the Rocky Mountains in which
the methods of growers average as high as in Orleans County. The
Cornell University Experiment Station a few years ago completed an
investigation of the apple industry of Orleans County, covering a
period of five years. For that time it was found that there were in
the county 18 orchards, in no one of which the sales for the five years
averaged less than $300 per acre per year. On the other hand, there
were 184 orchards, from which the average annual sales fell under
$100 per acre, and 72 orchards from which the average annual sales
were less than $50 per acre. If this investigation had covered the past
three years, the difference would have been even more pronounced, as
the best orchardists have been obtaining much higher prices in the past
three years than in the period covered by the investigation.
"We have no available statistics of this kind for Oregon, but, if w^e
had, it would be found that the difference in the average returns ob-
tained by the 50 best apple growers of this State and the 500 worst
would be far greater than that shov»^n by the Orleans County investi-
gation. The difference in the returns obtained by the most successful
and the least successful growers, both in Orleans County, New York,
and in Oregon is mainly due to the human factor in production. It
starts with the knowledge and judgment shown in the selection of a
site as being more or less adapted to apple culture in soil, aspect,
proximity to shipping point, character of community, the choice of va-
rieties to plant, the methods of preparing the land, planting and caring
for the orchard, and the marketing of the fruit.
There are some varieties of apples of high quality which cannot be
produced at as low cost as apples of some other variety, but it is a rule
wdth few exceptions that the growers who obtain the largest gross re-
turns per acre of any given variety produce marketable fruit at the
lowest cost per box. When, therefore, the growler w^ho is selling only
$50 worth of apples per acre is producing his fruit at a loss, the man
who is selling $100 worth per acre may be making a moderate profit,
and the grower wdio is selling $300 worth per acre, a large profit. In
the long run the man who obtains average returns of only $100 per
acre will not be able to hold out in competition with the grower Avho
is obtaining $300 or more per acre for his crop of apples. Those who
110 Al'Pr.K CUOWING IX TIIK PACiriC NOKTIIWKST
iipply tlie best niclliods to every phase of tlic business of producing and
marketing apples will, in the long run, gain rather than lose as a result
of periods of over-production.
We have in Oregon unusually favorable climate conditions for
apple-raising, and a great area of rich land favorably situated for apple
orchards. Probably no other State is as fortunate in these particulars.
These favoraI)le natural conditions are greatly in our favor if we do
not lean upon tliem for success. Our apples have also acquired an lui-
surpassed reputation in many market. This is also to our advantage, if
we do not rel}^ upon this reputation for success. Our natural advantages
do not assure success in producing the best and most profitable apples
— they mereh' give us a certain percentage of advantage over competi-
tors in achieving the feat. There is great danger of using too large a
figure in estimating this percentage. In the proportion that a grower
relies for success on advantage of soil and climate, just in that propor-
tion he decreases the probability of achieving success. Every observ-
ing fruit grower who travels abroad is convinced that one of the great-
est dangers which threatens the future of Oregon's apple industry is
that too many persons will engage in it who expect Nature to do more
than its share. At the last meeting of the Oregon State Horticultural
Society, Hon. H. B. Miller stated certain truths on this subject in a
most forcible manner. Mr. Miller has been an extensive and suc-
cessful apple grower in Oregon; has been president of the Oregon Agri-
cultural College, and of the State Board of Horticulture; Consul at
different points in China ; Consul-General in Japan, and Consul at Bel-
fast. Ireland. In all of these places and on the Continent of Europe
he has investigated fruits and fruit growing.
In his address before the State Horticultural Society he said that
from his personal observance he could say that it is possible to grow
as good apples in China and Japan, and in a number of the countries
of Europe as in Oregon. He also called attention to what Belfast.
Ireland, lias aeeomplislied in certain lines of manufacturing without
natural advantages. Willi liut a limited home supply of tow and with-
out Avater powei- or a liome supply of fuel, it has nuide itself the leading
linen-manufactiu'ing eity of the world; without natural power and
without a home supply of eitlun- coal, iron or lumber, it has developed
the greatest siiipbuilding plant in the world; without a home supply of
tobacco it has l)uilt up the largest tobacco-nuiinifacturing establish-
ment of the world.
^Fr. ^Filler believes in Oregon as an apple-growing State. He be-
lieves that if we do our part Portland will become the gi-eatest apple-
sliipping point in tlie woi'bl. He is engaging in orehai'd phinting on a
large scale, lie sees as one who studies the s\d)iect sees, that while
THE BEST IX AITLE CULTURE 111
we are doing much in Oregon to promote the planting oi^ apple orchards,
we are doing little to insure the practice of the best methods by those
who plant or buy these orchards, and still less to provide an adequate
method of marketing the fruit.
Every man and woman wdio engages in the apple-growing in-
dustry in Oregon must realize that the sure road to success for the
apple groAver is to surpass those of all competitors in every particular
from the selection of the land to the final distribution of the fruit.
Oregon apples now enjoy a higher reputation than those of any other
State of the Union. We know^ this because all over the United States
growers are claiming that they can raise just as good apples as Oregon
if they use Oregon methods. Who has made this valuable reputation
for Oregon apples'? How many communities really deserve any ma-
terial credit for the part they have taken in achieving it? Actually
two, and, to so large an extent only one, that it makes little difference
where you go in Oregon you will be told that the particular district
you are visiting could raise just as good apples as Hood River. What
show^ has climate and soil in leading the Hood River orcliardists to
adopt the methods without which no place can produce such perfect
apples as are sent to market from that place f How much had climate
and soil to do with their most effective methods of calling the atten-
tion of the public to the superiority of their fruit? What part did
natural advantages play in the development of their unrivaled system
of honest and skillful packing, or in the co-operation of the growers in
the State? Even if we concede that the Hood River Valley has some
slight climatic advantages for apple production, it was not these ad-
vantages which made it wdiat it is in the apple-producing industry, but
the superior method used by its growers. In a large measure the
original credit for the high standards set up at Hood River are due to
a few men and notably to one man who from the earliest settlement of
the valley down to the present time has never missed an opportunity
to preach the doctrine of the best.
It has been said that it is safer to shake a red rag in the face of an
angry bull than to suggest to E. L. Smith the advisability of planting
Ben Davis apples in the Hood River Valley. If we are to surpass all
competitors in our methods of producing and marketing apples, we
must not underrate our competitors, and we must know what they are
doing. It will never be safe to rest upon laurels already won. The
world moves and progress in science and art is more rapid than form-
erly, and will be more rapid in the future than it is now. There are
those who are learning from us and if we keep in the lead we must be
ready and eager to learn from others. It is no safer to rest upon the
112 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC XOUTIIWEST
belief that we are producing the best apples grown than it is to depend
upon superior climatic and soil conditions for success.
The wise man of old told an everlasting ti-utli when lie said that
pride goeth before destruction, and if we boast too much of the super-
iority of our apples we will become self-satisfied and while indulging
in this luxury some of our competitors will leave us in the rear. If we
are to surpass all competitors it is necessary that our methods not only
produce the best fruit, but do this at the lowest cost at which such
fruit can be produced. We must also fully understand that the pro-
duction of the best fruit at the lowest practical cost will be only half
the battle. The methods of caring for orchards and packing apples in
our best districts in Oregon are much further advanced than our meth-
ods of marketing apples. We have only as yet taken the first step on
the ladder in our efforts to reach a solution of the marketing problem.
There are about 10,000 cities and towns in the United States in which
newspapers are published. In practically all of these there are merchants
who do buy or who could be induced to buy apples in carload lots. It
costs no more to ship a carload of apples from the station in Oregon
where the apples are packed to one of the smaller of these towns than
it does to ship it to one of the great jobbing centers. Our Fruit Unions,
as yet, ship mainly to the larger wholesale centers. So far as the fruit
is intended for consumption in those centers the present met hod is
adequate. When, however, a carload of apples is shipped to a jobber
in some of the Eastern cities, unloaded there, placed in storage, loaded
in a car again and shipped to a retailer in some town oi- city 100
miles from that center, the cost of getting the fruit from the Eastern
packer to the Eastern retailer has been doubled. At the present time
it even liappens frequently that the ear goes from the center to a
wholesale fruit dealer in some smaller city, and from that smaller city
to a retailer in some other city or town. We cannot claim that we are
using the best methods of marketing our apples until wc have over-
come the system now in vogue and which, while it lasts, will continue
to make good apples so costly that the masses can only afford to use
thciii ill limited quantities.
We may rest assured that the problem of overcoming this costly
system of distribution will be solved and that the State whose growers
solve it most satisfactorily will gain a great advantage. We nnist
also follow the example of manufacturers in exploiting our apples and
in inducing merchants to buy them. Tlie fact tliat the real secret of
success in the ap])le Imsiness is found in superiority of metliods from
start to finish should encourage rather liinn discourage any right-
minded person who is thinking of engaging in the l)usiness of raising
apples. Some person always does a certain thing hdter than any other
THE BEST IX APPLE CULTURE 113
person ; some commnnity does it ])etter than any other commnnity.
The strife to excel in the bnsiness of growing and marketing apples is
an lionorable one. If carried on in a whole-hearted way it benefits
all who engage in it and resnlts in good to others. All progress in
the world comes from doing a thing l)etter than it has been done before.
The ambition to snrpass all that has been done before has been the
moving cause of nearly all of the progress which the world has made.
The joy of competitive struggle is a symptom of virility. The absence
of aml)ition to excel means that idecadence has begun. There can be
no more honorable strife than one which will result in the production
of the best apples at the lowest possible cost and the finding of a
method of marketing the apples which will reduce to a minimum the
cost of transferring those apples from the producer to the consumer.
It is a strife which will result in good and the benefits will be divided
between producer and consumer. We have the advantages of favor-
able climate and a great area of the best of apple land which will
enable us to make Oregon the leading apple-growing State of the Union
if we do our part which is to do our best to surpass all competitors in
our methods. I believe we will win. My faith is founded upon the
character of those of our own people who are becoming interested in
apple culture and of those who are coming to Oregon from other States
to engage in the raising of apples — men and women of much more than
average intelligence and education. It is significant that at the two
leading apple shipping centers of Oregon, Hood Kiver and Medford,
there are strong university clubs. The ranks of our apple growers are
being reinforced by graduates of almost every agricultural college in
the Union, and by the graduates of many other colleges and universi-
ties. While we are getting more visionaries and incompetents than we
Avant. the evil results following the injection of this undesirable class
will not be permanent, and when they have been eliminated and for-
gotten then will l)e found remaining a body of apple growers who
would make a success of any business. It is indeed fortunate for the
development of the apple growing industry in Oregon that it is at-
tracting so many persons of trained intellects and broad minds — men
and women who are not discouraged by obstacles which may be over-
come and who realize that an occupation is usually worth while just
in proportion to the obstacles which must be overcome. The work of
finding the best possible solution of every problem which the apple
grower has to meet will strengthen the mental and moral fiber of every
person who does his share of the work. In accordance with the law of
attraction communities of intelligent, progressive, apple raisers, ani-
mated by the determination to excel, will draw to it more of the same
kind. The more people of this kind we can induce to engage in the
114 APPLE GROWING IX THE PACII'IC NORTHWEST
apple industry in Oregon, and the more ('(iiniiiuiiities of snch people we
can ol)tain the greater our chances will be oT sin-passing all rivals and
the better it will be for all who engage in the apple industry in this
State. Horticulture has always had a fascination for the best types of
people. Communities made up of men and women who have the men-
tal and moral qualities essential to success in the apple industry will
raise the standard of agriculture, and bring about a much-needed in-
crease of respect for those engaged in this occupation. The good
effects of their coming v/ill not die with them but will endure.
Questions and Answers.
Q. Did .Ml'. Miller mention the difference in the price of Austra-
lian and Hood Kiver apples?
A. I do not think he referred to Australian apples. They come
into the market at a ditferent time.
Q. How about the Japanese apples?
A. They do not produce any. He simply said that they can do it.
The great bulk of all the apples offered for the markets in Europe are
the veriest trash. All that is to keep us in mind what our competitors
can do. Of course France produces some very fine fruit with very in-
adequate methods. When the Panama Canal is finished it will open up
one of the greatest markets for our American apples. It will enable
us to lay them down there at reduced freight rates througli the opening
of the canal.
Q. I noticed that Mr. Miller spoke very liighly of the Grimes
Golden apple. I would like to ask you to give me a general description
of the Grimes Golden.
A. The Grimes Golden is bright golden jiiid of very high (jualitx".
Pcmoletically it is below the Spitzenberg. It is not as good a keeper
as the Yellow Newtown. Its best period would l)e just before the Yel-
low Newtown. It is in its prime about the first of December until the
middle of Fel)ruary or first of ]\Iarch. It is a rather small apple, but
that is desiral)le for English markets. They do not want very large
apples. In England the holidays are the l)est time of tlie year to sell
fruit. A little later they get fresli fruits from Cape Colony and from
other phiees tliat reduce the demand. Tlie Grimes Golden is a very
good l)earer in the Willamette VaHey and is remarkably free from
scab.
Q. Do they grow better on low level?
A. I am not sure about that. The last Grimes Goldt-n I had were
grown at an elevation of 600 or 800 feet.
I'llK BEST IX APPLE CULTURE 115
Q. AVhat four varieties would you consider the best for commer-
cial apples?
A. I -want to say that when we really apply the doctrine of best
in fruit, w^e must not confine ourselves to apples in the fall. Do not
begin with fall apples, with Gravensteins, because splendid Graven-
steins can be grown. We must begin to supply our customers with
Gravensteins and keep it right up as fast as the other varieties come
on the market. A great deal depends upon the locality. We have so
many high elevations and every elevation materially affects the pro-
duction of apples. In the Willamette Valley the Northern Spy is the
leader. It cannot be beaten in quality in the Coast Kange Mountains.
Near Scappoose they grow a magnificent Northern Spy. In the Cas-
cade Mountains the color of the apples is not so high as those grown
near Scappoose. I cannot believe that people will not buy a good apple
when they find out that they can get a good one ; I do not believe they
will buy a Ben Davis when they can get a Yello^v Newtown, and it
comes into the market at a time when its only practical competitor is
the Ben Davis.
Q. How is the Baldwin ?
A. The great trouble with the Baldwin at present is that is has
a peculiar speck, a trouble which we have not yet been able to cope
with.
Q. Are Newtowns more profitable than Spitzenbergs?
A. Yes, at least judging from what people tell me. Some of the
heretics at Hood River say that the Ben Davis is the most profitable,
Q. Are Newtowns and Spitzenbergs best on high elevation?
A. The Spitzenberg is best on high elevation. In Hood River the
Newtown just overlapped the Spitzenberg; the best district for the
Ne-\vtowiis was 1,100 feet, and from there on the Spitzenberg Avas best.
That is not above the snow line, but pretty far up.
Q. What about the Winter Banana ?
A. It is not adapted to the Hood River or Willamette Valley
conditions. Where there is no irrigation and dry air it gets sufficient
firmness and thickness of the skin to make it possible to handle, but
even at Hood River it is practically impossible to handle it carefully
enough that brown spots will not be produced on it, and its main ad-
vantage is its beauty. If I am not mistaken, it originated in New Jer-
sey.
Q. Will the Newtown grow at an elevatioon of 2,000 feet?
A. I would be afraid it would not keep long. I have seen them
grown at 1,800 feet and they were hard and green months afterward.
A Spitzenberg would grow all right at that elevation.
Q. Are there any advantages in growing dwarf apples?
116 APPLE OROWING I.\ THE PACIFIC NOKTIIWEST
A, We have not had any demonstration of that here in Oregon.
I believe this country is -well adapted to dwarf apples. A man at
Puget Sound has given a great deal of attention to this matter and he
is of the opinion that this country is well adapted to dwarf apples
and pears.
Q. What about the Dufur A^alley ?
A. It was stated at the meeting of the State Horticultural So-
ciety that if they had gotten from Hood River a number of competent
men to pack the best boxes out of their carload of apples they would
have had a magnificent exhibit. As far as the quality of their apples
is concerned, I have no doubt but the Newtown is an apple that they
should cultivate there.
Q. What is the elevation ?
A. I hear it is a slope, probably from 1.200 to 1.800 feet. Being
back from the Columbia River some distance, it is not as warm there
as if they were closer to the Columbia.
Q. Do the people want this central selling agency?
A. It is a situation of something that has to be done, but we
must first have a local organization. The idea prevailed fourteen years
ago that it was an attempt to monopolize the fruit industry. That Avas
erroneous. The real aim is to l)ring about a more even distribution
of fruit.
Q. What varieties are adapted to White Salmon?
A. I am not very well acciuainted with the White Salmon sec-
tion, but it is so much like Hood River that it Avould be practically the
same. Their leading varieties are Yellow NewtOAvn. Spitzenberg and
the Ortley.
Q. IToAv about the Rome Beauty?
A. That is an apple Avhich adapts itself to many different hn-al-
ities. It is one of the A-ery best apples in the high elevations of Ore-
gon, Washington and Idaho.
Q. HoAV about the Ortley?
A. The Ortley is an apple of very liisili (|u;ilily.
Q. TheGano?
A. That is a loAV-grade apple. They are used for l)aking. but in
reality they are not a very good apple. Tlu^ Wagener is a much better
apple and it does very Avell in the Willamette Valley.
Q. AVhat variety is the best baking apple?
A. Sweet ap])l(^s are considered the best, bul avc do not liav*^ an
opportunity to 1 1'v them because people have gone out of the business
of raising them. The baking apples in Portland ;ii-i' the Ben Davis.
Gano and Arkansas Black.
Apple Tree Anthracnose
Prof. II. S. Jackson, Department of Plant Pathology, Oregon Agri-
cultural College.
al^KCEXT magazine writer says that all Oregon and Washington
are apple mad. In looking over this audience I wonder if he
Avasn't about right, especially when it is possible on a Saturday
night in a large city to get out an audience of this size to listen to
lectures relating to apple culture. Perhaps Oregon is apple mad, but
so long as our real estate agents and others have provided the asylum
in the shape of an apple orchard, I do not think very much harm will
come from it. It seems to me that it is rather unusual to find so
many people interested in topics, many of which are as dry and techni-
cal as the one on which I am to speak tonight.
The apple tree anthracnose, as it is commonly called in this State
and Washington, is a disease of the apple tree which is peculiar to the
Pacific Northwest. It occurs in no other part of the United States as a
serious disease. Its distribution is as follows : It extends from British
Columbia to the Southern part of Oregon and possibly into California,
although that is not definitely known. It occurs also in Idaho. How
far East it is spread is not known. In Oregon it is. with the possible
exception of the apple scab, the most serious disease with which apple
groAvers have to deal. The disease is characterized l)y the appearance
of dark colored, sunken cankers Avhich are seen on the young growths.
These are not found as commonly on the large branches as on the
younger ones.
Cankers are first to be observed in the fall or early winter as
round, sunken, dark colored spots which slowly enlarge and elongate,
making little visible groAvth dui-inii' the (loi'iiiant season, but on the
advent of spring and the consequent renewetl activity in the life pro-
cesses of the tree continue to grow rapidly. The cankers are mature
in mid-sniiiiucr and the active spread ceases. At this time the cankers
are (h-cply sunken, dark in color Avith a limiting crack around the edge.
Sometimes the caidvcrs are so large that tliey girdle l)ranclu^s to such
an extent that the entire tops may Ix- killed. In I'are cases young
trees are killed by caidvcrs finning on the trunk". These are extreme
examples. As we usually see i1. the disease is found to jn-odiu-e few or
many cankers on the younger branches of trees, occasicnially girdling
a tAvig or bi-anch.
APPLE TKEE ANTHRACNOSE 119
The bark in mature cankers is found to be death to tlie sap wood.
After the active spread the bark may cling in the cankers for one or
more seasons, finally falling away, leaving an ugly sear which heals
slowly. When a number of cankers occur on the branches the circula-
tion of food in the trees is interfered with and the tree suffers.
Apple tree anthracnose is caused by a Parasitic Fungus. Perhaps
this may need a little explanation. First let me define a parasite. A
parasitic organism is one which lives at the expense of another organ-
ism, drawing its nourishment from the "host" on which it is living.
The mistletoe on the oak is a very good example and will serve to il-
lustrate a parasite familiar to all and one so large as to be easily seen.
The oak mistletoe is a parasite of a high order. It is a flowering plant
parasitic on another flowering plant, the oak tree. I have said that
the disease under discussion is caused by a parasitic fungus. A fungus
is a plant of low order but nevertheless a plant as truly as is the apple
tree. It differs from the latter essentially in that it lacks green color
and is on this account unable to manufacture its own food and must
take it directh' or indirectly from some green plant.
The common field mushroom is a fungus familiar to all. It lives
on decaying vegetable matter, principally grass roots present in the
soil of pastures or fields. Other familiar examples are the shelf fungi
and mushrooms frequently seen growing on stumps or from Avounds
on living trunks of maple or other trees. Fungi in general exist in
either one of two stages, one called the vegetative condition, which
exists in the substratum or soil on which the fungus is growing, the
other is called the reproductive stage or fruiting body and bears the
spores or disseminating organs of the fungus. The vegetative con-
dition consists in most fungi of very delicate, colorless threads which
are invisible to the naked eye except in mass. These threads branch
and ramify in the soil or in the tissues of the plant on which the
fungus is growing, absorbing nourishment for the fungus. The repro-
ductive stage must be of various forms, depending on the kind of
fungus.
I have spoken of the field mushroom and the fungi common on the
trunks of trees as illustrative of forms that are large and easily seen
and familiar to all. In the fungus causing apple tree anthracnose,
we have to deal with a form that we cannot see so readily, one so
minute that it can only be studied satisfactoril}^ by the use of the
compound microscope.
If a mature canker is examined in midsummer little elevations in
the bark are easily observed. They are at first more or less conical
in shape and are thickly scattered in the sunken area. They gradually
enlarge and finally burst the outer layer of the bark and expose the
cream-colored mass of fungous tissue. These are the ascervuli or
120 APPLE OROWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
i'l'iiil iiii.'' l)(/(lics jiiid l)(';ir llip I'cprodiicl ivc fells of the fuiiyiis. which
are very miuiite, curved, coh)i-h'ss Ixxlies, invisihle to the naked eye
except in mass and are produced in countless thousands in the pustules
already deiici'ihed. They are held to^-ether duriiio- the dry weather
by a sticky substance and are only liberated by the first fall rains,
when they are broadly distributed by Avind and rain, often being car-
ried for long distances. Moisture is necessary for the growth of these
spores, Avhich under proper conditions grow out into a slender tube
wdiich may penetrate the bark of the apple, ramifying in the tissues,
killing them and producing the typical cankers.
It is possible to isolate the organism causing this disease and grow
it in pure culture. By taking a pDrtion of such a culture and inserting
it in the bark of a healthy tree we are able to produce the typical
cankers of the disease. This proves beyond a doubt that the cankers
are caused by the fungus.
Infection takes place in the fall at any time after the first fall
rains. The great majority of the infection doubtless occurs from about
the middle of October to the first of December. After infection the
fungus spreads but slowly during the fall, remaining practically dor-
mant during the winter and begins active growth again in the spring.
The spread of the fungus in the tissues ceases early in the summer and
when the canker is mature can only be found in the sunken bark.
There is no evidence to show that the cankers grow in size after
mid-summer. It is true that the mycelium or vegetative stage of the
fungus remains alive in the bark of old cankers at least till the second
autumn after the infection and spores like those produced in the
cankers the first year after infection are found in limited quantity.
This second year's growth, however, is as a saprophyte on the dead
bark which still clings to such cankers. Tlie pressure of aiu)ther spore
stage, the sexual spore which is common in the life history of the
fungi of this nature, has not been proven to be present in the life his-
tory of the apple tree anthracnose.
Besides the cankers on the branches we sometimes find a disease
of the fruit caused by the sanu^ finigus. On the fruit the spots first
appear as small, brown, sunken areas whicli gradually enlarge, pro-
ducing a rather soft rot. Finally pustules are protluced which beai-
spores like those found in the cankers on the branches. Apple tree
anthracnose, however, is not to be considered a serious 1i'oid)le of the
fruit. The spots occur only when the fruit luis been left hanging on
the trees for some time after tlu> fall rains begin. In season when th -
rains begin early it will be nuu-e pre\alen1 than when lliey occur later.
In treating a fungous disease of this nature it is important that
the tree be covered with some fungicidal substance that will prevent
APPLE TREE AXTIIRACXOSE 121
the germination of the spores and so keep the fnngus from entering the
tissues. After the fungus once enters the bark no treatment can be
applied that will kill the fungus and not kill the tissues as well. The
treatment must be preventive and not curative.
It has been found by investigators as well as by growers that
the only satisfactory method of controlling the disease is by spraying
before infection takes place, with the Bordeaux mixture or lime-
sulphur. The spray should be applied as soon as the fruit is picked and
before the fall rains begin, if possible. While it is desirable to get
ahead of the fall rains, the application may be made any time that
the weather permits. In serious cases two sprays should be given two
to four weeks apart. Spraying after the middle of December is not
recommended. The results of experimentation have shown that the
Bordeaux mixture gives slightly better results than lime-sulphur for
this disease.
In some seasons it frequently happens that large growers can
not spray on account of unusual rainfall and the disease has an op-
portunity to increase. If the disease is known to occur in an orchard,
even in slight amounts, it will pay to spray every year that the weather
permits. Should it happen that the disease becomes serious in a large
bearing orchard, spraying once or twice with lime-sulphur as late as
possible before the fruit is picked should be tried. This spray will
not seriously discolor the fruit.
Badly affected branches should be pruned out preceding the fall
spraying. In young orchards where not too large it might be profit-
able to scrape out the cankers in the winter or early in summer and
Interior of a packing house in the Rogue River Valley.
122 APPLE GROWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
paint over with thick Bordeaux oi* disinfect with corrosive sublimate
and paint over with lead paint.
The treatment recommended will entirely control the disease and
should be practiced every year as a matter of insurance, beginning
when the orchard is young. If this is done no opportniiity will be
offered for the disease to become serious.
It is important to note that Professor A. B. Cordley of the Oregon
Agricultural College was the first to work out the true nature of the
disease and to publish recommendations for its control. Nothing of
essential importance has been added to our knowledge since he made
his first report, about 1900.
Note. — Workers in the Department of Plant Pathology' at 0. A. C.
wish to know the results which growers have in carrying out the rec-
ommendations given. An urgent invitation is given to all interested
to become correspondents with the Department of Plant Pathology
on questions relating to apple tree anthracnose, and to other diseases
of plants.
Questions and Answers.
Q. How long does it take the ordinary man to learn to perform
the operation of cutting out the disease?
A, Not long; first become familiar with the appearance of the
disease and cut down to the healthy bark or to the w^ood.
Q. Can an ordinary pruning knife be used?
A. Any sharp knife will do. Cutting out would be practical only
for young orchards where one can get to all parts of the tree. I have
seen large trees with fully 200 cankers on the branches. It would
plainly be impracticable to attempt to cut out the disease on old trees
in large orchards. Spraying is easier.
Q. Is the disease prevalent in all vnlleys?
A. I cannot say definitely. It is much more prevalent in some
than in others. All sections in this region are liable to infection.
Q. Is this disease anything similar to the apple scab?
A. The apple scab is a different fungous disease. It attacks the
leaves and fruits of the apple tree and develops at a different time
of the year than the anthracnose.
Q. Does the same remedy- apply ?
A. Spraying will prevent the apple scab, ln;t. the life history of
the fungus being different, the spray should be applied at another
time. It is absolutely necessarj^ to know the life history of the organ-
ism causing any particular disease in order to know when to apply
the spray. Get ahead of infection. The primary infection of the apple
Al'PLE TREE AXTIIRACNOSE 123
scab occurs when the blossom buds are begimiing to open. That is
the time for first spraying. Spray again after the petals fall and make
one or two more applications at intervals of 10 days or tw^o weeks.
Use the lime-sulphur.
Q. "When an orchard is first set out wdiat is the first symptom?
A. The cankers which I have described.
Q. How soon do they occur in young orchards?
A. They may appear on the trees the first year after setting
out.
Q. What is the possibility of their attacking old trees?
A. Very good. Whenever you see an old orchard in an infected
region you may be pretty sure that there is some anthracnose unless
it has been given proper treatment.
Q. Is there much danger of spreading the disease through the
distribution of nursery stock?
A. I knoAV of no case wdiere that has been at all serious, though
it is possible.
Q. From the nature of the disease would it be much less liable
to spread in that v:ay if one year trees were planted instead of two
year ?
A. One year old trees would not be as liable to have the disease
as the older trees. You would not find cankers on one year trees
unless they had become infected before being taken up. Trees are
changed so frecjuently in the nursery that the disease does not have
time to get started. This is probably the reason why we do not see
them in the nursery. If an old orchard w^hich is infected wnth anthrac-
nose is in the vicinity of a nursery, infection may spread to nursery
stock. Such an orchard should be cut down.
Q. Does it infect pear trees?
A. A similar canker is found on pear trees which may be due to
anthracnose, but if so the life history is not carried out. As far as I
know no spores have ever been found in cankers on the pear.
Q. Is the disease liable to attack an old tree for the first time?
A. It may attack a tree at any time. Cankers are more abundant
on the young growths, that is. on branches under tw^o or three inches
in diameter.
Q. How" do you explain the development of the disease in the
apple you hold? (The speaker has a diseased apple in his hand.)
A. I broke the tissue of the apple and introduced a portion of a
pure culture and kept in a moist place. This Avas inoculated in about
the second week in November. It first developed a small brown
sunken area w^hich gradually spread, forming a large spot. The
124 AI'PLE GROWIXG IX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
iiiyccliiiiii or vegetal inn stage of tlie fung-us is all through the decaj'cd
area. Spores are produced in the pustules on the surface.
Q. Do spores ever attack the trunk of the tree regardless of the
age?
A. The trunk may l)e infected and cankers produced, but if the
tree is of any age the fungus cannot grow through the bark so the
canker is not typical. That depends on the condition of the bark.
Q. Is the disease more prevalent west of the Cascades?
A. Yes, in Oregon.
Q. Does the growth demand more circulation or retard it?
A. It retards the passage of food to the lower branches of the
tree.
Q. Does it thrive in wet or dry season?
A. In the fall during frequent rains there is more infection. It
must have moisture and rain to germinate the spores and spread the
disease. The spores are slowly developed in the cankers in dry
weather.
Q. Is the disease found where there is snow?
A. The disease is limited to the Pacific Coast. It extends up into
British Columbia where the winters are severe.
Q. In the old trees where the antliracuose has gotten well started
is it possible to reach it and kill it by spraying without removing the
outer bark?
A. The cankers are annual. They develop in the spring and
into the next summer, then cease the active growth. You must get
ahead of the infection. Infection takes place every year, so by spray-
ing this fall you prevent the cankers next summer.
Q. In what strength do you use the spray?
A. In using Bordeaux mixture you may use 5-5-50, or the 5-6-50.
Tliis is: 5 lbs. copper sulphate (Blue Stone). 6 lbs. stone lime, 50 gals,
water. In preparing the lime-sulphur the commercial mixture is di-
luted 1 to 15. If used on foliage a weaker solution, about 1 to 30,
is recommended. These are the ])ropor dilutions when the stock solu-
tion is about 300 Baume.
Q. Does the disease occur on any wild plant?
A. Some years ago Prof. Pierce of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture spent some time in Oregon and Washington studying this
disease, but he made no official report. In a letter to the late ]\Ir.
Wallace, of Salem, he stated that he found what he believes to be the
native liost. lie lias never given us any puMishcMl inforinatii»n.
Injurious Orchard Insects
Professor Hailey P. Wilson, of tlie Oregon Agrir-nltural College.
XT GIVES me great pleasure to be with you this evening. Taking
np the orchard pests, I am going to deal principally with those
of the apple. These insects which attack the apple ordinarily
attack the pear also, so that we have a list of the principal ones on the
pear as well as on the apple.
I will first mention the codling moth, an old and familiar friend
with all people who have eaten apples, even though they have not
tried to raise them. The worm is found in the apple ; later it pro-
duces the codling moth. In taking up the subject of injurious insects,
I would suggest the advantage of knowing all stages; be able to tell
not only the worm and moth, but know the egg and pupa, and try to
become acquainted with the life history of the various stages. Ordi-
narily each insect passes through four different stages. Some only
pass through three. In the ease of the codling moth the egg is laid
by the adult moth on the leaves or fruit, principally upon the leaves
by the first generation of moths which are present in the spring.
From these eggs hatch little larvae or worms wliich find their way
onto the apples, and, eating through the skin, work toward the cen-
ter, feeding and finally crawl from the fruit and. seeking a hiding
place, pupate, lose all their appendages and do not look at all like
worms. After some time there comes forth from this pupal case a
little grayish-brown moth known as the codling moth. This is the
adult insect.
^^)u are, perhaps, more interested in the remedies for those insects
tlian in the life history, so that I will not spend more time here, but
will give the remedies. In the case of the codling moth, as perhaps
you all know, we use the arsenate of lead. I will say that in times past
it has been the rule to have from one to 15 remedies for most insects.
Later investigations have shown that there are probably three different
control measures which will do for most all insect pests and plant
diseases. These are lime-sulphur, which is now known to be a fungi-
cide as well as an insecticide; the arsenate of lead, which acts as a
poison, and what is known as Black Leaf Tobacco spray, which is used
as a contact insecticide for summer spraying purposes. That is, it is
sprayed on the insects and kills them from the outside, while the poison
IN.TUKIOUS ORCHARD INSECTS 127
is taken iusidc and tlie\' die from the pDisoning. In case f»f the codling
moth there are two generations each season. In order to control
these insects it is necessary to spray some three or four times each
year. In this State we do not recommend spraying less than three
times. Professor Melander, in Washington, I believe, recommends that
in some sections of that State one application is sufficient to control
codling moth. In this State we give these three sprays as follows :
The first one to be applied in the spring when the calyx of the apple
blossom is still open, and after the petals have fallen; the second be-
fore the calyx closes in order to get the poison into the little calyx
cups. It has been shown that about 70 per cent of the larvae of the
codling moth from the first generation eat into the calyx end of the
apple. AVhen the arsenate of lead is placed in there the larvae eat it
and are poisoned. In the Eastern States it has been the rule to recom-
mend spraying about two weeks later. In the Willamette Valley, at
least, it has been shown that this spray is of little or no value for the
codling moth, as the worms do not come out until about the 25th of
June or the first of July. Of course you will have to be governed by
conditions, of various seasons, and the locality in which you live. In
the southern part of the State it might be safer to spray the 20th of
June or thereabouts, while at Portland the spray should be applied
the first of July. These are general directions only and can be sup-
plemented by a general personal observation. The third spraying is
recommended to be given about the lOtli or 11th of August, that is,
according to experiments carried on by Professor Cordley. That might
not be true of all sections, and probabh^ will vary from the 1st to the
20th of the month. During ordinary seasons we recommended a fourth
spray to be given about the first of September. This not only helps
control the codling moth, but also catches many other insects, the prin-
cipal one being the bud moth. This insect feeds in the spring on the
buds. The second generation, which is produced in the fall, feeds on
the under side of the leaves of the apple, pear and other fruit trees.
Now, if the leaves are thoroughly sprayed about the first of September,
and the spray gotten onto the under side of the leaves it will catch
most of the worms of the second generation. The bud moth spends
the winter as a half-grown larva, similar to that of the codling moth.
In the spring it comes out of its winter cocoon, works and feeds upon
the tender young buds. Instead of feeding on a single bud and de-
stroying that bud alone, it goes from one bud to another, feeding a
little on each, so that a single worm wnll in one night destroy a large
number of buds. Should there be from 15 to 20 or 25 of these Avorms
present on one tree there would be a corresponding number of buds
destroyed in a short time. It feeds only by night, remaining hidden
128 APPLE CiKOWI.NG IX Till; PACIl IC .NOUTIIWK.ST
in the day time in its nest of leaves. Tii making its nest, the -worm
draws the leaves together by a small ihi-cad of silk whieh is secreted
by the worm itself. Toward evening, when fouml feeding, il they are
disturbed, they will crawl back into the nest and remain liidden for
some time. The recommendation for spraying as ordinai-ily given
is in the spring before the bnds open or about the time they are
turning green. At that time arsenate of lead, tAvo pounds added
to .")() gallons of winter strength lime^sulphur or 50 gallons of water,
may be applied. Probably a better time to spray is in the fall, about
the first of September, so that you have a codling moth spray and a
bud moth spray at the same time. Should it be found that the fall
spraying will control the moth the spring spray may be omitted.
Only recently has lime-sulphur come into general use as a fungi-
cide, and now it is generally used as a combined spray for insects and
plant diseases. At the proper time for spraying for the codling
moth, first application, apple scab can also be treated, and at the
present time arsenate of lead and lime-sulphur are combined and
applied at the same time. To each 50 gallons of lime-sulphur 30
degrees Beaume diluted 1-10, a pound of arsenate of lead is added.
If apple scab is not present, water may be used instead of lime-sulphur,
as the latter is apt to burn the leaves.
I will speak of the San Jose scale only in a very general way,
because it causes very little damage where spraying is carried on
thoroughly. The scale, as we see it and know it, is a grayish, hard
scale, under which lives the tender living insect, principally on or-
chard trees, although the San Jose scale is found on some 100 or more
plants. It spends the winter in an immature eonditinn. developing
in the spring into the full-grown insect. At that time the males come
from beneath their scaly covering and fly about fertilizing the fe-
male scales, which latter produce a large number of little yellowish
young. This number has been estimated as high as nearly 500. It
takes about 33 days for these to mature, so that we have in Oregon
about five or six generations in a year. If, in each of those genera-
tions a female scale produces about 500 of her own kind, you can
see what an enormous number you would have at the end of the
season. Ordinarily, spraying as applied for apple seal) and anthrae-
nose will keep the scale under control, and where spraying for this
purpose is carried on I do not believe it will be necessary to apply
a special spray for the scale. However, in case you should take hold
of an old orchard which has not been sprayed for some time and the
trees are covered wdth scale, other insects and moss, I would recom-
mend a winter spray of lime-sulphur 30 degrees Beaume, diluted
one to eight or ten. This can ))e applied at any time during the
IX.TURIOl'S ORCHARD INSECTS 129
dormant season of the tree. The next season yon will, perhaps, not
need to give the regular spray for scale, depending upon the other
lime-sulphur sprays to keep the scale in check. It has l)een the
usual method to apply the scale spray in the middle of the winter
while the trees are in a dormant condition. Upon investigation
it has ])een found that in the spring or fall the scale is more easily
killed. As it is much easier to control other insects by spraying
in the spring, it is recommended that the winter spray be applied
as a special spray when the buds are turning green. The spray for
anthracnose should be applied in the fall, just after the fruit has
been picked. This will, perhaps, do more to kill the scale than any
other spray.
Professor Wilson was asked: "Where does the codling moth
spend the winter?" and replied: In a half -grown, or two-thirds state,
in a cocoon which it spins in the fall. They are under the bark
in crevices, on the ground, under clods or boards. If you want to
make an experiment to find their cocoons, in the fall tie a cotton
sack around your tree, and then go out during the winter some
time and remove the band. You will perhaps find a number of co-
coons. An orchard which is not well taken care of, on which the
moss is thick, is an ideal place for the codling moth to live.
Next, I wish to speak of some apple borers which attack young
apple trees two or three years old. Perhaps some of you have no-
ticed the trees as you go into an orchard in the fall. Upon examina-
tion you will find that your trees are dead, and, upon close inspec-
tion you will find at the base of yonr tree a worm with a broad, flat
head working in a wide channel just under the bark. There are
two kinds which ordinarily attack the apple. The one which is so
injurious in Oregon is not so injurious in the Eastern States. The
one which is injurious in the Eastern States is not at present found
in Oregon. This borer passes through four stages, but the adult
is a beetle and not a moth. It is a kind of a brown beetle, about half
or three-fourths of an inch long. The eggs are laid in the summer
on the bark. A little worm hatches out of the egg and bores into
the bark next to the wood, and works around the tree, that is, it
bores up and around, and then back downi. As the worms grow,
of course, the channel becomes wider, and sometimes you will find
a channel at least half an inch across, which is very apt to cause
the death of the tree. After the borer has once entered the tree
there is no way to exterminate it except to dig it out. The best
remedy is a preventive means. The best way is to tie the paper
around the tree, that is, old newspaper or some of the commercial
panels, as they are called. In using these you should place some cot-
130 Ai'iT.i: (;kowi\(; ix tiik rAciiTC xortiiwest
ton around the tree at the top of the panel to keep the borer from
gettinfi' in undci-. At the time the ])aper or the pMnel is used, the dirt
should he piled np and ai'onnd the ti'ce. so the adnit cannot crawl in
under. Wife sci-een has Ix'en recommended placed about the tree and
tied at the top. If this is used, it should l)e so arranged aboul the trunk
thrit the beetle cannot deposit eggs thi-ough the meshes of the screen.
When the papers are tied to the trees the string should be rather loose,
so that should the trees grow very much or expand during the summer
it will not bind the trees, and the strands can be broken, otherwise you
might injure the tree.
Questions and Answers.
Q. When do they attack the tree worst?
A. During the summer, but the injury does not appear until fall.
At that time the larva has finished its work. It bores into the tree
and remains there until spring, when it comes forth as the adult beetle.
When the larva first starts the channel it is very small. Later in the
summer it may extend around the tree. ToAvard fall the larva bore
into the center of the tree and pupates.
Q. In setting out trees the first year it has been my experience
that before they got established the borers attack them worst.
A. This seems to be the case. The borers attack the trees when
they seem to be in a weak condition. When you set the tree out it
has rather a setback, because it has been taken up and replanted, and
it has a harder fight to make and so the l)orer has less ti'oul)lc in mak-
ing headway.
Q. Is whitewash any ]>rotection against a l)Mr-er?
A. Yes, to some extent. To Mdiat extent 1 would not be able to
say. Whitewash when ordinarilx- applied, no matter how tiiick-. will
crack, and the borer deposits the eggs througli the cracks next to the
bark, but the whitewash will be of considerable lienefit, and when
"whitewash is used, some carbolic emulsion, sucli as ci-ude oil or some-
thing of the kind sliould l)e applied in whitewash, say half a gallon to
a barrel of Avhitewasli. The odor seems to keep them away to some
extent. Ordinai'il\- in ordiai'ds wliere weeds and grass ai-e allowed
to grow close to the ti'ecs. y(Mi will find mere borers, as this otters a
hiding place for the beetles in the daytime and tlu\v deposit their eggs
unmolested. Weeds should be kept down.
Q. Is that beetle foiuid wvy much in this state?
A. Yes, that beetle (tlu^ llat-headed borer) has been known in
IXJUUIOrS ORCHARD INSECTS 131
the state since ]803 or ISO-t. As from time to time new orchards were
set out — more young trees — more reports have come in. A numl)er
of people who attended the recent short course at the 0. A. C. spoke of
damage caused by this species.
Q. What sections are worst?
A. I do not know that any one section is worse than anotlier.
The majority of reports have come from the Willamette Valley.
Q. Do you have any reports of the round-headed borer?
A. The round-headed species, as far as we know, do not exist in
this state at the present time. The flat-headed l)orer is the one we are
discussing now.
Q. Have you found that these beetles work where ground is first
cleared ?
A. Well, I would not think so. except in cases Avhere a young
orchard adjoins an old orchard. I would not recommend raising
nursery stock near an infested orchard beca'use it affords abundant
feeding ground for the beetles.
Q. About what age do trees become immune?
A. They will never become immune. The borers seem to start
work in this state when the trees are a])out two or three years old and
that Avould indicate to me that it is about the time the trees are set out.
Q. That beetle has done a lot of damage in the East, has it not?
A. Not this particular one. It has been known to cause a little
damage from time to time. The round-headed borer in some seasons
works in nurseries so bad as to destroy half the trees. In one case
a man found 30 beetles in one tree (in an old tree in an orchard).
Q. What would be the objection to using tar paper?
A. There have been reports from those who have tried it that it
causes the death of the trees; others say that it does not damage them.
To be on the safe side, we do not recommend tar paper.
Q. How high should the paper be?
A. As high as the first limb ; 15 or 18 inches from the ground.
Put some whitewash on above that for a way and the beetle should
not attack them, as they would not go through the paper.
There are a numl^er of insects which work upon the leaves of the
apple ; one of those, known as the apple tingis, gets on the under side
of the leaves, and when very abundant do considerable damage by
causing the loss of vitality. In appearance they are flat and nearly as
broad as long. Under a hand lens the wings appear like fine lace.
Those insects are some'vvhat hard to control, but ordinarily can be
kept in check with an application of what is known as black leaf to-
bacco spray, and applied about one to 50.
132 AI'I'LE GKOWINfi I.\ 'JIIK I'ACIFIC .NOltTII WKST
Plant Lice on the Apple.
While there may be a few other species of plant lice attackiiifr the
apple in Oregon, only the included species seem to be causing any
serious damage. At least two of these are known to attack both the
apple and the pear, and the same remedies Avill apply on both kinds
of trees.
Green Apple Aphis.
This apple pest lives entirely npon the apple, pear and related
plants and does not migrate to grasses, woods and vegetables, as do
probably the following species. The eggs are deposited in the fall
upon the young shoots of the trees and water sprouts, the latter being
the favorite. The eggs hatch the following spring into small green
lice, which are known as the stem mothers. Upon hatching they go
to the tender l)uds, where they feed and develop into mature forms.
The spring forms and all following generations of the summer months
are females which produce living young instead of eggs. The first
generation are all wingless, but later in the spring many lice appear
and these migrate to other trees, where they start new colonies,
mostly wingless. During October and November males and egg-laying
females are produced, and the females lay the eggs which are to carry
the insects through the winter. When tirst laid the eggs are green,
but they soon change to a shiny black. The unwinged females are
light greenish in color. Mnth black honey tubes and dusky atennae.
The winged females, which are the majority forms, are greenish in
color with a head and wing-bearing portion of the liody lilack.
Remedies.
These arc ])roperly discussed \uidor early spring, winter and
summer sprays. Winter or early spring sprays: Lime-sulphur used,
winter strength (1-U) or 1-12) will undou])tedly kill many of the egg.s,
but to get the l)est results, this application should be made just as
the buds are turning green. At that time most of the eggs will have
hatched and the young are more easily killed than -avo the eggs.
Black leaf, diluted one gallon to 40 gallons of the s])ray. nia\- also be
added if tlu^ lime-sulpliur does not seem entirely efficient or it can be
diluted Avith water instead.
Summer Sprays. — No delinite (hite or tinu' i-an he given for these
sprays, and tlie only recommendation that can lie made is to spray
when the lice become abundant. HIack leaf seems to be the most
IXJUKIOL'S OKC'lIAKl) INSKCTS
133
favored spray at this time, and when applied one to 60 seems to be
thoroughly efficient. Black leaf "40," which is supposed to be a
concentrated form of l)lack leaf, is now recommended in place of the
black leaf. Kerosene emulsion, containing 6 to 7 per cent of oil. is
probably as efficient as black leaf and is cheaper, but needs more time
and care in preparation. When used it should be properly made and
thoroughly emulsified. Since these species cause the leaves to curl
.and is protected by them, the best results are obtained by spraying
early, before the leaves curl badly, or, if later, the spray should De
iipplied thoroughly and with considerable force to reach the lice.
The Brown Apple Aphis.
From observations and reports it would seem that next to the
woolly aphis the brown apple aphis is. perhaps, the most serious plant
louse attacking the apple in Oregon. This species not only feeds upon
the leaves and the new growth, but also attacks the fruit spurs and
fruit, the greatest damage being done to the spurs. Most of the at-
tacks, however, are confined to the inner portions of the tree.
Dr. Britton states that the eggs are smaller than those of the
green apple aphis, and one often needs to hunt carefully in order to
find them at all, as they are hidden around the buds, sometimes partly
Orchard, near Medford, Rogue River Valley, Oregon.
134 APPLE GROWIXG IX TIIK PACIKIC NORTHWEST
iiiidci' Ihe sealos. In Oregon, observntioiis liavc led us lo Ix-lievo that
the hi'owii apple aphis sometimes lays nimicroiis eggs on the young
shoots, among those of the green aphis and that the eggs cannot be
readily separated. The eggs of both species hatch at the same time in
the spring and the young can easily be separated before they have
grown mneli. Hatching begins jnst before the buds open. The young
lice crawl into the expanding buds and feed upon the l)lossoms and
young fruit. 'ITiese are the stem mothers and are wingless. Later
generations become winged and migrate to some unknoAvn summer
food plant, but not until very serious damage has been don(^ to the
fruit, as well as to the fruit spurs. In the spring ])oth the winged and
the wingless forms are brownish red with a yellowish tinge. The
■winged forms, however, of both spring and fall have black heads and
that portion of the body to which the wings are attached is also black.
In the fall both forms are rosy red with a greenish yellow tinge. The
same sprays which are used for the green apple aphis also apply to
these species.
The Woolly Apple Aphis.
(Schizonoura lanigora.) — This species is not ordinarily a leaf
feeder but may, when abundant, be found on the stems of the leaves
and on young apples. The feeding in general is confined to the bark
of the parts above the ground, or on the roots below the surface of the
soil. At first glance a number of these lice feeding together in an old
sear or on a young twig appear like a small mass of moving cotton.
Upon close inspection this mass will be found to contain numerous
individuals covered with white waxy substance which take the shape
of threads, and which serve as more or less protection to the louse,
although they can be easily rubbed off, thus exposing the purplish
brown body to view in each grou]). In the fall of the year, winged
individuals may be noticed. The wings aj^pear dusky and project
straight out from the cotton masses.
There is a wide diffci-cnct^ Ix'tween the life history of this and the
preceding species, in that some of the lice attack the roots, as well as
the u]')])er pt)rti()n of the tree. Professor C. P. Gillette, of Colorado,
has shown thai in the spring there may be four means of starting the
summer infection. First, by the individuals which have lived over
Avinter in the parts above ground and hidden in old wounds or scars;
second, by the early hatching of llie stem mothers; third, by the numer-
ous immature lice which may liil)ernate over winter at the base of the
tree near the surface of the ground ; fourth, by the overAvintering half-
grown individuals Avhieh spend the winter on the i-oots and migrate
IXJURIOUS ORCHARD INSECTS 135
upward in the spring. These conditions are l)ronght abont in a very
natural manner, and vary in different climates, as the regular habit
of the insect would be to produce eggs in the fall, as do other species
of his family. Those individuals which are able to live over in the old
sears and at the base of the tree are considerably protected from cold,
as are also those about the roots. The root form probably instinctively
seeks for the roots, both ])ecause of the protection from the enemy and
because of the better feeding conditions. The lice which appear in the
spring and through the summer are all wingless and the winged forms
do not appear again until in the fall. Anyone who has observed badly
injured trees can hardly fail to see that the many knots or swellings
formed on the roots, trunks and limbs, are not natural, and that the
vitality of the tree must ])e greatly reduced. The root injury is per-
haps the most serious, as the roots often die and become decayed, thus
Aveakening the support of the tree, and partially cutting off the food
supply. The remedies should begin with a thorough inspection of the
nursery stock when received ; any clots of dirt hanging to the roots
should be washed off. and if any lice are found either in the roots or
top, the stock should be thoroughly sprayed with or dipped into lime-
sulphur. On parts attacked above ground any spray which will kill
other plant lice will also destroy this species.
In conclusion I wish to say just a few words about bee-keeping
in connection with fertilization of the orchard. In order to get good
fruit you must have cross fertilization. In order to carry the pollen
from one flow^er to another you must depend upon the insects largely
to do it. I think it is only a cpiestion of time when every well-kept
orchard will have one or more hives of bees. We have at the college
for the first time a department of apiculture in connection with
orcharding as well as keeping bees for profit.
The Codling Moth
Professor A. B. Cordley. of the Oregon Aorieultural College.
CUE ver,y faet that so many have come out tonight to listen to a
talk on sueli a dry and nnintcn^esting subject as the eodling motli
certainly speaks well of the interest in the subject of horticulture, and
that argues well for your future success. I do not know whethei-
there is any phase of the sul)ject that is more interesting than the
consideration of the various pests, and it has been my fortune or mis-
fortune for the past 15 years to be brought face to face and hand to
hand with the problem until I see pests in all directions.
1 suppose, however, that in taking up any line of work we Amer-
icans realize that we must take the bad phase with the good, and
really, in a sense. I suppose it is the spirit and energy Avith Avhich we
go at the control or the removing of an unfavorable condition that
makes us so generally successful.
I suppose the first topic that you will be interested in regarding
the codling moth will be that feature that is sometimes brought up by
the various real estate agents that the codling moth is not so likely to
be present in stmie localities as in others, or that some particular region
is likely to be immune from this insect.
It has been my experience the past 15 years in this state, from the
fruit-growing standpoint, that it is a region that is immune from the
codling moth to a certain extent, but not enough to justify anyone to
advertise this in reference to growing apples. The codling moth is a
cosmopolitan pest. It came to us from the Mediterranean i-cgions. It is
a pest in all a])ple-growing sections wherever the apple is grown in a
commercial way, from South Africa to Southern Siberia and from
Australia to Nova Scotia, and we would naturally find it within the
borders of Oregon. A region that would be absolutely immune from
the codling moth would not ])e possible. It is not a fact because it is
not true. I do not mean to say that in all i-cgions of the state that
insect will cause the same proportion of damage to the fruit, because
that is not true. Tlie advantages of some localities arise from climatic
conditions. We demonstrated very conclusively that it is not likely to
be a serious jx'st where the evening Icmpcrntui-c in spi-ing drops below
60 degrees. Eggs are deposited moslly in tlie evening, and it is \evy
rarely that eggs are deposited wliere liie lemjierature is Ix'low (iO de-
THE CODLIXG JIOTII 137
grees. so wo are not likely to find that the ('()(irm<i' moth is as injurious
iis it is in the warnun' valleys; not even in the Willamette Valley
as it is in some other valleys in the state. In other words, wherever
we find the evening temperature early in spring ranging for a good por-
tion of the evening about 60 degrees, there is not the same amount of
injury to the fruit as in warmer climates.
That is about all there is to the immunity claim. The codling
moth is an insect known most widely, of course, as an apple pest, and
it destroys in a commercial sense anywhere from 5 to 10 per cent of the
fruit in orchards not properly cared for or properly sprayed. In the
Willamette Valley I presume today a very rough estimate of the injury
to an uncared for orchard is possibly about 35 per cent — some years
less, some years more; some orchards less, some more. I notice in
some of your old-time orchards it destroys from 75 to 100 per cent, but
not far from 35 per cent would be the average. It is an insect which
anyone going into the orchard business must be prepared to contend
with.
There is no line of industry that calls for more study or thought
than agriculture in general, and there is no particular branch of agri-
culture that recjuires more care and attention than horticulture, and
there are none of the problems of the horticulturist more involved
than those to keep the trees in good health and produce a crop free
from defect.
Therefore it is. I believe, that the more any orchardist can learn
of the history and habits of the various pests he has to fight, the better
success he will have in his warfare. I shall speak for a few moments
on the life history of the insect, so you can better wield the rod that
has the spray nozzle on it. It can be pictured as a circle. The codling
moth, like many other insects, passes through four stages: The egg,
the larva or worm, the pupa and the moth, and those four stages,
taken together, form the circle, the generation of brood, and since
that complete circle is finished or completed twice each year, from the
egg to the codling moth, it is said to be two-brooded. There are two
complete circles or generations, hence th-e insect is two-brooded.
I wnll illustrate by slides the various stages of the insect. The
larva or worm is about three-fourths of an inch long when fully
grown, and of a pinkish color. In the fall these larvae leave the fruit
and seek some place in which to pass the winter, and it makes no differ-
ence whether we are in the south, where the codling moth is three-
brooded, or w^hether we are in the northeastern part of the United States,
where it is one-brooded, or in Oregon, where it is two-brooded. It has
alwaj^s wintered in this state. It seeks some secluded spot under the
bark, or in the crevices about warehouses or storehouses, anvwhere
138
A1'PI.K GI{0\VI.\(i I.\ Tin-: PACIFIC NOUTUWKST
Oi'chard, near The Dalles, Oregon.
that it can find shelter for winter, and there spins a little white silken
cocoon, in whidi it passes the winter. If yon go into yonr oreliard
and earefnlly search nnder the ])ark (in most of them yon will not
have to search very carefully), you will likely find under some of the
scales these silken white cocoons, but yon Avill not find the insect this
time of the year. It will 1)e in the cocoon, Init it Avill s1ill \)o in the
larva or worm form. It will remain in that condition for some time.
I will not go into details right now.
Later the larva changes to the pu}ia. and then to the moth. Xow
in a general way w(> may say it will remain under the bark, depending
upon the climatic conditions, until late in February or possibly until
April I. Then the larva changes from the pupa to a quiescent form in
which it remains for a variable length of time, depending n]ion climatic
conditions, but (ui the average about foui- weeks, and llien gives forth
the moth. Vou will never find one on the outside of the h;ii-k. '{"hey
will always go uiidei- to be ]U'otected from the inclemencies of the
weather.
in some niiacconntahle way. 1 supi):ise we entomolouists are i-e-
sponsible for the belief that there is a. direct relation between the time
Avhen these moths appear and the time Avlien the spray pump should be
started. AVe shall see later th.it this is not true. These moths nuiy
begin to appear as early as A|iril in. and they continue to appear up to
THE CODLIXO JIOTII
139
Young- apple orchard, Yakima Valley. Washington.
as late as the 10th of July. Hence it is that the relation between the
appearance of the moth and the time of starting the spray pump is not
a close one, for early moths in this state, that is, those which come cut
during the cold, rainy weather of spring, usually die without deposit-
ing eggs. It is only the later ones that are of any interest to us from an
economic standpoint. These which emerge from the 15th of June to the
15th of July deposit eggs. Rather than one should pay any attention to
the time at which the moths appear, I would suggest that it would be a
good plan for every orchardist. if possible, to become accpiainted with
the eggs of these insects and learn when they are deposited in their
particular locality. No one can tell you, because it varies with the
seasons and with the particular location of the orchard. At Cor-
vallis these eggs are deposited ordinarily not much before the 25th
of June, and from then on to possibly the middle of July. It used to
be stated that the eggs were deposited in the calyx of the apple. That
arose from the fact that a large proportion of the worms enter at that
point. Very, very few, indeed, of the eggs of the codling moth are
laid upon the fruit at all. They are laid upon the leaves, and the
young larvae at a certain time feed upon the leaves. If they would
continue to do so. I would bear with them Avith patience, but those
that are hatched upon the apple, or even hatched upon the leaf and
140 Al'l'I.K (jKOWI.NC in TllK I'ACIllC .NOKTIIWEST
by iniiii-ation finally reach the apple in search of some seehision tfr
protect them from their enemies, amount to about 35 per cent Avheii
they eiitei- the blossom at the calxx end.
This illustrates a very nice point that was brought out in our
experiments some years ago. There has l)een a question whether the
codling moth Mould live through the season if there was no fruit. It
has been suggested that in restricted localities, where there was a
practical failure of the fruit crop, it Avould be advisable to destroy
what few apples were on the trees. We tried it at Corvallis, experi-
menting Avith them all through one summer. In attempting to hatch
s(mie eggs upon leaves, we found that the worms began to feed
upon leaves after hatching, and I carried them nearly to matui-ity. Some
have bred them clear through the generation depending upon the
leaves. The first attack of the codling moth is often made upon the
side of the fruit, usually from 30 to 35 per cent.
Very shortly after the larva has hatched it travels all over the
fruit. Usually it enters at the calyx simply for the reason that it can
get better protection. It feeds immediately under the surface for
two or three days, and it then begins to bore toAvard the center of the
fruit. It spends from three to four weeks in the fruit, often less than
that, depending upon the Aveather. This represents the first attack
of the larva in the calyx 1)A' Avhich it enters the fruit. 11 pushes off
a crust which serves for a protection to the larA^a by preventing the
entrance of parasites to its door. It is rather an unsightly mar to the
fruit, but giA'Cs a good indication to the Avormy fruit, and really lie-
comes of some A'alue in attempting to cull it out when packing.
After becoming fully groAvn the larva bores through the core of
the apple, AAdiere it has been feeding, to the side of the fi'uit for the
purpose of emerging. It then builds a silken Aveb oA'er the entrance,
and goes back into the fruit and stays a couple of days, until it is
fully developed. Then it lea\'es the finiit and falls to the ground or
craAvls doAvn the branches seeking for some place under the scaly bark
in Avhich it can ])ui)ate. One of the old methods usually recom-
mended for conti-olling this insect Avas to pasture sheep and hogs in
the orchard to destroy the Avormy fruit, but this is only a A'ery
imperfect remedy. OAving to the fact that a very large proportion of the
larva do not fall to the ground, but seek pupating quarters in the
tree itself.
NoAV I will attem]it. if possible, to shoAV something of the relation
of the life liistoi-y and the methods that A\'e shall employ in spraying,
and I may sa\' at the licginiiing that thc'c are at least thi'cc avcH
defined mcthnds of sniaxiuLi' t'nr the codliiiM' moth. In iSTfi. I believe
THK conLixo irOTII 141
it "svas, Professor Cook, of the ]\[iehig'an College of Agriculture, Avho
recommended to some New York orchardist that he spray his trees
with jiaris green for the purpose of destroying canker worms. No
method of spraying for codling moth had been discovered by this
time, so this spraying was for an entirely ditferent insect. The or-
chardist followed Dr. Cook's directions, and noted in the fall that he
was comparatively free from the codling moth, and reported the con-
dition to the state meeting of the New York State Horticultural
Society. Professor Cook followed it up the next season and for
several years afterward, repeating the experiment, and found invari-
ably that the practice gave good results. Now Professor Cook, like
all entomologists of the time, thought the eggs were deposited in the
calyx, and that the larva all entered at that part, and that the only
Avay to kill the moth would be to spray at the particular time that
the eggs were being laid, and so he vStated in his publication, and
advised orchardists to spray early, immediately after the petals had
fallen, and that advice has been followed by Eastern orchardists and
entomologists ever since with remarkably good results. So you will
find the Eastern method consists of applying a mist-like spray just
after the time the petals have fallen.
When I came to this state, 15 years ago, most of the orchardists
of Oregon were following the Eastern method, and obtaining very
indefinite results. I remember speaking at a Farmers' Institute the
first winter I was here and the statement was made that it did not
give satisfactory results, and for several years I was at a loss to
find out why that w^as true. I saw it was true because in our experi-
ments at Corvallis we did not get satisfactory results in following
the Eastern methods. Then at Corvallis we found that under the
conditions we have here there is considerable difference where spring
comes rapidly and suddenly. Under such conditions the eggs of the
moth are deposited usually within a comparatively short time after
the petals have fallen. Here in the Willamette valley the blossoms
usually are all off by May 10. and it is very rare that eggs are deposited
before the lotn of June, and the larva does not begin to enter the fruit
until the 1st of July, and that suggested to me that we should sup-
plement the Eastern practice by late spraying, and upon trying that
method we obtained much better results.
Within the last four or five years Dr. Ball, of the Idaho Experi-
ment Station, and Professor ]\Iylauder, of the Washington station,
advised another method which gives most excellent conditions. It is
known as the one-spray method, and is exactly the same as recom-
mended by Professor Cook, of jNIichigau, with the exception that
Professors Ball and IMylander's methods of applying the spraj' are
142 applf: guowing ix tiik paciiic noictiiwk.st
M'ith ;i <i'r(';i1 deal nf I'oi-cc. jiiid ;ii)i)lyiri<i' it in the blossom. I'l'ofessor
]5;ill w;is fii'st !<» cjill jitlcnl ion 1o Ihc facl lliat the calyx of the apple
coiisisls of two cavities, hut that lliere is one cavity above the stamen
and anotlier Ixdow, and lie juade the further discovery that tlie larva
very largely feeds in the lowei- cavity, and if we apply the spray in
the form of a mist it is not effective, as it does not enter the lower
cavity and hence becomes valueless. He therefore suggested that the
spray should be applied with a great deal of force, with the idea of
breaking down and filling this cavity.
I am free to say that in our work at Corvallis we have not been
able to obtain as good results under our conditions, and T was very
much gratified in a way to receive substantiation of the i-esults that
have been obtained by the United States Department of Agriculture
in the East, because I just read the latest bulletin which has been
issued by the department, giving the tests of four orchards in the
East, and they find that the results are not as satisfactory. I attribute
the good results obtained by Ball and Mylander to the peculiar con-
ditions which are found in the semi-arid regions. Tender the condi-
tions in which we spray in this state there is no particular advantage
in following the one-spray method because we have to control by
spraying methods nu)re than the one pest. AVe have the moth, apple
scab and anthracnose and, if we must spray more than once, it is very
little added expense to add the arsenate of lead, the poison, to this.
The practice then Avhich we follow and which we recommend for
Western Oregon at least is to spray right after the blossoms fall Avith
the arsenate of lead. 2 pounds to 50 gallons of water and 50 gallons
of lime-sulphur solution, l)ecause therefore we make a combined spray
and a])ply directly after the blossoms have fallen. AVe could then
omit all further spraying until about the first of July, because there
is no need of making a spraying between the time the petals fall and
the time the larva begin to enter the fruit which is about tiie tirst of
July. That is the time you want to begin this supplenuMitary spraying
that is so valuable.
The whole theory for spraying for the codling moth is to have the
whole fruit covered with the spray so that the first meal taken by the
A'ouiig lai-va will be a poisonous one. If we could do this first spray-
ing thoi'oughly enough to desti-oy all ol' the larva of the lii'st genei'a-
tion, of course we would have none of the second, and no later spray-
ing would be necessary, but we havt^ found it impracticable to do this;
so about the first of August we malce still another spray of arsenate of
lead in watei- with the lime-sulplnu'; and if these applications have
been made thoroughly that will probabiy be all that is necessar.w
AYe found that tliree were all that wci'e necessar.y at Corvallis.
TIFK CODLTNC! ISFOTII 143
Questions and Answers.
Q. What is the remedy for the San Jose scale?
A. Spray with lime and sulphur in spring or fall.
Q. Does this apply to Hood River?
A. Yes, but they have other pests beside the codling moth, so
it is advisable to use the other spraj's.
Q. Do 3^ou start with a tine spray?
A. Personally, I recommend the mist or the briny spray. As a
matter of fact, when it comes to spraying for the codling moth, I think
it makes very little difference. It is a question of doing thorough Avork.
Q. What bearing has altitude on these pests?
A. I think it has no influence whatever. When you go into
an altitude that will affect pests, say below 60 degrees up to the first of
June, it would not be practical for fruit growing. I do not know any
place where apples can escape the codling moth.
Q. HoAV many pounds pressure are necessary for the pump?
A. 175 or 200 pounds for the driving spray. 125 to 150 Avill do
for the mist spray. 100 Avill do, but 3^ou Avill not get as good a spray.
Q. Does banding the trees for the purpose of collecting larva do
any good?
A. If I Avere to go into an old. neglected orchard and attempt
to bring it up I might practice banding for the first season, but it i&
not a practice that can be recommended because it is too expensive.
By spraying one can reduce the injury to less than 5 per cent, and it
hardly pays to go to the expense of banding. There are practically
no orchardists in the state Avho do it.
Q. Will you state again the proper time for the various sprays?
A. The first spray should be made Avithin a Aveek after the
petals fall. Use tAvo pounds of arsenate of lead to 50 gallons of
Avater and 50 gallons of diluted lime-sulphur solution.
Q. HoAV strong do you make the lime-sulphur solution?
A. If it is of 30 degree test dilute the one gallon to about 30 or
35 gallons of Avater. The second spray should be applied betAveen
the 25tli of June and the Lst of July. The third spray Avould be the
1st of August. A fourth spray may be used about the 1st of Septem-
ber. HoAvever, the value of the experiments made at Corvallis does
not seem to justify the fourth spray.
Q. What do you mean by spray testing?
A. We use a little instrument called a hydrometer, Avhich you
144 AiTi.h: (;i{()\vi.\(i ix thk pacific noktiiwkst
can obtain for 75 cents, to test the specific gravity of the liquid. If
on the scale it reads 30 degrees it is about a standard lime-sulphur
solution. In using the arsenate of lead with lime-sulphur solution
there is one condition that you want to guard against. When applied
on very hot days it causes some loss of fruit. It does not cause rust ;
at least, we have used lime-sulphur four seasons without having any
rust. Bordeaux mixture used with other mixtures is likely to cause
rust. In fact, the danger of this is so serious that I can hardl}^ recom-
mend that spray in the Willamette valley.
Q. Can you use any spray for the codling motii that is in a
mixture?
A. Yes ; you can use arsenate of lead and black weed spray.
That is a tobacco compound that can be used about 1 gallon to 60
gallons of water; say 60 to 75. The manufacturer of the black weed
has now put a still stronger solution on the market, the lilack weed 40,
but I have not tested that.
Q. If the season is backward and the petals late, would you then
use the second spray?
A. Yes; I do not believe the fall of the petals has anything to do
with the time that the moths lay their eggs. We usually find that the
petals are all off by the 10th of May at Corvallis. Very rarely indeed
does any egg-laying begin before the 25th of June.
Q. What make of spray nozzle is the best ?
A. I do not believe it makes much difference.
Q. Would you recommend one that Avould throw a mist?
A. I am frank to say that I like the mist spray. There is less
danger when you use a mist spray than when you use a heavy driving
spray.
Q. Would there be any advantage in spraying at the present
date ?
A. There is no l)enefit from the codling moth. There might l)e a
little advantage in si)raying for anthracnose at this time. I would
wait until spring.
Q. If a man has a large orchard, iiow much time will he have
after the petals fall?
A. Not over a Aveok to do good work.
Q. If one sprays in the fall foi- anthracnose is it necessary to
spray in the spring.
A. Yes, I think so. That l)rings up a question that is not fully
determined yet. The lime-sulphur when used in the spring is used
entirely for the apple-scab. That is a question that 1 am not prepared
to answer detinitely at the present time.
Q. Is there any danger of affecting llic t'l-uit in spi'aying with
poison ?
THE CODLING MOTH 145
A. No appreciable danger. You M-ould have such a small
amount of poison — two pounds of arsenate Avhich would represent
less than that in 50 gallons of water. There is no danger whatever.
Q. What elevation would be prohibitory in attempting to raise
apples ?
A. I do not know. It depends upon the region. There are parts
of the country where they raise apples at 4,000 or 5.000 feet elevation.
Q. Would that refer to the foothills of the Cascades?
A. I do not know. I Avould not want to say. Personally I am
inclined to think it depends upon your soil conditions rather than
upon the elevation.
Q. AVhen is the best time to spray for the San Jose scale?
A. Two seasons of the year. One would be right after the
leaves fall in the fall, and the other just before the buds start in the
spring. Preferably the latter. The San Jose scale is hardly an
orchard problem any more, it is so easily controlled. It cannot thrive
under good orchard' care.
Q. Did you say to spray for the apple scab before the apples
were picked?
A. That is a debated question. The apple scab starts at two
seasons of the year; one in the spring just about the time the apples
are forming ; and then after the dry season again in the fall ; that is,
when the fall rains begin. If we can control apple scab by spraying
in the fall after the rains begin, it will also control anthracnose. It
is a serious question in the fall. Now the question comes up again,
what will be the effect of spraying before the fruit is taken off? I
will say that we sprayed 50 acres this fall of the best Spitzenbergs in
the valley- with no detrimental effects, as far as the apples were con-
cerned, except they necessitated a little rubbing.
Q. How about the tent caterpillar? What do you do for them?
A. The best way to destroy them is to use the arsenical sprays ;
about two or three pounds of arsenate of lead to 50 gallons of water
when the larvae are small.
Q. Would there be any virtue in destroying the leaves under the
trees that are affected?
A. Yes, if one can plovv^ them in and keep them there so as not to
ploAv them up in the spring. That would be sufficient.
Q. Is there any virtue in harrowing the leaves in the spring so
that they might dry up ?
A. I do not know, but I do not believe so for this reason — ^that any
ground that is in condition to grow apples will have moisture enough
to germinate apple scab spores.
Q. If ploAved under in the fall, how long should they remain in the
spring?
A. Pretty well until the close of the rainy season.
Branch of apples from Tlu' Dalks (Oregon) district.
Apple Scab and Crown Gall
Prof. H. S. Jackson, of the OrcjLi'on AgricuUiii-nl Colleo-e.
I'PLE seal) is the most serious and most generally distrihuletl
fungous disease of the aj^ple known, and in the Xoiihwest is
particularly severe in favorable seasons west of the ('ascade moun-
tains. The summer spore stage of this disease develops on both foliage
and fruit. On the folijige the spots ai'e a1 first iiw re or less cireulai' in
outline, olive green or brown in color, becoming darkci" and irregnbif in
shape as they become ^nature. The Icjivcs ;ire fr(M|U('ntl\- m n-c or less
curled or wrinkled. When Ihc spots an^ .ibnndant. the leaves fall pre-
maturely, ronsidci'ablc dcroliation ni;iy lake pl.-icc when infestation is
abundant.
On the fruit 1he I'lingns |)rodnces more or less circular sp;)ts of a
greenish-bl.'ick colof. The \-ege1ative stage of the fungus devel(;i)s
under the cuticle of the apple i'l'iiit. linally ruptui'ing it ^y the elonga-
tion of the threads wliicli bejir the spores. The ruptuicd cuticle may
frefpiently be seen clinging as whitish meml)raneous shreds ;d)out t' e
edge of recently developed spots. As the spots become ilder all trace
of the fungus m;iy liecome oblitei'alel ;ind the oidy evidence of the-
foi'iiiei' sp(it is seen ill a large or small rougli russeted sj) tt. Fi'e-
AI'IM.K SCAl! AM) CKOW.N CALL 147
(liu'iitly the fruit is distorted when iiuitnre as the I'esult of early scab
mfectioiis. AVhere seal) spots are abundant the fruit may become
eraeked. Scab in any degree of severity on the fruit renders it un-
sightly and unmarketable. The spores of the fungus are produced in
the spots on leaves or fruit in great abundance and are disseminated
by the wind spreading the disease to other leaves and fruit. One finds
the scab spots first appearing in the spring on the under side of leaves
on the lower branches. Spores produced in these spots are dissemi-
nated hy the wind and serve to spread the disease to the young fruit
and to other leaves. Several generations may thus occur during the
season.
The development of the scab fungus is found to be very much in-
fluenced by weather conditions. Moisture on the surface of leaves and
fruit is essential to the germination of the spores and the consequent
infection of the plant. On this account scab is found to spread most
rapidly in spring, early summer and late fall. The disease spreads
little, if any, during the dry season. The ^lycelium of the fungus
present on the leaves which fall to the ground in the fall does not
die, but develops in these leaves during the winter as a Saprophyte.
and in the spring produces spores quite different from those borne in
the spots on living leaves and fruit, both in the manner of formation
and in the shape and size. The s]>ores found in the spots on leaves
and fruit are one-celled, rarely two-celled, and are borne on the ends
of short threads, while the spores developed on the dead leaves in
spring are always distinctly two-celled and are borne in little cylin-
drical sacs called asci. A considerable number of these spores or sacs
are borne in a hollow more or less pear-shaped receptacle buried in the
tissues of the leaf. These receptacles containing the asci, known as
perithecia, project from the surface of the leaf when mature as little
black elevations. These are barely visible to the naked eye. At ma-
turity an opening appears in the projecting elevations. The asci
elongate through this opening and the spores are ejected forcibly, and,
wafted by currents of air, may be carried to the young leaves of the
apple, where they germinate and produce the first scab spots. This
spore stage of the fungus which develops on the fallen leaves is some-
times called the "sexual" or "perfect" stage. The stage which de-
velops on the living leaves and fruit is called the conidial or "summer
spore" stage. The sexual spores are disseminated about the time the
blossoms open. So far as is known, all pi'imary infection of the leaves
and fruit in the spring takes place following the disseminations of the
sexual spores. As with all fungous diseases of this nature, treatment
must be preventive rather than curative. The method of treatment
is dependent on the life history of the fungus causing the disease. Since
148 Al'I'LK GROWIX(; IX THE I'ACIl IC NOKTIIWKST
the fungus winters over on the fallen leaves, it would be advisable to
destro}' all such leaves l)efore blossoniin"; time. Tt has frequently been
rceonunended by patluilogisis to i)low tlie oi-chard early before the trees
blossom, so as to bury the leaves and thus reduce the primai'y infection.
Theoretically, the best way to destroy the leaves would l)e to rake and
l)urn them, but patliolog'ists have hesitated to make this j-ecommenda-
tion on the grounds of impracticability. I am informed t)y certain
Hood River growers that they would not consider it at all impractical
under their conditions to rake and burn the heaves.
In any case the trees should be given at least three sprayings dur-
ing the spring. The first application should be made as the l)lossoni
buds begin to separate in the cluster and show color ; the second should
be applied just after the petals fall, followed by a third application
10 days or two weeks later. Should the third application be followed
by prolonged rains, a fourth may be found profital)le. Formerly Bor-
deaux mixture was used almost entirely as a preventive of scab, but in
certain sections of this countr.y, notably under the climatic condition
prevalent in the Northwest, the injury from russeting has been so
severe as to make its use prohibitive. On this account lime-sulphur
has largely supplanted Bordeaux as a remedy for apple and pear scab.
The experience during the present season has shown that care must
be exercised in the use of lime-sulyjhur during hot weather. Consider-
able injury resulted in the Hood River valley wherever the third
spraying preceded very hot still weather. Under these conditions sun
scald normally present in slight amount on unsprayed trees, was very
much increased. A russeting similar to that produced by Bordeaux
mixture "was not uncommon. This is the first season that lime-sulphur
has produced any serious injury to fruit when used in the proper
strength. This injury, however, has not been general throughout the
state. No serious injury has been reported from the Willamette valley.
The season's experience leaves many growers, particularly those of
the Hood River, in doubt as to what spray to use. We caiuiot recom-
mend the use of the Bordeaux mixture. Lime-sulphur still i-emains-
the best remedy yet discovered for apple scab. On account of the
experience of the past season, however, the grower must use his judg-
nunit about nuiking the third application. In some seasons it would,
without (loul)t, be perfectly safe to omit it. but in seasons favoi';d)le to
the development of scab its omission might prove disastrous.
On account of the fact that scab develops rapidly in the fall and
new infections may appear on the I'ruit, we are ready to recomitiend
a fall spraying with summer strengtli lime-sulphur when the disease-
has not been held in control during the sunnner and thei'e is consid-
erable foliage infecti(»n, whicli. undei- favoi-able conditions, wmdd be-
aPPI.E SCAl". AM) CROWN GALL
143
V
>IV^'
''SK^^^O^
^>J
Truck gardening- and apple growing in tlie Walla Walla "Valley, Washington.
liable to spread to the fruit. The application should he made before
the fruit is picked and before the fall rains begin. This application,
while producing a slight deposit on the fruit, does not interfere with
the uniform coloring of the fruit in the case of red apples. However^
on account of the fact that a slight sediment is present, it is neces-
sary to wipe the fruit. Do not use the Bordeaux mixture at this time,
as it may collect in drops on the fruit and interfere with the uniform
coloring. A very valid objection to this application, however, is the
danger of knocking off the fruit during the spraying, and the fact
that where props are used abundantly it is impossible to drive be-
tween rows with a spray rig.
In any case, it is advisable to spray in the fall as soon as possi-
ble after the fruit is picked. This application is necessary to protect
the trees from anthracnose and will doubtless aid in the control of
scab. Either the Bordeaux mixture or the lime-sulphur may be used
in the winter strength. It is possible also that the dormant spray
150 AIMT.K GKOWI.Nf. IN TIIF; l'A( M U NOUTIIWKST
usually fippliod in the spring of the year may be of benefit in reducing
seal) liy preventing the proper pi'oduction of spores in the pustules
of the (lead leaves. On this jiccouni it is well to see that the ground
as wi'U ;is the tree is covered by sjiray.
It has ])een shown experimentally that scab may be satisfactorily
conti'ollcd by the fall and cai'ly spi'in<i' ai)plications. These sprayings,
together Avith the recommeiKhitions regarding burning or plowing
under the leaves are supplementary methods of control. The regular
spring sprayings on the foliage should iicnci' be omitted. It is im-
portant to note that lime-sulphur has udw been successfully used in
the state for four years, as a remedy for scab, .and for three years the
renuMly lias l)een used successfully in other parts of the country. The
present season is the first in which any serious injury has resulted
to the fruit and that having occurred only in the Hood River Valley
and vicinity. While it is admitted that there is plenty of chance for
further investigation, which will undoubtedly be continued, it is evi-
dent that lime-sulphur remains the best remedy so far discovered.
Crown Gall and Hairy Root.
There is, perhaps, no disease of the apple and other fruit trees con-
cerning which there has been as much discussion in recent years,
among plant pathologists, nurserymen and orchardists as the crown
gall and hairy root. The disease has long been known to attack nur-
sery stock in one form or another, and orchard trees of all sorts as
well as many of the small fruits. Recent investigations of this trouble
have shown that the disease as it occurs on its vari(uis host plants is
in many cases identical as to cause, and in nearly all cases evidently
closely related. The general character and virulence of the disease
are so variable that it is eonfusinu' to discuss it i?i all its i-elations at the
same time, so it has seemed best tonight to confine the remarks to the
disease as it occurs upon the apple. The apple was selected for discus-
sion because it was felt that a large proportion of the audience was. or
ought to be, particularly interested in this subject.
Various names have been applied to this disease among which
may be mentioned, hesides the naiiics previously given, the following:
"Root knot," ''root gall." "woolly knot." "tumors." "trunk kernel."
etc. Crown gall and hairy root are best known as occurring on nur-
sery stock or young trees. Several Forms of the disease are known,
including the following: Soft form of crown gall, hard form of crown
gall, simple form of hairy root, woolly knot form of hairy root, aerial
form of hairy root. The soft form of crown gall is found on seedlings,
grafted and budded ti'ees. and consists first of a soft, succulent
APPLE SCAB AXD CKOWX GALL 151
growth of eallous-like tissue, which is white in color on the surface.
As the galls mature the surface becomes dark brown in color or almost
black and the tissues often become quite hard, due to the formation of
woody tissues. The surface is Avriukled and convoluted, due to un-
equal growth. A bark is not formed and the galls usually decay at
the end of the season's growth.
The hard form of crown gall is found on older trees in the nur-
sery and orchard. At first they are similar to the soft galls, but soon
become woody and develop bark. They persist and continue to grow
slowh' from year to year. The color of the surface of mature galls
is similar to healthy bark. The simple form of hairy root is most
common on seedligs, but occur occasionally on grafted and budded
trees. In this form numerous roots are found growing at right angles
to the surface of the tap root or stem. They may occur scattered
or in tufts. These roots differ from normal fibrous roots in being
more succulent or of greater diameter. When dry they become
hair-like in appearance. The woolly knot form is found on older
seedlings or on grafted and budded trees. This form somewhat re-
sembles a case of hard crown gall which had developed an abundance
of the succulent roots described above from its surface.
The aerial form of hairy root, often called ''stem tumors," or
locally "trunk kernel," develops on branches and trunks of trees most
commonly in the orchard. At first they appear as smooth swellings,
which are rounded, but often irregular in outline. They later de-
velop on the inside an abundance of adventitious roots which break
through the bark, giving it a warty appearance. These roots do not
develop further than the surface of the tree, but morphologically are
very similar to the woolly knot form of hairy root, and if the branches
are cut off and placed in moist soil or sand will develop into typical
cases of woolly knot.
Recent investigations of the plant pathologists of the Department
of Agriculture have shown that both the crown gall and hairy root
forms of the disease are due to bacteria which have been isolated,
grown in pure culture and the typical disease produced by inoculation.
It has not yet been shown that the bacteria from both forms are the
same, or that one form may be produced by inoculating with the germ
of the other. The several forms of the disease which have been de-
scribed, however, are so nearly related morphologically that it is not
improbable that all are caused I)}' the same organism and are merely
forms of the same disease. At least, they may be so considered for
practical purposes.
Crown gall and hairy root develop on the trees in the nursery and
are the most serious diseases with which the nurservman has to con-
152 AI'l'I.K OKOWIXfi I.\ THK PACIFIC NORTHWEST
tend. ]\rany states have enacted laws prohibiting nurserymen from
selling infected stock, and since the diseases are everywhere present
in inirseries, these laws, where enforced, have caused a great loss to
the nurserymen. A great deal of value miglit ])c learned from a
detailed discussion of the disease as it occurs in the nursery, but
sufficient time is not available, and, since this is not primarily an
audience of nurserymen, I will discuss only the features which I be-
lieve will be of interest to the orchardist.
Crown gall and hairy root in all its forms develops, so far as is
known, only at wounds. Throughout all seedling nurseries in the
United States crown gall was found to be present in one-half per
cent of all trees and hairy root on one per cent. Since tliese seedlings
are either used for piece or whole root grafts, or as stock in which to
practice budding, it is seen that unless the nurseryman is careful to
use only healthy seedlings many grafted and budded trees are infested.
In root-grafted trees wounds are made at the lower end of the scion
piece and at the upper and lower ends of the root piece; since all
forms nuiy develop at wounds we found crown gall or hairy root
developing at these points — that is, at the great union either on the
scion or root piece and at the end of the root. Ninety per cent of the
galls formed in this way are found to develop from the lower end of
the scion piece at the graft union. On budded trees crown gall or
hairy root develops at the root tip where the tap root has been cut otf
and at the wound made in inserting the bud. The hairy root forms
are more abundant than the gall forms on the budded trees. The
disease on the whole develops more abundantlj^ on root-grafted trees
than on the budded trees.
Th crown gall forms are found to develop most al)undantly on
heavy soils while the hairy root forms may be more al)undant on light
soils. There has been a great difference of opinion regarding the
amount of damage resulting in orchard from planting diseased trees.
There liave l)een many reports of great losses to orchard trees due
to the action of crown gall and hairy root, many writers claiming
that diseased trees never come into profitable bearing. It is evident
that much confusion has resulted from the fact that the disease is very
serious in the orchard on some fruits and writers have assumed that
the same was true of the apple. It is also evident that other root
troubles, notably root rot, has l)een confused with crown gall. Care-
ful investigations have shown that much less injury has resulted in
the orchai'd frnm planting diseased trees than was supposed. I men-
tion these points not to encourage nurserymen to sell diseased trees,
nor the growei- to plant them, but to c(M'rect a prevalent idea and,
perhaps, to encourage those who have ali-eady jilaiited diseased trees.
Arri.K SCAH AM) CROWN (;AI,L 153
It is known, however, that some loss does occur on the apple in the
orchard w^hen diseased trees are planted. I know of several cases
where trees were evidently stunted b,y the growth of hairy root or
eroAvn gall on the roots. It has also been show^n that trees affected
Avith crown gall are more liable to die the first year or two after being
set in the orchard than healthy trees. The orchardist is urged to plant
only the healthiest trees obtainable. The initial cost of planting is so
small that it does not pay to take risks. If a tree becomes diseased in
an orchard during the first few years and the growth of the tree is
hindered, then it is best to replant with a healthy tree. If old trees
in an orchard are found infested and yet in good growing condition
and bearing good crops, it is best to let them alone and not attempt to
cut out the galls. If the trees are seriously affected by the growth of
the galls or hairy root, then the grower may try cutting out the galls,
disinfecting the surface and painting the wounds, but it is usually not
found to be successful.
If for any reason it should be thought necessary to plant infested
trees, then do not attempt to cut out the galls before planting. It
has been found that the young trees are most seriously injured by the
wounds formed in cutting out than by the galls. Stock should be care-
fully inspected to see that the nurseryman has not cut off the galls
before shipment and any trees showing evidence of such treatment
should be discarded. Fruit inspectors should use care in inspecting
stock, and make sure that all trees condemned are really affected with
crown gall or hairy root. All warts and pimples are not necessarily
crown gall and all fibrous roots are not necessarily hairy roots. There
is little or no danger of diseased trees in a shipment of nursery stock
causing infection in healthy stock, so there are no grounds for con-
demning a whole shipment because a few trees are infected. There
is little or no danger of the disease spreading seriously in the orchard.
Considerable attention has recently been given to investigations
of methods whereby the nurserymen may reduce the prevalence of the
disease in the nursery, and it is found that by practicing certain precau-
tions and special methods of nursery practice the trouble may be very
materially reduced. Nurserymen are urged to inform themselves of
these results, which may be found discussed in Bulletin No. 186 of
the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington, D. C.
Questions and Answers.
Q. When a tree is diseased with crown gall, and that tree is taken
out and a healthy tree planted, is the healthy tree liable to be infested?
154 APrr.K ghowing in tiii; pa( [mc .xoktiiwkst
A. N(». not ill the case of lln- jipplc 1 wisli to point out that my
remarks pertain to the apple alone. If it were a peaeli tree. I would
say that it would be likely to l)e infested.
Q. What protection ean the nurserymen take to prevent this?
A. Tie can ])e careful alxml using only healthy seedlings. It is
found that throughout all seedling nurseries in all parts of the United
States there is a normal develupmcnt of crcwii gall. It is generally
true that one-half of one per cent of seedlings are affected with the
crown-gall form, and one per cent with the hairy-root form. That is
one method. I have stated that disease occurs only at wounds, so any
reduction in the amount of wounds reduces the effect upon the trees in
the form of crown gall in the nursery. It is also found that disease is
more prevalent upon root-grafted trees than upon budded, for the rea-
son that less serious wounds are made. It is found that the disease
develops at the graft union, when it is not well made.
Q. Are irrigated trees more su])ject to this disease?
A. Not so far as we know.
Q. Are seedlings grown in France and otiier countries as sus-
ceptible as those grown in this country?
A. The question has often been raised as to whether the French
stock seedlings grown in France were more or less susceptible in
other countries. It is found that there is a slight difference in favor
of the American grown seedlings as far as crown aall is concerned.
Poultry in an Apple Orchard
By Professor II. L. lUaiicliard. (if the \Vasliiiiiit<ui State Experiment
Station, Puyallup. Washiiio-ton.
^y^ HAT I will talk aljout tonight is looically along lines connecting
\i/ poiiltrj^ culture with orcharding. Both are profitable lines of
farming if intelligently managed. I doubt very much if scien-
tific farming (and orcharding is farming) can be conducted along
any line in these times without poultry.
I have been interested in poultry culture for something like twenty-
tAvo or twenty-three years, and I have been studying and observing
during these years the work of those who were interested in the same
lines of investigation. About 12 years ago I had occasion to ascertain
as nearly as possible the amount of money that the State of Washington
was sending abroad for poultry and poultry ju-oduets. and learned that
we were sending out $300,000 annually. The farmers of the Middle
"West were getting the money that our own farmers should have had. Tn
a more recent investigation I learned that the State of Washington
paid out more than .$4,000,000 for poultry and poultry products. There
is a constant increase from year to year. We have many poultry
organi/ations throughout our state; practically every county in the
state has a poultry organization, and, notwithstanding that, and the
interest that is being taken in the poultry business, the demand is far
oustri])ping the supply year by year.
Too Much Money Goes East.
Admitting that beyond any question poultry culture can be profit-
ably cai'i'ied on in the Northwest, is it not a great mistake to allow
so much iiKiiicy to go out of our (iwii couiili'v for poultry and jionltry
pi'oducts:' In Oregon the conditions are the same. Lai-ge sums of
moiu^y for poultry and poultry products which your producing class
ought to have are being sent to Eastern ])i-odiic('rs. Why is this being
done? Simply because the impression prevails that there is not much
money in ])oultry ; that feed is too high; that there is sonu'thing the
matter with tliis country, notwithstanding the fact that <>ggs are 30,
40. ')0 and (iO cents per dozen at different seasons of the year. That
is two or three tinu\s as much as eggs ought to cost. Notwithstanding
that fact, we are told that tliere is not uiiicli in the luisincss -nothing
rorr.TRY ix ax apple orchard 157
in poultry. Some people will take poultry and make their hens net
them $3 and $4 a year, after paying their feed bill. That is being done
in a great many instances throughout the West. If one person can do
that, another can. Poultry culture is not so scientific that the average
person cannot undertake it without a fair hope of success.
My observation teaches me that the orchardist who has a flock of
poultry roaming through his orchard from one year's end to the
other has better apples than the man who has no poultry running in
his orchard. Everything points to the fact that poultry are profitable.
even if they do not lay at all. We have rhubarb growers over in our
country who keep cows, and they say that they can well atford to keep
them even if they do not get a drop of milk, just for the fertilizing-
elements available to use in the rhubarb patches.
Poultry Did the Fertilizing.
Not long ago I was in a community in Washington where orchard-
ing is extensively engaged in. I went up on an elevation on one side of
the man's farm and looked down upon a patch of his orchard that
looked green and healthy, whereas the rest of the orchard was wilted,
which showed that something was the matter. I asked the man how
it came to be that w^ay. It was in the dry season and the orchard
was in a dry locality. ]Most of the crops there had been affected b}'
the dry weather. He said: "You see the foliage is still green and
growing. There is where my poultry pens are." He had poultry in
his orchard covering a certain area. The poultry were Avorking. culti-
vating and fertilizing, and kept it in perfect growing condition in
spite of the dry weather. The rest of the orchard had no poultry.
There is no question about the fact that poultry are of great service in
the way of cultivating and maintaining the dust mulch in fruit or-
chards. In the valley where I live in Puyallup they are engaged
quite extensively in small fruits. I believe we have one of the largest
and strongest small fruit associations in the country. The berry
growers are becoming verj^ much interested in poultry. The fact is,
they do not pretend to do very much with berries unless they introduce
poultry. Poultry keep the weeds down and keep a dust mulch, and
save a great deal of labor. Many of these men have told me that it
would pay them to keep poultry even if they did not receive any eggs.
It is not necessary to keep poultry in an orchard at a loss. There
are a few things essential to egg production. In the first place one
must have the right kind of a hen. She must be healthy. You and
I can do a good day's work well even if we have not been feeling Avell
158
Al'I'l.K GROWING IX THE I'ACIFIC XOKTIIWEST
Preparing an orchard in tin- Roguu liivcr ^'alll■y I'ur smudging.
for a few days, but when one sees a hen moping around she is not
going to lay any eggs that day. She will barely eat enough to maintain
her existence, say nothing about eating enough to make eggs when in
that condition. It is surprising to me. as I pass through the country,
to see intelligent people Avho expect results from poultry when they
treat them the way many do. These people are the very ones to pro-
claim that poultry does not ])ay as a rule. One should l)e careful in
the handling of his poultry, the same as in the handling of his chil-
dren. He must be as careful of the health of his poultry as he is of
llic health of the members of his family. To do that he should first
gi\(' his attention to the m;itter of a sanitary cooj) foi- his poultry.
A Sanitary Coop.
What is a sanitary coop for chickens? A coop that is sanitary for
you and me. How many of us Avould be willing for the members of our
family to room there, sleep tliere and live there? Not many. A great
many p(>ople visit our experiment station. AVe have been there about
a yeai' and a liall'. Tlie first work in this j):Millry plant is to teach p'>ul-
rOULTUY IX AX APPLE ORCHARD
159
Night scene in an orchard in the Lewiston, Idalio, district. Smudge pots in operation.
try to p)eople from a practical standpoint ; teach them how to make a
living; how to make money from chickens. We went to work about
this matter .just as we would if we were on our farms. I have a farm
in Washington and have had a poultry plant for 20 years. I have
Jersey cattle and poultry, and each line of farming receives careful
attention just as though there was but one line. One should treat
poultry as an adjunct of his orchard work, and he will find it one of
the most profitable things he can possibly do. We tried to see .just
what we could do at the station last year with poultry, starting with
200 hens. We constructed a house that accommodated them nicely,
although the location was anything but desirable, being in a shot clay
ground ; it was a cold, muddy, stickj^, bad place for poultry or any
other stock six months in the year. We constructed a house to meet
our conditions. I advised our college against putting in a poultry
plant there after making three visits to the place. I regarded the
conditions so abominable that I would not be guilty of advising a
poultry plant being built there. They got one adverse report after
another, then they reminded me that the people should know that an
experiment station should be careful in selecting a site upon which
to construct its business in poultry, and know Avhat were favorable
160 APPLE GUOWING IX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
and iinfav()ral)le sites for the l)nsiness, and that it was just as impor-
tant to know this as anythinj"' else. AVe just had to make a success of
it, and we ])nilt onr honse. met the conditions. Tliis experiment has
tauglit )iie beyond any (piestion tliat it is not at all difficult to meet
most any adverse condition. Such conditions in poultry work can be
met better and easier than in any other line of farming.
Big Profit the First Year.
Starting- in with 250 pullets — the first pidlet year — T lurned into
our state treasury over $2200. It took a building 130 feet long by 12
feet wide to house these pullets. That is wdiat we call a double
decker. It would be folly for these pullets to be allowed to run out-
side under the conditions that existed there. We would not have
gotten an egg all winter for six or seven months in the year. People
laughed at and ridiculed us for putting in a poultry plant there, but
some of the same people are putting in a small plant on their farms.
I do not mean that these pullets laid eggs that brought $2200. The
net profit from these pullets was just $8.10 each, but we did the busi-
ness. That is for the eggs they laid, figuring eggs at the average price.
To get our start we bought young chickens or hatched out the most
of them. In all we had 1017 chicks, from which we selected these 250
pullets and put the others on the market, then when these pullets came
along in the following spring we hatched more chicks at the sta-
tion. We conducted our experiment along business lines.
We selected these 250 pullets and put them into the house when
they Avere Si/o months of age. When they were from 4 to 51/. months
old they began to lay. It does not take long to get returns from a flock
of pullets, but it takes one a good many years to get a revenue from
his orchard. One can get something from his poultry while his orchard
is growing. When the season came around we decided to sell day-old
chicks. We hatched out between 9000 and 10.000 and sold some
broilers and some chickens. The total proceeds from the sales of this
poultry brought us in a little over $2200 for the year's work. It is a
legitimate, straight business that any one who wants to interest himself
in poultry can adopt and follow.
Hens Grubstaked Him.
I was talking to some peopl(> in Ihe ceiiti-al part of the state not
long ago, where they "were setting out young orchards by the thousand
trees. They were Avondering what they were going to do wliile their
POULTRY IN AN APPLE ORCHARD 161
trees were growing and becoming productive. While we were talking
that evening, some one in the audience gave me his experience. He
had gotten to that point in the growing of his orchard where his credit
was gone. He could not buy flour or sugar at a store. He got word
some way that there was a flock of chickens for sale in the neighbor-
hood. He bought them and gave them good care. His credit was re-
stored and he has become an independent man. He said it surely would
have been impossible for him to have grown his orchard and owned it
until it became productive, had it not been for the poultry. If one
takes up poultry with his orchard work, he should do it right. Have a
system. Some people like the fancy side of poultry. I like it, but
have never followed it. I attend the shows, but do not show birds. I
attempt to raise and sell show birds, but I do not sell them because
they are show birds, but because they are birds that have been devel-
oped into extra good layers. They are utility stock, and that is the
line along which I have been working for 20 years. Profitable poultry,^
like a profitable dairy, must be developed. Unless one is willing to
become a student of his work and is willing to make a study of his
business, he wants to let farming alone. It is just as sensible for a
business man to trust all his business to somebody else and not study
it. not to keep himself posted and neglect his business, as it would be
for farmers to think they can farm and make money or make a living
with indifferent attention. Diversified farming is the most profitable
throughout the Northwest — say west of the Cascade Mountains. This
is fast developing into a country of homes, small farms, and to make
a living on a small farm one must practice diversified farming.
Soil Will Run Down.
The orchardist is perhaps an exception. We hear of fabulous
returns from one, two, three and five-acre orchards. It is possible
that a man can make a living with fruit without anything else, but if
one undertakes this he will find that his orchard will be productive for
a while, but after a few years it will become diseased and grow worse
every year.
About a year ago the State Horticulturist was invited to canvass
the neighborhood of Vancouver. There had been a great deal of
trouble about the prune orchards there. The orchardists were not
getting the usual quality of prunes. Their trees were becoming dis-
eased, and they did not know what the matter was. They wanted the
horticulturist to study conditions before the meeting in order to
advise them intelligently, and he did so. Had I been a prune farmer
near Vg,ncouver and received the lecture that this horticulturist gave
162 AI'IT.E GKOWIXG IN TirK rACIKIC XOKTIIWKST
these people I should have felt like going out of business, notwith-
standing the fact that just a few years before this they were growing
such an excellent quality of prunes and had such enormous crops.
Wliat was the matter? The real thing that brought on this trouble
more than all other things combined was a depleted fertility in the
soil. When their trees were from one-third to one-half grown they
bore luscious fruit and were heavily laden, but at the present time
the branches of the trees were interlocked so a team could hardlj' get
through them. The sun could hardly reach the ground because of the
close association of the trees, and the soil had become practically ex-
hausted of its fertility. I will venture to say that had those people
carried flocks of poultry in their orchards they would never had to
call in the lecturer of the State Horticultural Society. I know from
my own experience, as I have had an orchard for over 20 years. The
poultry have been running through half of it all that time, and have
strolled ever the other half, but have never been confined in it. A
person can go there any day and pick out the half where the poultry
were confined. One can pick out the apples from the trees where
the poultry is running.
Poultry is Indispensible.
Poultry is indispensible to an orchard. Orchardists are very apt
to neglect their soil, both in regard to cultivation and fertilization.
A horticulturist was delivering a lecture in a demonstration train in
Washington. He was talking to an audience about the size of this one,
and was explaining to them how it was that this was the driest year
ever experienced in the college orchard, still the finest fruit had been
produced. There were no poultry in the orchard, either. He said that
during the summer the orchard had been cultivated 17 times. Then
he said: "How many of you have cultivated your orchard 17 times
this year?" No one had anything to say. Then he asked: "How
many of you have cultivated your orchard once this year?" There
was not one hand raised. "Why," he said, "don't you ever cultivate
your orchards over here in Washington?" One man said, "Yes, we
cultivate them once in five years."
This horticulturist is of the opinion that just as fine and just as
high-priced apples can be produced in Western Washington and Oregon
as in the Wenatchee and Hood River Valleys. He was asked how he
was going to do it. He said : "Do it just the way the people do it there
It cannot be done in any other way." He said not to attempt to com-
pete with the people of the interior in growing red apples, because
if we did we would get beaten a little, but said we would h^ve the
POirr.TRY IX AX APPLE ORCHARD 163
advantage of being able to grow apples that they cannot, particularly in
growing the yellow apple. Grimes' Golden was recommended as one
of the best. Since this horticulturist delivered his lecture our Grange
organization and other fruit growers' associations have almost unani-
mously adopted with two or three other apples the Grimes' Golden.
The horticulturist recommended four varieties, but Grimes' Golden is
the leader.
Avoid Too Many Varieties.
The idea of our people is that the different communities work to-
gether and agree as to the varieties they should grow as a community,
and go in for these varieties. I think it a wise move. They have taken
a great deal of interest in the fact that these things can be done, and
the apple business of Western Washington will be revolutionized within
a very few years. If that policy will work there, it will work here.
If one is to be successful in his orchard work he must not neglect
the fertility of the soil, because that means serious trouble sooner or
later. Keeping poultry is one of the cheapest ways to do this. If one
has an orchard and will keep 25 hens on a half acre he will be aston-
ished inside of two or three years at the condition and quality of his
fruit and the condition of the trees. A very few chickens running
in an orchard are valuable. They will keep down the weeds and pests.
A great many pests live on the ground and the chickens destroy them.
The continual stirring of the soil during the dry season by poultry
is a valuable thing, and the keeping of poultry in an orchard is a labor-
saving institution.
In regard to the sanitary coop. When you see your neighbor
making a success of it you will see the difference and begin to keep one
yourself. There is a right and a wrong way to do this. I mentioned
a while ago that the poultry must be healthy. A sanitary coop in this
country is a coop with an open front facing the south, when it is pos-
sible to make it so. Sometimes it seems impossible. When it faces
the south it gets the sun into it. The old-fashioned coop used to be
stuck away somewhere over the pigpen or under the cowshed or in the
horsebarn or the woodshed. All of these places have been utilized as
chicken coops. In these coops it is dark even at midday when the
sun is shining. They are Glihy and not at all inviting, and a person
who undertakes to keep poultry under these conditions cannot expect
to derive very much profit from them. The poultry would not have
life enough to go around and scratch among the berry bushes and
fruit trees. They live just because they have to.
164 APPLE GUOWIXG TX THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Size of the Henhouse.
For 30 hens a lionse should ])e about 15 by 20 feet in size, if one
builds a single story house. If you build a double-story house it should
be 12 by 15 feet. Our experience leads us to believe that the double-
decker house of Western "Washington is the best that can be built. I
have tried this for the last 15 years on my farm, and my poultry have
not had a case of roup nor any contagious disease. The only thing
that kills our hens is that they lay so many eggs.
Poultry should have plenty of air. ]\Iake a house open without
a draft in it. People believe that this country demands a tight house.
An open house is indispensable here. This is my experience. Take a
damp climate as we have here, and if chickens are housed up tight
in a house with glass windows, conditions are anything but sanitary
for seven or eight months in the year. It is all unnecessary. Have a
room 15 feet one way and 12 feet deep. Let it face the south. Put
two open windows five feet square in the front of the building, and
tack on the outside two or three-inch poultry netting. On the inside
put a muslin curtain on a roller just the way we do in our dwellings,
and when storms come draw the curtain. The storm Avill bo kept out
and there is no draft, providing the three remaining walls of the coop
are absolutely tiglit. They cannot be too tight. In the ordinary
chicken-house the boards are nailed on when wet and green, and after
a while one can see a man as he walks back of the building. The
chickens gets into a draught and will have the roup in a .short time.
Make the back of tlie wall as tight as possible. We use ordinary ship-lap.
First put on building paper next to the studding, then side up over that.
That makes a tight wall. AVe do not build our houses for warmth.
All that poultry need is shelter. It never gets so cold here that poultry
will suffer. The open-front houses are warmer than the tight ones.
I am often asked bj'- people who visit our houses what we do when the
cold snaps come on. Our chickens have large combs and wattles and
we have never had a frosted comb on our farm. We have ]Minorcas
and gave this a fair trial. Two years ago this winter we had a flock
of Minorcas in a building on one side and another flock on the other
side. One side of the building was open and the other side tight.
The result was three or four days after a cold snap the Minorcas in
the tight room died. In the room provided with the open front and
just the muslin curtain there was not a frosted comb nor a frosted
wattle. By actual demonstration the muslin-curtained house was
proven to be the warmer.
POULTRY IX AX APPLE ORCHARD
165
Blanch of apples iiom Tne i^ailes (Oregon;, district.
Open-front House.
At Cornell University a year ago they found this condition by
use of a thermometer. The thermometer in the room with the open-
front indicated a higher temperature than in the room closed tight
with glass windows. Anyone can test this point without the use of a
thermometer. Go into one of the tight houses on a cold morning where
your chickens have been on the roost over night, then step into a room
where there is open front. Every time you will find that the room
166 APPLE GROWINfi IN TIIK PACIFIC NORTHWEST
witli the open front is Avarmer. If yoii want stock that is healthy and
•will bring returns, bnild a chicken house without glass windows. In
an open-front house with a basement you have summer conditions as
near as possible for poultry the year around. We haul in some sand
for the floor before we put up our building, then put in our posts.
We plan an earth floor for the basement; the floor above is of ordinary
flooring, the cheapest we can get. Our poultry do not go out into the
water at all. In the basement they wallow in the dust, dirt and sand
regardless of what the weather is outside, and it does not affect their
laying at all. In addition to this, if we want to keep our poultry in a
good, healthy condition we must see that they have exercise. There
is a great deal said about hopper feeding, that is. to keep your feed
before the chickens all the time. This is a mistake. Chickens should
get exercise by scratching. A man in our neighborhood who has a
berry orchard scatters the feed along among the canes of the berry
bushes, and the chickens work for the grain. Another man who has
no berry bushes hauls some coarse gravel and spreads it out to six
inches deep and the chicks scratch for it and get their exercise, another
man who uses straw keeps the floor covered from four to six inches deep
and lets the chicks scratch for grain.
Virility of Eggs.
We use a good many incubators. We took otf 58 hatches
and obesrved that there was a very low fertility and wondered what
the matter was. This year we have about 30 pens of poultry and every
egg as it is gathered is numbered so we will know where to trace it.
When putting these eggs into a machine we came to some that tested
clear, and we knew right where they came from. Then Ave inves-
tigated and saw how to account for it. One time last year Ave found
that practically all the eggs that tested clear came from one pen. I
made an investigation and found that that pen happened to be the
one in which we Avere carrying on another experiment Avithout anj'
scratching material for our poultry. We Avere hopper feeding, not
thinking for the time of the effect it might have upon these eggs that
Ave intended to use for incubation. To carry the test a little further
in that pen Ave changed to scratching material, and inside of 20 days
the test ran from 43 to 97 per cent of fertile eggs. That shoAvs Avhat
effect exercise has upon the fertility of eggs. See 1hat your poultry
get their required exercise.
rotr/ruY ix ax applk okciiard 167
Balanced Ration.
Poultry should be fed a balanced ration. We generally let the
chickens balance their own rations. They are peculiar in that respect.
Put a flock of chickens into a granary where there are four or five vari-
eties of grain and none of them will get sick. A hen will eat some corn,
some barley, some oats and wheat. She balances her own ration. If
one would be particular in balancing the rations of his animals, and
even for himself, there would be much less sickness in the world. I am
a great believer in a balanced ration all along the line. I believe
chickens require a balanced ration just the same as I believe our fruit
trees require a balanced fertilization. Unless they get it they will
have disease; they will be weak and lack vitality. Give them corn,
oats, wheat and other grain that make a variety.
I was in British Columbia a few years ago. There was an insti-
tute being held at a toAvn there. It was at the four corners, and the
merchant there, a shrewd business man. evidently doing well in his
business, happened to be delegated to entertain me. He said :
"I have a bone to pick with you."
I said: "All right; let's have it."
He said: "Well, my chickens don't lay any eggs."
I said: "I suppose I am to blame for it?"
"Well," he said, "to a certain extent."
"How do you figure that out?"
"I read something you said about feeding chickens and I am feed-
ing mine according to your directions and not getting an egg."
"Where are your chickens?"
Variety of Feed.
He said he was going to feed them then, so I went out with him.
He had something like 300 in a room 20 feet square. There was no
windows in the house at all. There was a door for the chicks to go
out and in, but it was dark inside. In front of this house was a shed
about the same size. I tried to diagnose his case. I looked inside
the house. It was furnished with the old-fashioned manner of
fixed perches, commencing Avay down and ending way up, all on a
slant like a stairway. The poultry would all fight for the upper
perch, and I am sure I am not far off when I say that the house had
not been cleaned out for three years. I watched him feed his chickens.
He took an ordinary scoop and scooped out oats from a barrel and just
literally covered the ground, which was entirely free from scratching
material. The chicks picked up a little, then tried to see if they could
168 APPLE GROWrXC, IX THE PACIFIC XOKTIIWEST
not fiiul soiiietliing' else; they did not seem in he I'avenously hiingrry.
There was not a drop of water anywhere.
Finally Ave brought up at the store. I said: "Now I will have
something to say to you. I have got a bone to pick with j-ou. 1
thought you followed the directions that I gave."
"Yes, I did."
"How do you make that out? "What were those directions?"
"You said feed the chickens corn, wheat and oats; give them
a variety."
"Yes, that is right. I would like to see you do it."
"Well, when that barrel of oats is gone I throw them some wheat."
Never attempt to feed wdieat, corn or oats straight. Mix the dif-
ferent grains and put them in the litter. Keep some dry bran in a
hopper, some beef scraps, shells and ground bone. If one has a dairy,
milk can be used as a substitute for beef scraps. By keeping a variety
before the fowls they will lay more eggs than if they are fed oats one
month, wheat another and corn another. Do not forget that. The
cheapest food that one can buy for his chickens is the one kind that
will make them produce eggs. One wants eggs at the right season of
the year to make money out of poultry, when they will bring a good
price, and there is no reason why one should not have them at that
time in this country.
System in the Work.
To do that one must adopt a system. How few people have a
system in their poultry work? They say they can hatch chickens
early; but Avhat is early? There is just as mucli difference in this as
in the man's idea about mixing the grain. At the experiment station
I find that people are getting a little wiser along this line of work.
They all want early chicks. One correspondent writes in and
wants chickens between the first and middle of May. Another tliinks
an early chicken means in Februarj^ One must have early chickens
to get fall and W'inter layers. Chickens hatched in February might
do worse than those hatched in May. "We find that April hatched
pullets of the Leghorn breed will begin laying in Septemebr and they
will lay continuously if properly housed and cared for, until molting
season the next year. "We have a flock of pullets at the station of the
"White Leghorn variety that were hatched on the 6tli day of November
last year. The first pullet laid her first egg on the 20th day of June.
There were 83 pullets and they were practically all laying bj'' the time
they were five months of age. At that age we culled out 23 pullets.
That left us 60 that were laying by the time they were five months old.
POII.TKY I.N A.N Al'l'LE ORCHARD 169
The 60 pullets before they were nine months of age laid an average
of 42 eggs each. At the price of eggs at the time these were laid they
w^onld pay for their feed bill np to the time they were a year and a half
old. This flock of pnllets laid nntil the last days of October, then they
were molting for abont two months. They have since got to laying in
good shape and the eggs from the first of January to the first of No-
vember next will be our profit from that flock of pullets. This is an
instance which simply required a system. These pullets were from a
flock that had been developed for their laying qualities. When we
use eggs this year for our incubators the culled pullets' eggs will not
be used at all. We will only select eggs from birds that laid by the
time they were five months of age. Practically all birds that lay at
that age are well matured. They are the largest and best appearing
birds in every way.
I am often asked how to select these pullets. That should be done
when they are five months old. Do not wait until they are six months.
W^e did not get an egg for six weeks from the 23 pullets Ave culled.
We do not use the trap nest. By mingling with the poultry one will
become acciuainted with his flocks, and it is not a difficult thing to
select culls at the age of five months.
Questions and Answers.
Q. At what age do these pullets become unprofital)le as layers?
A. Under our system we do not attempt to carry any hens over
beyond their pullet year, except those we desire to use in the breeding
pens. When a pullet that is hatchd in April is 18 months of age sne
will have laid something like 12 or 13 months, whereas the pullet or
the hen that is carried through the molting period will lay only eight
or nine months. To do her best she cannot lay to exceed that, so it is
more profitable to do business with pullets. When possible, we advise
the use of the two-year-old hen in a breeding pen. Do not make the
mistake of using immature birds in the breeding pen.
Renewing the Stock.
Q. What do you do with these 18-months-old birds ?
A. Dispose of all that we do not want for the market, and have
a flock of pullets on hand to take their place, that have been hatched
at a time so that when these enter the molt the new flock will be right
on hand to take their place, so as to get a continuous supply of eggs.
Do not undertake to hatch the Plymouth Eock, or the Ehode Island
Red, or the Orpington in April and expect to accomplish that thing.
170 Al'l'LK GKOWI.\(; I.\ TIIK PACIIK NOKTIIWKST
because it cannot be done. If one is doing business Avitli any of these
breeds belonging to the American class, he should do his hatching at
an earlier period, say for instance, not later than the first of April.
We prefer from the middle of February to the middle of ]\rareh for
these large breeds, and the objection in years gone by. the difficulties
in getting chickens hatched at that time because the hens would not
become broodj-, is entirely overcome by the use of incul)ators. ^Mj'
business differs a little from the fancier. I am paid a salary for some-
thing the fancier is not doing, consequently I am brought face to face
with the fancier noAv and then. I was addressing an audience about
the size of this at a banciuet in a town where there was a good show.
An Eastern judge complimented the l)irds verj^ highly. He said he had
judged all over the United States and that it was rarely that he
had judged a show that compared with this one ; he was greatly
surprised to find such high quality stock in the Northwest. There was
one speaker after another. I had had a little quarrel with this asso-
ciation before this. I am a member and we have our meetings and of
course do not agree on everything. I was quite surprised to receive
from the officials a season ticket to their show and six complimentaries.
In addition to that I was invited to speak at the banciuet. There
were speakers from California, many places in Oregon, British Co-
lumbia and Idaho. I guess the leading fanciers of the country were
there from the west coast. One would speak and throw a lot of
bouquets at the management of the show, then another would do the
same thing, until they began to feel pretty good. Finally the judge
gave an expression of his judgment regarding the birds. "We Avere
all glad to hear it. Then it happened to come my turn. I spoke and
threw all the boucpiets I had with me. I only had a few. Then all of
a sudden I said: "Now, ladies and gentlemen, can't we talk about
the serious side of poultry just a few minutes? As you are aware,
I am representing a different line of work from that which j^ou are
engaged in," and I went on and told them how it was that 12 years
ago I found our state was paying out $300,000 for poultry and products
per year, and last year we paid out over .$4,000,000. Twelve years ago
there were three little struggling poultry associations in the state. At
present nearly every county in the state has a flourishing association,
and the demand for eggs is greater, and eggs are higher and higher
year after year. Why is it that the poultry associations eannot relieve
the situation? The sooner these associations realize Ihat they are not
together the l)otter. We all like your bii-ds and want to encour-
age you all we can in ycur work, l)ut you must not forget
that there is one thing you are neglecting in the Northwest." "I
POULTKY IX AN APPLE ORCHARD 171
would like to know what that is," said the president of the association.
''You are not teaching the people how to make a living with poultry;
that is my husiness and I know you are not doing it." "We are."
"Well, you will have to prove it." Then he hegan to get a little
exasperated and said: "It seems to me we have had enough of this
kind of talk. Mr. Blanehard came here and is pitching right into us,
and I for one, would like to have him take his seat." I said I would
apologize for anything that I had said that was wrong, but I could
prove anything I had said, and I believed the audience agreed with
me, but if there was anyone person who objected to my speaking I
would take my seat, so I took it. Then the president got up and
literally skinned me. I sat there and had nothing more to say. He
accused us of most of all the sins and of trying to destroy the work of
the associations for the last 12 or 15 years by encouraging the mixing
of breeds in order to get a greater egg production. He left the impres-
sion that we were favoring that policy. Then the toastmaster, who was
a prominent attorney in the town, came to my rescue and explained
matters, and notAvithstanding the statement of the president that we
must have no more of this talk, they would not talk of anything else
foT two hours, and the result was I got a chance to make an explan-
ation to them that this was all wrong, because I candidly believed that
the greatest number of eggs are going to be laid by the pure-bred bird,
and I believed it was our duty to develop the pure breeds in the North-
west. I admit that one can cross two breeds and often get superior
layers, but there are objections to doing that, serious objections that
one does not encounter if he uses pure breeds. After the banquet this
man came to me and apologized. We have a right to claim a part of
this large amount of money that is sent abroad to the farmers of the
Middle West and other places, and here is a business right at our
fingers' ends, just waiting development. There is monej^ to be made.
There are millions of dollars being sent out of our state to which the
farmers and producers are entitled.
Keep One Breed.
Q. Do you advise one breed for a big orchard?
A. Yes, keep the pure breed. It depends upon the extent of the
poultry business. If one goes into the business and uses poultry as an
adjunct to his orchard, chiefly for eggs, from an economical standpoint
I would favor one breed.
Q. How deep do you dig the basement?
A. Not less than four feet ; preferably six or six and one-half.
Q. How is it drained?
172 APPLE GUOWIXG IN TIIK PACIIIC NOHTHWEST
A. "We like to build where the drainage is natural.
Q. IIow higli is the depth from the first story?
A. The front wall is 7 feet, the back wall is 5 feet.
Q. How do you like the Corning system, about L500 in one build-
ing?
A. That method is all riglit, l)ut our experience is that in this
country we get a larger profit per fowl in small flocks.
Q. What is the best method to keep a hen from setting?
A. Do business with a non-setter. There are certain breeds that
rarely want to set. If one has tlie other ])reeds, he must have a good
stock of patience. The main point is not to permit the broody hen
to remain on the next over night. Our nests are so constructed that
when the eggs are gathered every evening they are closed up. We have
a little prison for -them where there are no roosts nor nesting ma-
terial, and Avhere they can be fed just as regularly as though they
were not broody. We find that, except perhaps in midsummer, it is
not at all difficult to break up the broody hen if prevented in some
way from remaining on the nest over night. If allowed to remain on
the nest one night there will be trouble, two nights, lots of trouble.
Incubation.
Can as strong chickens be hatched in an incubator as with
Q
a hen?
A
Q
A
Q
A
Yes.
What percentage ?
Last year out of 44 hatches we averaged 88Vi>-
What incubator do you use?
An Eastern make, capacity 240. We tried it last year in a
basement where conditions were very favorable. We tried this mois-
ture machine alongside of a different kind, making the conditions
to suit the latter, to determine the moisture needed for artifical in-
cubation. At the same time we set three or four hens, making their
nests on the ground. We noticed that the hens that steal their nests
generally bring in the best hatches. The moisture machine was all
through its hatching when the other macliine and the hens were begin-
ning their hatch. The chickens weighed more, and there was a larger
percentage of hatcli. By comparing one could readily see the differ-
ence in the flocks. Dead chicks in the sliell is the great bugbear of
artificial incubation. It is maintained that this is due to lack of
moisture. The second machine brought off just as good a percentage
of hatch, but one could tell tlie difference in the chickens.
', POULTRY IX AN APPLE ORCHARD 173
Brooding.
Q. Have you tried brooding without artifical heat?
A. To some extent successful. There is no question in my mind
but what this can be intelligently done. One must exercise a good
deal of common sense. One can brood chickens here in the country
where it is damp and chilly, but whether it is the best way is another
question. I would not attempt it in this country unless the brooders
are heated and the chickens allowed to run out in the daytime.
A lady called me up the other day and said she had some two-w^eeks-
old chickens and not one of them could walk straight. The trouble
was she had them in the kitchen and w^as giving them all the corn
meal and such feed they could eat. They had no exercise and their
feed was making them weak. The remedy was to give these chicks
more space and put in more sand for them to live on, and moisten
it a little once in a while and mix the food in. Do not feed chicks
until the third day. A man in Montana who heard that we were dis-
posing of day-old chicks wrote asking if it would be safe to ship
them that distance. I told him I w^ould like to make the experiment,
and if he would send in the order I would make the shipment, and
he did not need to pay for anything he did not get. I thought he
would order 50. Instead he ordered 1000. We hatched out a thous-
and, and. to make good for those that might drop out on the way, I
put in 46, or a total of 1046. I asked if he would please report what
condition they were in. When he wrote he said: "One died on the
way." These chicks were four days old without drink or food.
Have you ever killed a chick hatched by a hen at the expiration of
the first day and noted what she has been feeding it ? You will find
very little in its crop but sand, rock or grit. A hen is not in a hurry
to take a chicken off the nest. Many times it will be the third day.
We get some of these lessons very naturally. The first feed we give
our young chickens when we hatch them in the incubator is sand and
drink. Give pure water. If you wish you can mix in sand and some
hard-boiled eggs, or some bread crumbs or something of that kind, but
be sure they get sand and they will escape many diseases.
Colony Houses.
Q. Do you recommend colony houses in an orchard ?
A. I would have the houses distributed a few hundred feet apart.
It depends somewhat upon the breed of chickens one keeps in a
house as to whether or not the flocks should be fenced of¥. If the
174 APPLE GROWING I.\ TIIK PACIFIC XOKTIIWEST
coops are arranged 200 or 300 feet apart there will not be much
mixing.
Q. What do you think of the Philo system?
A. It is all right. Whether it is practical, you must decide.
Philo is an experienced poultryman, and what he can do with poultry
perhaps you cannot. I might take his system and become disappointed.
I do not think it is practical in an orchard.
Q. What was the average record of your 250 hens?
A. One hundred and seventy-seven eggs.
Q. How much land have you?
A. The land the building sets on. Our building is 130 feet long.
We have it divided into eight rooms, leaving a feed room ten feet wide.
The roosting rooms are 15 feet. There are 130 feet on either side of
the building, a runway for each flock 20x50.
Q. What was the cost of feed per year?
A. For 18 months it was a little under $2.
Q. Wliat was the cost of raising them until 12 months old?
A. Under our system we have a hatch of chickens, say 100. We
•conclude that one-half of them are going to be cockerels and manage
our business in such a way that when these cockerels are disposed of
in the market the proceeds from them will have paid the feed bill of
the pullets up to the time they commence laying, at about 5 months of
age.
Q. When would you sell the Leghorn cockerels?
A. At 8 weeks of age.
Q. What do you get?
A. One can often get from 25 to 35 cents per pound. They will
Vv^eigh one and one-half pounds at 8 weeks.
Q. Do you line breed ?
A. Yes.
Line Breeding.
Q. Line breeding is what?
A. Line breeding is breeding from one family, just like the
-crowned heads of Europe. Take the pullets that you get from your
pens that you now have and mate them to the male that you now have,
then mate your hens with your cockerels from this year's hatch. Do
not mate the cockerels of this j^ear's hatch with the pullets. That is a
mistake that is being made ])y many people.
Q. HoAv do you do the next year, the reverse?
A. There is a system by which to avoid what is called inbreeding,
yet you keep bi-ceding in lino coiitinuously. In mating your fowls
176
APPLE GRO\VI.\(i I.\ TIIK PACII'IC NORTHWEST
this year, if you mate up birds from the same flocks, you are making
s. mistake. Some people can do that, but it requires skill. Some of
the finest show birds in the country are secured in that way. l)ut for
■utility purposes we do not attempt it.
Q. What breed do you favor?
A. White Leghorns, AVhite Plymouth Rocks and Rhode island
Reds.
t-^AitaP^^i- I'^c,
A Pair of Ortloy VearliiiKS.
Packing Apples
Prof. Cluis. A. Cole, of the Oregon Agricultural College.
y^^Y talk tonight will be along the line of handling and packing
\M^ apples, especially about packing apples. T have had quite a little
experience in handling classes in packing and I kiu^w just what a
person is up against when he attempts to demonstrate apple packing.
In my packing schools I have one assistant to every ten students. It
keeps -US busy seeing to what they are doing. Apple packing is an
art or science just as much as painting pictures.
I have come to the conclusion that the "Willamette Valley has the
worst bunch of packers in the United States. In packing apples in
boxes they do not seem to understand that they must pack one size
of apples in one box and not put in everything in the orchard and try
to work the small apples off. You get a little price for little apples.
The price that you get for your product is going to depend on
just how you put it on the market and the appearance of the box.
You would never think of buying a box with finger prints on the side
of it, or one that had little apples mixed in with big ones, or lacked
half an inch of being full. You would not think of taking that box
when you could get one packed as it ought to be. If we are going
to put apples on the market and get a high price we must use the best
methods. I have seen packs from all over the United States and
Canada and it is interesting to study them.
If you are going to put up a first class pack you must have first
class equipment. When I say first class equipment for packing apples,
this does not begin at the packing house. It begins in the orchard
with the pickers. If you get a bunch of careless pickers that throw
the apples around and bruise them, when they come into the packing
house, it matters not how expert your packers are, they cannot put up
a respectable looking box. If the apples are bruised they are going
to show, l^ruises will show on the NewtoAvn Pippin in a very few
hours. If you do not have a good packing crew and the proper
equipment you cannot expect to get first class returns.
I will have some slides a little later showing some of the pack-
ing apparatus and the method of hauling apples into the packing
shed.
First you want a good ladder, a light ladder that you can move
around the tree. You want some picking ])uckets that a man can
PACKING APPLES 179
handle. You do not want one that will hold half a bushel or a gallon.
I use a three-gallon pail. You want to use a good substantial tin
pail, a solid one with a hook on the bale that you can hang onto the
branch. You want an orchard box that this bucket will fit down
into. You want to prevent the apples from bouncing around on
each other and you can't if you use a wide mouthed bucket that can't
be lowered down into the box and emptied by placing one hand over
the mouth, turning the bucket over on its side and allowing the apples
to roll out gently.
We do not recommend patent pickers. Some of these pickers
reach up and scratch off the apples. You don't want to use bags,
bottomless or any other kind. When you get down to picking apples
you have to be content with putting them in by hand. You need a
good wagon, a wagon that is broad. Leave your packing boxes in the
packing shed and use your field boxes. I nail a cleat on my field box
and saw a hand hole in the side. This cleat has a special purpose.
When the field box is set on top of another this cleat prevents mashing
the apples. When one box sets down on top of the other the circula-
- tion of air is cut off, and where the air can 't circulate the fruit is going
to ripen up rapidly, so this cleat also affords good ventilation.
It is necessary to have a first class packing shed. There are very
few in the state. A great many of the fruit growing sections have
been developed by men who put every cent they had into 30 or 40
acres of land and were not able to build packing sheds. They depend
on a barn in which to pack their apples. If you go over the various
orchards you will find that these old sheds are beginning to disappear,
and modern houses taking their places. In packing apples if the cold
weather sets in, even two or three degrees above freezing, it will be
necessary to have the packers protected from the cold, as it is slow
work packing with cold fingers. You also want a house that can be
ventilated, or one you can keep cool during the warm weather. When
it gets late in the season you can't see to pack apples in the early
morning or in the late afternoon. If possible you should light the
packing house with electric lights. This will insure better packs and
longer hours. About the location. It should be located close to the
railroad or right on the railroad if one runs through your place. If
not, close to a public road. Some are so fortunately located that
they can put the packing house in the middle of the field. Some have
to go nearly a quarter of a mile to get to the packing house.
In equipping a packing house the first thing we look for. of course,
is a machine for making boxes. I just use a common table with cleats
nailed on the top of it. You can buy a box machine. A great many
are used in California. I use a common table Avith a couple of cleats
180 Apn.i: cHowixo i.v tiik pacii ic NouTinvEsx
nailed on it. If I am using the California special, I put on the outside
cleats so they measure 22 inches and put the ends of the boxes up
against the inside of these cleats, and tlu'ii nail cleats on the inside
of the ends. This leaves a groove to hold one end of the box. Nail
on a side using four nails. Turn the box over and nail the bottom
on. It is necessary to hold the box steady while driving these nails
in. I use a stripper. This is a piece of tin ])uilt up in the shape of a
box with little grooves cut in it. It is fastened on to a carrying box.
It looks like a wooden suit case and can ])e carried around with you.
I got this from Hamilton & Co., of California. The price is $10.00.
The fellows who have used it in factories say you pay for it in two
days' work in the time you save.
I suppose there are more arguments over the packing table than
any other one thing. I was demonstrating a packing table at the
Apple Show at Spokane year before last and some said that method
was as old as Noah's Ark. Some say you want to pack apples right
out of the orchard boxes. They pack right into the other boxes with-
out grading or sorting. If you have ever tried to put up a box of
apples out of one bushel you will know how^ uniform they get the
pack. It takes 8 bushels to put up one box of one size. I have seen
people pack a box out of a bushel. You can't do that and get your
apples uniform. I am going to* use a packing table until they show
me something better. What I mean by a packing table is just a
common table. I make one for my own use low enough so I won't
hit the boxes when I am working. This table is about 30x40 inches at
the top. I seldom make them square.
Directions for Making a Packing Table.
As I said before, I would l)uild the table so that tlie top will
measure 30x40 inches, and at such a height that one packer can just
touch the bottom of the box with the tips of the fingers when setting-
on the rack without having to bend over. The material necessary for
this table will be four planks one inch thick and seven inches wide.
The planks for the side will be 40 inches long, for the front 30 inches,
and the back 54 inches. The plank for the back extends out one foot
on each side, making a part of the box rack. Now take four 2x4s for
the legs. These should be cut so that when the table is put together
there will be no sharp corners sticking out to bruise the fruit. Now-
put this framework together. Cut another plank of the same width
and length of that used for the back of the table. This plank goes-
through under the table to form the i-eniainder of the liox rack, and
should !)(' placed so that Avlien an Orcu-oii Stand.-ii-d box is placed on
PACKING Al'l'LKS 181
the rack the loAver end will come to the center of it. This gives the
box a slope towards the packer so that when he places an apple it will
not roll. Now put on the top. I use common burlap, the kind that is
used to wrap furniture. This can be had from furnishing stores for
about 7 cents per pound. Tack on the burlap so that there is not over
one inch sag. If given much more slack than this it will hit the board
that forms part of the box rack as soon as a load of apples is put on.
If possible I nail a piece of old garden hose around the top to protect
the fruit from the edges of the planks. Be sure and brace the legs of
the table so there will be no danger of a breakdown. This table will
accommodate two packers.
We are now readj- to begin on the apple packing. I use two types
of boxes, one Oregon Standard and the California Special, the dimen-
sions of which are given in the "Table of Commercial Packs." These
boxes are wider than they are deep. Many people get it just the re-
verse. These are the two sizes of boxes we use in the packing house,
and they are used in the Hood River Valley exclusivly, in this valley
some and in the Rogue River Valley to some extent. Most people
there use the California Special, which measures a little different from
this. Some run 22 inches and 9% inches deep. They do not like the
Oregon box, I don't know why. Besides your two size boxes you
want two sizes of lining paper, two sheets to line each box, and two
sizes of layer paper and one size wrapping paper. This completes
your equipment unless j^ou want a complete set of stamps. I buy my
stamps made separately. I made a rack to hold the stamps and
stamp the number right over each stamp so I can reach in and pick
up a stamp without stopping to look at it. I have a stamp for the
name of the apple and for the tier.
No first class apple packer would ever think of packing apples
until they have been graded, wiped and culled. Some tell me this is
useless. If you just stop and think you will see it is impossible to put
up a good box of apples out of a lot that has never been graded or
culled. If yaur apples were all the same size without a worm hole
or a San Jose scale, or a bruise of any kind you could do this. They
are graded into extra fancy and orchard run. "We might call them
first and second. Grade them to two or three sizes. If you grade
them down to nearly the proper size of packing it will take too many
boxes. Put all 4%-tier and smaller in one box and all larger than
4%-tier in another box so that the packers w^ont have to do so much
assorting when packing. If you put too many sizes on the table the
packers will' bruise them in assorting. The advantage the table has
over the box is that it has a large surface and gives you a large num-
ber of apples to select from and you can put up a uniform pack. In
182 AI'IT.K GROWING IX TIIK PACIKIC NORTHWEST
culling YOU should only put the apples without a blemish on them in
the fancy stock. You don't want any wormy or scabby apples in the
second. In wiping the apples yon w^ant to wear gloves — just canvas
gloves. Get them with the woolly side out.
I have one or two slides showing my packing school and the ap-
paratus that we use. I want to show you wiiat a packer has to learn
to put up before he is an expert. Four weeks is a short time to teach
apple packing. It takes years of experience to make a good apple
packer. I have a friend that packed two or three seasons. He packed
nine boxes the first day and by the end of the season 45. If a man
packs 50 a day it is a good day's work. Some pack as high as 80 or
100 boxes a day. They pack so fast they could not see whether there
was a worm hole in an apple or not. Everything goes.
Table of Commercial Apple Packs.
No. apples
No. rows
No. layers
Apples
Box
Tier
Pack
in row
in width
in depth
in box
Stan.
..3
Str.
3
5-5
3
3
45
Spec.
...3
Str.
3
6-6
3
3
54
Spec.
..3
Str.
3
Y-7
3
3
63
Stan.
..311;
Dia.
2-2
4-4
31/2
4
64
Stan.
..3
Dia.
2-2
4-5
31/2
4
72
Stan.
..31/2
Dia.
2-2
5-5
31/2
4
80
Stan.
..31/0
Dia.
2-2
5-6
31/2
4
88
Spec.
..3
Dia.
2-2
6-6
31/2
4
96
Spec.
..31/2
Dia.
2-2
6-7
31/2
4
104
Spec.
..31/2
Dia.
2-2
7-7
31/2
4
112
Spec.
..31/2
Dia.
2-2
7-8
31/2
4
120
Spec.
..4
Str.
4
8-8
4
4
128
Spec.
..4
Str.
4
9-9
4
4
144
Stan.
..41/0
Dia.
3-2
6-6
41/2
5
150
Stan.
..41/2
Dia.
3-3
6-7
41/2
5
163
Stan,
..41/2
Dia.
3-2
7-7
41/2
5
175
Spec.
..41/2
Dia.
3-2
7-8
41/2
5
185
Spec.
..41/2
Dia.
3-2
8-8
41/2
5
200
When a standard box is used 96 and 112 arc packed four tier, and
200 wnll pack tive tier.
96, ]04, 112 and 320 may be classed as four tier apples, and 185
and 200 as five tier.
128 size long Spitz and Ben Davis may be packed 125 to the box.
PACKIXO APPLES 183
Flat apples like the Wag-ener may be packed four tier by placing- all
on the side.
Sizes of boxes : Oregon Standard lOViixlli/^xlS inches. Cali-
fornia Special 10x11x20 inches, inside measurement.
Questions and Answers.
Q. Do you think apples are packed better if allowed to sweat
two or three days before packing?
A. No, I do not think so. I have never noticed any difference
in apples that came direct from the packing house. An apple will not
get crisp in two or three days.
Q. Do you pack every apple diagonally?
A. You can come pretty near it. You can pack 155 and get a
diagonal pack.
Q. How about apples like the Red Cheeked Pippins that are high
on one side and flat on the other?
A. You can pack out a bulge by turning the apples.
Q. Is the Ben Davis a profitable apple?
A. Some people say it is. It makes a good apple to grow for
five years then graft. A great many people say they make their
money on Ben Davis stock, but they get a very small price for it.
Q. What do you think of the Northern Spy?
A. It is a fine apple. It is one of my favorite apples for eating.
It is an apple the Easterners say reminds them of home.
Q. Is a tree pruned the same the first four years as the years
follow^ing ?
A. "When I set out a tree I prune it for three years, then I slack
up on it and allow it to form some fruit spurs. Do summer and win-
ter pruning from the time the tree is set out. I always prune a bear-
ing tree during the summer. Summer pruning should be done in July,
then you do not get water sprouts as you do in the winter.
Q, Do they raise Rhode Island Greenings here?
A. Yes, but the Easterners do not recognize them. We grow
Rhode Island and Northwest Greenings, but they do not taste like the
Greenings in the East. I have seen them with red cheeks out here
instead of green as in the East.
Q. Would you hesitate grafting a tree ten years old?
A. There are three systems of grafting. The cleft, bark grafting
and making a cut in the edge of the stub. Some object to cleft graft-
ing as they say that the cleft offers a good opportunity for disease to
get a hold.
Q. Do you have any success in grafting an old root?
A. If you want to do root grafting you should use but one year
old roots.
Q. For young roots do you prefer the grafted or the budded?
A. I should prefer budcled.
Orchard near Silverton, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley.
Organization for Marketing Apples
Homer C. Atwell, President of the Oreo'on State Horticultural Society.
IN presenting this topic to you, I am troubled with the fear that
you may have been led, through a recent item in the press, to
expect that I intend to deliver here a formal address. The press
notice alluded to was kind enough to say that I would deliver here the
same address that I am expected later to deliver in the State of "Wash-
ington, and that I had been preparing it with great care. Perhaps I
should be tempted to follow my journalistic friend's hint, if I had that
address prepared. However, as it is yet to be evolved from my inner
consciousness, I shall be content to rest on ]\Ir. French's injunction
to make my effort strictly an informal talk, as "The club won't tol-
erate a formal address."
With this preface, I will return to the main question. Who \\\\\
eat your apples? You can't do it yourselves. Portland can't do it.
The Pacific Northwest can't tlo it. Apple growing has now passed
beyond the sentimental and aesthetic stages, and has evolved into a
vast productive industry, demanding developniciil along commercial
lines.
The apple industiy, like every otlior. has twn phases, production
and distribution. Discussion groui)s ai'ound these two main topics —
how to grow apples and how to dispose of them.
Growing apples involves consideration of such topics as location,
soil, planting, pruning, cultivation and s])i'aying — iiupurtant. certainly
and vital to success. Tliey arc. liowever. in a sense, elementary —
questions for the agricultural colleges, for tlu» farmers' institutes —
questions for solution of which we turn t(^ our professors and hortieul-
OKCiAM/ATION FOU MAKKKTINd APPLKS 185
tural experts, and to the books. Their principles are old and well
tried out. They are, nevertheless, new and always interesting, be-
cause varied conditions of various districts require discriminating
application of these principles, readjustments to changed conditions.
These questions are, as I have said, questions for the student, prob-
lems for the producer to work out in his own environment, in his own
orchard, with factors under his own management. He is master of
his own workshop and of his own tools. Results are under his own
control.
"When, however, you have grown your perfect apples, and have
them properly packed, your work is done. You stand helpless
before the next problem. Upon its solution depends return for all
your past labor and study. Before this problem, your teachers also
are helpless. The colleges can't solve it. The books are unresponsive.
"What will you do with your well-packed box of fine apples? That
is the new problem, the problem of distribution. This may not be
C[uite so interesting as how to train a tree in the way it should grow,
nor quite so fascinating as ''lime-sulphur spray in combination with
lead arsenates." I think, however, you will agree with me that it is
quite as important to the man who grows apples.
The time has passed when apple growers of the Pacific Northwest
can depend on local markets. ]\Iuch less shall we be able to do so,
when we produce annually 100.000 cars of apples, as President Elliott,
of the Northern Pacific Railroad predicts we shall do, in the near future.
We must relj^ on interstate and foreign markets. At that point
we approach a problem not in the books we have been studying, one
that is outside the producer's sphere and means of control. It is the
problem of distribution.
You and I are producers. Production and distribution are distinct
processes of economic activity, and are worked out by different sets
of actors. However, although they are distinct, and although pro-
ducers cannot directlj^ control processes of distribution, they may
largely influence them, by organization for that purpose.
Before developing this idea further, let us take a brief survey of
the machinery of distribution, as it applies to sale of our apples. Let
us assume, for example, that we are an apple-shipping association,
located in the Willamette Valley. We shall, of course, make estimate,
in advance of packing, of probable number of cars we shall have to
ship. We shall endeavor to make our sales on the basis f. o. b. here.
This means, of course, acceptance at stipulated price, at shipping point,
subject to condition that goods, upon arrival, shall conform to repre-
sentations. We solicit Eastern dealers for orders. We quote them
prices, grades and sizes. Market is dull. BuA'ers are indifferent.
186 APIT.K OKOWINO IN TIIK I'ACII IC NOKTIIWEST
Meanwliile apple packing time arrives. We soon pack and ship out
enough cars to fill our orders, and still have the bulk of our product
unsold. We are no longer able to effect sales f. o. b. This is especially
the case when Eastern markets are crowded, or business conditions
depressed. We must, nevertheless, continue to move our product for-
ward. Cars can't be had whenever wanted. When furnished, they
must be filled. Another consideration impelling us to crowd shipment
is lack of storage facilities at home.
Independence of immediate market conditions is one of the prin-
cipal objects to be sought hy fruit-shipping organizations. This inde-
pendence means prolonging our shipping season. It cannot be attained,
however, without adequate storage facilities here.
I notice by the press that the people of Hood River, who, of course,
are always on hand when there is any improvement to be made, are
planning to extend their storage facilities, in order that they may not
be compelled to hurry their fruit onto the market.
To resume our illustration, let us say that we l)ill our car to
Chicago. Before it has reached Cheyenne we learn that Chicago is
overstocked, and we order the car diverted to Minneapolis or to
Kansas City. We may again divert it to Atlanta or New York. All
the time that car is rolling eastward we are keeping the wires hot to
find the best market for it. The routing clerk in our office keeps
close tab on that ear. Just as the train dispatcher of a railroad can
tell you at any moment between what two stations any train on his
road is, so our routing clerk knows approximately the location of that
car at all times. Until sale is finally effected, or point determined
upon which our manager considers most promising, he is wiring to
various sales agents description of that car, stating number of boxes,
varieties, locality where grown, grade and number of apples in a box.
This is expensive business, especially when a car contains 20 varieties
of apples, as was occasionally the case during the past season.
Suppose now, instead of one car, we are liandling tliree cars a day.
This would not I)e a large business. Let us assume Chicago to rep-
resent average distance between Portland and various Eastern mar-
kets. It takes eight days for a car to reach Chicago. ^Multiplying
this number of days by three, yon have 24 cars in transit all the time
during the shipping season. All the time our manager is telegraphing
over the country regarding each of these cars. Our routing clerk is all
the time changing position of pegs on his routing map.
This brief outline of the activities of one small shipping associa-
lioti. such as will naturally groAv up at a score of towns in the
Willamette Valley, indicates the complexity and expense of apple
marketing, and also tln^ liigh degree of skill and judgment required.
OKGAXrZATIOX FOR MARKKTIXG APPLES 187
Perhaps you now appreciate more clearly the force of my statement
of a few months ago that production and distribution are distinct
processes of economic activity.
However, the producer should know something of the processes
of distribution, in order better to adapt his own operations to their
requirements, and in order to contribute, through organization of pro-
ducers, to make distribution more eifective.
Assuming. that I have satisfied you that marketing on large scale
and under modern conditions is not for the individual, let us consider
hoAv large should be the scope of such shipping organizations, in order
to effect best results. I will lay down the proposition right here that
it should be as large as possible, should control the output of as many
growers as possible. We will work up to demonstration of that
proposition.
It is a conservative estimate that at the present time there are 50
individuals, companies and associations, shipping apples from the
Pacific Northwest. Each of these has the same experience I have
outlined. Each incurs the same items of expense for acquiring infor-
mation. They not only duplicate one another's expense account, but
each adds to expense of the others. Shippers A, B and C have over-
stocked Omaha. Shippers D, E and F have no means of finding this
out except by independent expenditures for telegrams.
These independent shipping operations not only cause great dup-
lication of expense but unavoidable glutting of many markets. This
cannot be avoided altogether by any amount of expense for telegrams,
as a market that is promising today may receive cars from half a
hundred shipping associations tonight.
Our present unorganized distribution also often leads to ignoring
some markets altogether. In the United States there are 180 cities of
over 25.000 population each. Greater consuming ability of leading
cities causes tendency of shippers to concentrate their offerings there.
It is generally admitted that, in the rush to supply greater markets,
many lesser ones are altogether overlooked. These, in the aggregate,
have capacity for consumption of large output.
You will observe that I have thus far touched only on attempts
to supply existing markets, markets where demand is already well
defined. These, if evenly supplied, would in the past have absorbed
most, if not all, our output. Prospective increase of population, hoAv-
ever, will necessitate opening of new outlets, development of demand
now dormant. These are avenues which are closed to your average
shipping association, because it lacks sufficient financial backing. It
can't afford to pay from $5,000 to $10,000 a year to a manager who
has intimate knowledge of the world's market and of international
ORGANIZATION FOR MARKETING APPLES 189
trade relations. It can't afford an expenditure of $50,000 a year to
advertise and exploit our product in lands heretofore unsupplied,
or inadequatel}' supplied Avith apples such as we produce.
Thus you see that our present system of independent shipping
not only results in duplicated expenses, glutting of large markets,
and overlooking of small markets, but also proves inadequate to the
expansion of markets which our increasing output demands.
Were these 50 individual and corporate shipping concerns amal-
gamated under one management, results would be quite different. We
would then save many thousand dollars in expenses now entailed
through duplication of effort, and yet would be able to pay our man-
ager and Eastern salesmen salaries that w^ould command the best
talent and experience in the country. Levying a trifling toll on all
output would give our association a fund that would enable it suc-
cessfully to storm many a market now unavailable. Glutting of larger
markets Avould be prevented. Smaller markets would be supplied as
thoroughly as larger ones. This fact alone would largely increase
demand. Demand, however, would be greatly stimulated by lower
price to consumer, caused by elimination of superfluous agents, and
by tise of other means of cheapening distributive methods. There is
no economic fact better established than that price affects consumption.
The cheaper a staple article is, the more it is in demand.
The great bulk of the apple output must be consumed by the
common people. Their capacity of consumption is tremendous. We
should see that that capacity' is kept at its maximiim proportion by
placing our product in their hands at a reasonable price. This would
be possible under central control of distributive agencies. It is
impossible, under present methods of competition and duplicating
expense. Consumption would be further increased by rigid adher-
ence to uniformity in grading and packing, by which confidence
of buyer Avould be increased and popularity' of our fruit enhanced. A
central selling 'organization could maintain such uniformity.
But, you maj^ say, lower price to consumers will mean lower price
to producers. Not at all. Organization such I advocate would increase
average net financial returns to growers by steadying market condi-
tion, by preventing losses and unremunerative sales, by eliminating
wasteful methods of distribution. You may divide, in any way you
like, the amount realized from greater economies and greater efficiency.
Any fair division will result in low'er price to consumer and greater
profit to producer.
There is another way in which an organization controlling the
output of the Pacific Northwest Avould result in great saving to grow-
ers. It is in the matter of purchasing supplies for orchard use and for
190 APPLK GROWING IX THE PACIiaC XOKTHWKST
packing. Certainly a concern doing an annual business of $50,000,000
should be able to secure wholesale prices.
Large part of the fruitgrowers' associations of Pacific Northwest,
as they are at present constituted, are worse than useless for effecting
distribution on large scale. Better that the apples of a particular
district should rot on the ground than that the entire industry should
suffer from ill-timed and poorly-managed effort to force their sale.
AVeakness of these local associations lies in their lack of financial re-
sources. They undertake to do what they have not, and never will
have, facilities to accomplish. Elimination of selling function from
scope of their activities will leave them free to attempt what is pos-
sible. Strong local associations are absolutely necessary as pillars on
which an organization for wide-scope distribution must stand. Their
functions, however, must be developed along new lines. Capital and
properly-paid local management will be the first requisites to be sup-
plied.
My ideas are not altogether original. I had the privilege of test-
ing their soundness during the winter of last year, in southern Cali-
fornia. There one must pay close to $2000 an acre for a good bearing
orchard of oranges or lemons. This valuation is not based alone on
climate. Basic factors of that valuation are strong local associations,
with ample capital and competent management, and, over all, a cen-
tral selling agency to whom an expenditure of $50,000 is a matter of
small importance if it secures results.
I have thus far touched upon the purely practical side of this
question. There is another side quite as important. Economists and
students of social problems agree that future welfare of our nation
depends on arresting the current long drifting from country to city,
a movement which is slowly draining our rural districts of their best
manhood and womanhood, congesting our urban centers, increasing
cost of living and consequent general discontent, and menacing our
civilization with tlireat of various dire evils.
It is our duty to encourage an opposite movement. Apple grow-
ing affords tlie strongest lure to rural life. "We should then bid
godspeed to liini who lives under the shade of his own apple tree.
We cannot, however, conscientiously extol a vocation which offers no
hope of adequate financial return.
Apple growing, like any other department of agriculture, must
be made to pay, if our farming districts are to be filled with a con-
tented and proud people. Tt is our duty to make it pay, by abandon-
ing inefficient methods, jiiid adopting those methods whicli tlic extent
of oui- iiulusti-v necessitates, ;ui(l business sagacity dictates.
ORGAXIZATIOX FOR MARKi:TIXG APPLES
191
Orchards on a Thousand Hills.
Questions and Answers.
Q. Will the opening of the Panama Canal cheapen freight rates?
A. I think so. I have great faith in the future of the fruit in-
dustry of this Pacific Northwest, especially in the districts contiguous
to the coast, because of the promise there is in the opening of the
Panama Canal. It will not only cheapen our freight rates to the East,
but it will increase the length of our shipping season, provided we
prepare for it by establishing sufficient storage facilities at this end.
We hasten shipments now on account of approaching cold weather.
Danger from that source would be eliminated by erecting adequate
cold storage warehouses and bj^ shipping over the canal route.
Q. How would the production of apples have to be increased to
sustain now a central organization?
A. The production of apples in the Pacific Northwest would not
have to be increased at all. If all individuals and shipping associa-
tions now shipping apples from the Pacific Northwest would combine,
or a large proportion of them, they would be able to do business at a
They speak for themselves.
ORGANIZATION FOR MARKETING APPLES
192
sufficiently small cost, so that a very trifling toll upon that business
would give them all necessary funds for exploiting the industry and
for building storehouses and warehouses. I have seen estimates' of
what 5 cents a box would accomplish on the output of the Northwest.
T do not recall it now, but it would be a very large sum. I think that
the apple output of the Pacific Northwest in the near future should
reach as large proportions as the citrus output of California.
Q. What is their output ?
A. According to istatistics compiled by the California Fruit
Grower, a very careful and reliable publication, the output of that
state for the season of 1909-10 was 33,099 cars. I have seen no esti-
mate as to the value of this output, but I would say that $1,000 per
car would not be far out of the way. This, you see, would make the
total value something like $33,000,000. Year before that it was over
$40,000,000.
The California Fruit Growers' Exchange, to which I have before
alluded, handles about 60 per cent of the total output of citrus fruit
from that state. It does this at an expense to growers of not to
exceed 3 per cent on gross sales. The amount thus realized enables
the central association to employ an exploitation force of the highest
business ability. They pay their manager $8,000 a year, and salaries
to Eastern representatives in proportion. They have spent as much
as $50,000 in one year in advertising their fruit. All their business
is done on that scale, and yet you see the burden of maintaining that
organization is very light.
An apple packing house in the Hood River Valley, Oi'egon.
194 AIM'I.K C;ROWI.\(i IN THK I'ACIMC NOHTII WKST
Q. What per cent of the fruit of the Pacific Xoi'tliwcst is now
liandlcd by the fruit ^jrowers' associations?
A. ] Mill not ])()sitive on tliat subject. Tii the State of Wash-
ington there are several very strong private shipping companies. I
really ought not to make an estimate on that point.
Q. Would private association join this central association?
A. That is a large question and I have not gotten far enough
along in the game to be able to ansAver it. Of course, I suppose you
know that we are trying to l)uild up such an organization in the
Pacific Northwest?
Q. What effect would the 100,000 carloads that you predict in
the near future have on the market? How much reduction would
there be in the price? Would apple raising still be profitable under
Ihat condition?
A. Yes, I think so. The expectation is that, either this year or
next, Ave shall effect the only desirable and only efficient means of
disposing of this oncoming product — that is, a central selling agency.
I think we shall have it. If I did not think so, I should not Avant to
remain in the apple business.
Q. Supposing this ] 00,000 carloads is duplicated in the Mis-
sissippi Valley?
A. They should adopt a central selling agency also. The same
Avould be true 'of other extensive districts having large output. Tavo
or three big organizations like that can Avork together, but a lot of
little local organizations cannot. I do not think Ave need he haunted
by the fear that the entire country Avill experience the same degree
i)i expansion in apple-production that Ave expect in the Pacific Xorth-
AA-est. There must be production of other commodities than apples.
The result Avill be that each district will settle doAvii to production of
that for AA'hich it is host adapted.
Q. What is the boundary of the Pacific XorthAA'est?
A. Bounded on the Avest by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by
British Columbia, and on the east, for the purpose of apple-production
and apple-shipment, I Avill include Western ^Montana and the Avest
^lope of Colorado. T do not tliink the Pacific XortliAA'est AA'ould include
California. You probably knoAV that the great liulk of the box apples
of the country arc produced in the Pacific NortliAvest. The boundaries
I have mentioned, including also part of California, produce large
<|uaiitities of apples and they box the most of them. If the people
Avlid put up apples in that form can combine they can control the box
fipple situation at present.
Q. Are they not boxing their apples also in the East?
A. Thev are to a small extent.
ORGANIZATION KOK MAHKETING APPI.KS 195
Q. Are they not advoeatins: that in the New England States?
Is not apple culture growing rapidly in favor there, clearing up their
old orchards?
A. As far as clearing up their old orchards is concerned, that
would not do them any good, their trees are so high up in the sky;
hut they are planting new orchards. That is true. There is quite
a revival of apple-growing in various districts of New England, but
not to the extent there is out here in this country.
Q. There was an article in the Saturday Evening Post, not long
ago, telling what they are doing there.
A. Yes, that is true. I have the article at home. But referring
to clearing up their orchards, perhaps I was a little hasty in jumping
at your suggestion. The writer was not speaking so much of clearing
up, as retopping. They may make them pay in that way.
Q. If we should form this organization as you suggest, would
there be danger of our being branded as a trust?
A. I do not think so. I think that our courts have decided
that an organization that is formed for the purpose of economizing in
methods of distribution and making even distribution, and making
lower prices to consumers (and that is what we would be doing; that
is our only object) is no trust.
Q. Would it be possible for the association to sell the same as
the Citrus Fruit Association, by auction?
A. Well, there is a good deal more of it done now than should
be done. It is done in Chicago, Minneapolis and other large centers.
I saw that worked out in Chicago last summer, and I was surprised
to see how^ fairly it was done. Every morning in the week a large
number of local dealers get together in an auction house. They first
inspect the fruit, and then they go upstairs and wrangle there some-
times until the middle of the afternoon, bidding on that fruit. If the
market happens to be glutted, however, you see they are not going to
bid very much. The auction houses are not desirable, if you can
sell in any other way. The California Fruit Exchange sells both ways.
Q. Would it be the design of the organization to sell direct?
A. I would say that that would be a primary object. You can
see yourself it would be more satisfactorj' to sell your product at a
certain price than to send it back and not know what you are going
to get.
Q. What per cent do the growers expect to save through having
an organization?
A. There is a wide variation ; all the way from 1 to 100 per cent.
Q. Would it be the idea of this central association to maintain
storage plants in the East or here?
196
APPLE GROWING IN TIIK PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A. ]\ry idea would be to erect storage plants here for the most
part. It may be found desirable to have some storage plants in the
East, but I think it would be better policy to hold the fruit here,
as far as possible, until sold. When those Eastern dealers see thou-
sands and thousands of cars of fruit on hand, it makes a great im-
pression on them. They think apples ought to be cheap (to them).
Q. If you had a central storage plant in the East, would you not
be able to distribute there direct to the wholesaler instead of jobber?
A. Well, of course, having a storehouse in the East would give
you that trade, especially if you wished to supply a wholesaler with
less than carload lots.
''■ ■ ■:• y. ■ ■ - . / .jj _,•_, i_ ji; :e_j^' iz.- ■■ ■ii.'am
'\'\\v Columbia River from the Mosier View Orchards.
;wf-;s''^-
'^U0g^(i.
The Mosier Hills district, Oregon.
The Process of Charpitting
H. W. Sparks, Washington State College, Pullman.
About two years ago I commenced my duties as supervisor of farm
demonstrations, this being a division of the farm extension work of
the Washington State College. Later, in making a trip through the
western part of the state to study its needs, I became interested in
land-clearing problems, and thus was led to investigate everything
which promised to aid in the solution of cheaper methods of clearing.
I think that many persons have noticed in "burnt over" areas,
here and there a stump which had burned down into the ground.
This was no accident. The roots were burned out because certain
factors happened to be just right. When we learn what those factors
are and duplicate them we also can burn a stump down into the
ground.
Two years ago I learned of a man who had burned stumps, using
what was locally called the "charcoal" method. I visited him, and
sure enough, he was burning stumps. It seemed to be a very simple
method. He put a little fuel around the stump, covered it over with a
198 Ai'i'i.i: (,k()\\im; i\ tiik i'ACikic xoktiiwkst
little soil, gave it a little attention every day and the stnnip was
finally burned out, far down into the ground.
Having mastered his method, as soon as I eould I went out on
farm institute work and told others how to do the work by that method.
Later, in eoming back over tlie same route. I learned that many persons
who had tried this method had failed. I was therefore concerned
to know the cause of their failure. Upon investigation I learned that
failure in some instances was due to ditferences in the soil, others to
improper understanding of the method and so on.
It was encouraging, however, to find a fcAv persons who had
succeeded. We have been conducting experiments in different soils
and with all the varied conditions and investigating the cause of
failures. We now believe that many of the failures are due to soi'
conditions not being favorable ; or if favorable, many of the opera-
tors "cover" too deeply. We have been conducting some experiments
in sandy and gravelly soil and have found that stumps can be burned
out in the worst red sand soil down Iavo or three feet with reasonable
certainty.
We remove a small portion of the surface soil next to the stump,
then place the fuel in this shallow trench, covering it over with cinder.s
or clay. With the same amount of care as is usually given, the stumps
will burn out. By this method two of our operators fired 18 stumps
in six hours, using a third man to haul the material to the ground.
Of the 18, 15 were burning the next morning. Three had been put out
by the rain.
We have tried many experiments that have been failures. When
we fir.st learned that the usual method vrould not work well in sandy
soil we tried artificial coverings, such as sheet iron, hut that was a
failure. We next tried mixing in other materials with the sandy soil.
We thought we needed a "soil binder" to hold the soil particles
together, thus keeping them out of the fire. We tried lime, tar. and
other things, which also failed.
We then discovered that the difference in soils was not due so
much to texture as to other characteristics, which were, principally,
the conductivity or non-conductivity of the soil. The heat generated
under the soil covering must not be lost, but rather, should be con-
served and concentrated on tlial pai't of the stumii tliat is to l)e bni'iied.
The soil that lies loosely has many air spaces, making it a good non-
conductor of heat. IMost of our clay soils when subjected to the
heat of fire, decompose sufficientlx' to become lii^iil and pDi'ous. They
concentrate the heat and do not conduct it away. The reason that
some soils had failed to do the work well was that under the influence
of heat the soil particles had settled together, becoming natural con-
THE PROCESS OF CIIARPITTIXG 199
dnetors of heat, and tluis eondiieting the heat away from the stumps.
Also, the absence of adhesive properties makes it difficult to hold the
soil up or prevent it from running into the fire.
There is another factor which we believe to be important. That
is "radiated heat." A well-established rule of radiated heat is that
the heat diminishes in intensit.y as the square of the distance from the
radiating body increases. A body 10 feet from the fire will receive
only one-hundredth part as much heat as a body one foot from the
same fire. Radiated heat goes in straight lines, and the angle of re-
flection is ahvays equal to the angle of incidence. That is, if it strikes
the reflecting surface perpendicularly it is reflected perpendicularly,
and if the line in which it approaches the surface forms an angle it
glances off at an equal angle on the other side. It is this last factor
that makes for better* results when we keep our fuel down to the least
amount necessary for a good start, and is in favor of concentrated
fuel, such as fuel oil. The cover being flatter the reflected heat is
returned to the burning stump lower down. And as wood is a natural
absorbent of heat, this helps prepare for the burning.
Let us illustrate this a little farther. Many persons doubtless
have noticed while traveling through the woods after a fire, that
where one log had lain across another, or perhaps two logs had lain
together for part of their length, burning had been more complete
than at points where the logs had been farther apart. This was due
to the radiation of heat from one log to another. An increase in the
distance between the burning logs was marked by a decrease in the
intensity of the fire.
All these points are factors in the work of charcoaling stumps,
and if we understand them it helps us to arrive at definite results.
There is no accident about it. By the application of these principles
we reverse the natural tendency of fire to burn up, and cause it to
burn down into the roots, as has been proved in our experiments with
hundreds of stumps. There is enough of this work done in different
parts of the State of "Washington, and by different people, to prove
conclusively that it is practical and no longer an experiment. NeaJ*
Chehalis, Harry Thompson and myself fired 100 stumps. We tended
them, and charged 25 cents an hour for the time we worked. The
stumps were removed in this way for less than 40 cents each. Harry
Yount, of Woodland, Wash., removed stumps for about 35 cents each.
Mr. McCormack, editor of the Woodland Echo, owns a stumpy field,
that has been plowed for years in the same way, piling up the soil
on the upper side (the field slopes westward and toward the pre-
vailing wind), and plowing away from the lower side. He contracted
to have the stumps removed for 50 cents each. The man who took
200 AI'lM.l-: GKOWIXG IX THE PACIFIC XOKTIIWKST
the contract had some skill for the work and, perceiving the natural
advantage of conditions, fired the stumps on the lower side only, re-
sulting in his taking out the stumps for about 25 cents each. I could
tell of dozens of men who have taken out stumps successfully by these
methods.
The principal thing is to adapt the method to local conditions of
soil and climate. I believe I am justified in saying that it is more
<lifficult to burn during the season of extreme rainfall where soil
is nor well drained, and that the sandy or gravelly soil burns just as
well, if not better, then, perhaps because the sand packs or bakes
better around the roots when wet, and also because there is better
draught in cooler weather. In our recent experiments we found sev-
eral roots not burned as deeply as they should have been in clay soil.
"We have been experimenting with different fuels to find some-
thing cheap and practicable for use in place of the wood on the ground
for unfavorable seasons, and have found fuel oil verj' good. It costs
but 90 cents a barrel if bought in quantities. This is the same fuel
that is used by oil-burning locomotives, on steamboats, etc. "We paid
three dollars per barrel in small lots (single barrels), and used from
one to two gallons to each stump. Having previously prepared the
stump by taking off the bark and digging away the surface soil about
one foot out from the stump at the surface with the side of the trench
sloping in toward the stump at the bottom, we first put in some saw-
dust; or in the absence of sawdust, used chips, small pieces of wood
and bark, making good "kindling wood" of it. The kindling is
necessary for the purpose of furnishing the necessary heat to ignite the
■oil, which, like coal, will not burn well until heated. "We then pour
the oil over the kindling, and with some wood and bark over the
top to hold the covering up, we cover with clay, cinders or the soil
around the stump, if fit for the purpose. "We soon see the effect in the
burning stump. Afterward, the care is about the same as with all
methods. Keep the fire covered. "We do not think it necessary to
use the fuel oil in dry seasons, when we can gather the material that
will burn well. During the wet season, however, when all the wood
on the ground is wet, we think there is an advantage in some fuel of
this kind. We must have a good start.
Recently we have made some experiments with the view of reduc-
ing the amount of fuel necessary to start. We selected stumps where
two roots were located about the right distance apart for a fire between
fhem, and removing the bark, dug out a small hole between them about
one foot deep. Then we bored an auger hole with a small auger
from the opposite side of each root, boring down and nci-oss the root
so that the auger came out about half wnv down between the gnuind
THE PROCKSS OF CHARPITTING 201
line and the bottom of the hole we had dug in between the roots. We
next started a fire in the pit, using not more kindling and wood than
would be used to make a fire in a heating stove. All could be carried
easilj' with one armful. This we covered with soil and started the fire.
After several hours when the fuel had burned down to a bed of
•coals we poured one pint of the fuel oil down each of the auger holes
and covered it over lightly to prevent too strong a draught. We
found the next day that the stumps had been successfully fired. The
.advantage of the auger holes was that there was afforded the op-
portunity to supply the fire with concentrated fuel without disturbing
the cover, and the auger holes furnished a vent through and under
the wet sap wood, absorbing the heat and preparing the wood for the
fire to follow.
Under favorable conditions, when w^e have a good clay soil and
some good dry fuel at hand, it is not necessary to do any digging.
Take away the bark and pile the fuel around the base of the stump,
generally not more than 12 or 15 inches high, and about as wide at
the bottom. Arrange some kindling around in under the wood to
lead the fire. We fill in all small openings at the top of this wood
with small pieces of chips, bark and rotten wet wood, or ferns, to
prevent the soil from running between the stump and the fuel. Then
i.ve cover this with soil most conveniently at hand, leaving small space
open on the side toward the wind so that when the fire is lighted in
this opening, it will be blown into and under the fuel and covering.
When the fire is w^ell under the cover, close this space also.
Now, Avhat is the right amount of covering? I do not know that
it will be possible to lay down any hard and fast rule. Every opera-
tor must learn by experience. He must know something about the
soil, experimenting to see how it works ; and then he must know that
it is necessary to have something under the cover besides fuel to
make it "burn down"; that is, conditions must be such that there
Avill be a supply of oxygen. The miner knows that in driving a tun-
nel, if the air is cooler outside than in the tunnel, the cold air will
•come in at the bottom and be warmed by coming in contact with the
warmer material inside. Thus warmed, it becomes lighter inside, rises
to the top, and the cold air coming in to fill the vacuum thus formed,
■starts a continuous flow in at the bottom and out at the top.
So when we put this covering over our fire we purposely leave
open spaces at the bottom. The air comes in and moves up to the'
fire with its full store of oxygen. For this reason the fire is always
hotter and burning best at the bottom. The air minus the oxygen
becomes heated, moves upward, and filters through the cover with the
gases, and as the burning proceeds into the stump, we must keep the
202 AiMTK (;i!()wr\(i tx tiik pacific xoutiiwest
fire covered; when the top. is burned off, we cover all over lightly,
just enough to conserve the heat, ])ut not so heavily as to prevent a
movement of air through it. Thre will always be some Ioav point
where the cold air enters, and the colder the outer air is the greater
will be the expansion when the air comes in contact with the heat
inside the cover. This condition stimulates the draught, causing
better burning.
There is one guide which is (|uite reliable. When the tire come.?,
through the covering, and iiot. blue smoke issues forth, more cover is.
necessary. If the smoke is dense and white, this means that it is
mostly steam and that the gases are escaping which is the correct
condition.
Questions and Answers.
Q. Do you stand the wood on end?
A. We use the wood that we find at hand, using some of it lung.
Avhich must be laid slanting or flat. In some places the short wood is
set up on end, being easier to "fit" around the sliarp angles of the
protruding roots. However, we wish a fairly uniform amount of this
fuel so that it will burn out evenly and the cover will settle down
uniformly. I think it a good plan to place some kindling all the way
around the stump to lead the fire. If we can start the fire on the
inside we will always have the stump exposed to the radiated heat,
and as the wood is an absorbent of heat, we are preparing foi- the
burning by getting it hot.
I believe we will find it the better plan to fire our stumps in the
morning, utilizing the afternoon in preparation. When fired in the
morning our fires are well settled down before night, thus lessening-
the danger of a break in the covering during the night, which Avould
let all the heat escape. The first 24 hours is the most critical time.
We usually go over our work with a lantern just before quitting for
the night, and are out again early in the morning. This work is not
hard, but ratlier exacting. We s!u)uld give I'egulai- attention to it.
Q. How long does it take a stump t(^ burn out .'
A. The time varies. A stump will burn out quite completely in
five or six days in some eases, and again, another stump M-ill take as
manj^ weeks. I think the difference is <lue in part to depth of cover,
condition and size of the stump.
Q. Have you burned any of the hardwood slumps.'
A. We have not had much experience with tliem. Have fired
hendock successfully, however. T fhiidv T will tell yon of a hemlock
stump whi<'h has i-esisted sevci'al altcni[)ts to fire it. T secured some
THE PKOCKSS OK CIIARPITTIXG 203
thirty-penny spikes, and selecting spots where the wood was best
exposed to the fire, drove in a gronp of fire or six spikes in each spot,
which Avas not larger than yonr hand. The heads of the spikes I left
sticking ont about an inch. Then I built my fires around and under,
so that as the fire burned these spikes, the part of them exposed to
the fire became heated. Iron being a good conductor of heat, the heat
was conducted into the wood. The result was satisfactory, for the
stump was fired.
Q. How small a stump is practicable?
A. In our experimental Avork we have thought that anything
less than 15 inches in diameter had better be moved with a little
powder or by horsepower, and sometimes a combination of both.
Q. In clay soils, is it necessary to have a trench?
A. It is not necessary, but in extremely Avet conditions, a little
surer, since if the stump is fired doAvn loAver, it is more likely to
burn deeper.
Q. Do you get the roots out?
A. Yes. The fire Avorks right doAvn into the roots, and Avill do
the work as thorough as any other method. Most of you knoAv there
are some roots left Avlien you start the ploAv after any method of stump
destruction.
Q. In starting the fire, should it be started in more than one
place?
A. We have started in one place only, but think on large stumps
two fires from opposite sides of the stumps Avould make for quicker
results.
Q. Should the fire be started on the side from AA^hich the Avind
blows ?
A. Yes. Start the fire so that the wnnd Avill blow the fire toAvard
the stump, thus driving it under the cover sooner. The fire Avill then
folloAv ar-ound under the cover.
Q. In sandy soil, should the clay be put over the Avood as the
fire burns it, or should it all be covered up?
A. Cover this starting fire right up to the stump before firing.
Never cover the top of the stump until the fire eats its way in.
Keep the fire covered.
Q. Is the same coA^ering used for different soils?
A. Yes. Use just the same for clay as for sandy soils. In
sandy soils Ave must use the artificial covering. We ha\'e found coal
cinders just as good as clay. Naturally aac Avill use the covering
that does the Avork best and is most convenient.
Q. How long should the space AA'here Ave start the fire be left
open ?
204 APPLE GROWING IX TIIF. PACIFIC XORTIIWKST
A. Until the fire is well started. Fifteen minutes to half an
hour is usually enouf^h.
Q. Does the top of tlie stump fall over?
A. Yes, very rarely the top is burned up.
Q. How about burning a green stump?
A. We have not had very mueh experience with green stumps,
but have been told by those who have tried it that they burned very
well when started. They are said to be a little more difficult to
start. Chop through the sap wood in a few places.
Q. When the top burns off, what follows?
A. Always keep the fire covered. I think it is necessarj'- after
the first 24 hours to visit the stump each morning and night, dividing
the time as nearly even as you can. Especially, go early in the morn-
ing. Usually the fire will burn better at night than during the day.
This is because the air is colder, and upon being warmed as it passes
in to the fire, a stronger draught is created than if the outer air
were warm. There are therefore liable to be holes in the covering
which should be given attention early in the morning.
Q. HoAv old should stumps be to burn best?
A. We have burned them off all the way from 1 to 50 years
after cutting.
Q. Do they burn better after they are dry?
A. Yes, it is easier to fire them when they are dry, hence it is
easier to fire them in the dry seasons. I have successfully fired
stumps over 50 years old which were remnants of old burns before
the logging-off era. With some of these there were 6 to 12 inches of
rotten wood on the outside which was so wet that water could be
squeezed out by hand. We chopped through this in places, giving the
fire a chance at the sound wood underneath.
Q. Must tlie bark invariably be taken off?
A. Yes. Usually it is very easy, but if it sticks, as it sometimes
does on new stumps, it must be chopped away. Bark is a non-con-
ductor of heat and full of air cells, and is made so bj' nature to protect
the growing wood against the extremes of temperature.
Q. How high should the bark be removed?
A. Twelve to 15 inches will be sufficient.
Q. After the stumps are fired, how many can one man care for?
A. I have gone over 100 in half an hour. Sometimes it may
take longer. Usually not much is to be done wlien the fire is startetl
in properly. A shovelful over the fire here and tliere. pushing a
little of the cover over the fire where it begins to show ahead of the
cover, is the usual procedure. W. H. Booth, of Supena, Wash., burned
out 603 stumps in nine weeks with the aid of two boys.
THE PROCESS OF CIIARPITTING 205
Q. How would you keep the soil from falling into the fire for
several days?
A. Arrange the material so that it will not burn out in spots, or
rather, so that it will burn evenly, settling with the cover all together.
If this cannot be done, perhaps your soil is too sandy and inclined to
run into the small openings when it gets hot,
Q. I have about 300 stumps burning, but when the top falls, they
stop burning.
A. You probably have not followed your fire up closely enough
with the cover, or possibly have covered too deeply.
Q. Would there be any advantage in wire netting?
A. I think not. I would not want to use anything of that kind,
because I think it too rigid. We want this cover to be self-adjusting
and loose, so it will follow up the fire.
Q. In case one bores a hole, should it be covered?
A. I would place something over it, but do not close it entirely.
Q. Will clay soil be left in clinkers ?
A. There will be some in places, but not enough to do any
material damage.
Q. Would there be any advantage in using kerosene?
A. Kerosene can be used for a starter, but it does not last. The
fuel oil we use has about twice as much fixed carbon as the best
anthracite coal. It burns slowly and steadily.
Q. Have you ever tried charpitting in the red shot soil?
A. Yes. I think it is all right. Most of the shot clay soils
Avork well.
Q. One would not have to have clay soil to work the process,
would he ?
A. No, not in the shot clay.
The Small Farm and How to Make it Pay
By Dr. James AVithyeombe, Director of the Experiment Station,
Oregon Agricultural College.
CD
Y purpose tonight is to speak about the possibilities of a small
'farm. Oregon agriculture will be ultimately characterized by
its small farms, intensivel}' cultivated. This is due to a hospitable
climate and a potential soil, readily responsive to intelligent methods
of husbandry. The state, as a whole, and more especially some sec-
tions, enjoy a verj- wide range of crop production. This of itself
makes it highh^ adaptable for the small, but prosperous rural home.
Economic production means prosperity. Thus when a few acres
of soil are made to yield abundantly it brings comfort and content-
ment to the owner. Under more intensive culture, which should be
the logical accompaniment of the small farm, agricultural production
would be greatly augmented. This will mean not only prosperity for
the individual, but the community as well.
All wealth practically originates in the soil, thus greater atten-
tion should be given to soil conservation and the problems of crop
production. Since our national wealth is so closely related to success-
ful agriculture, it would seem that greater effort should be made to
acquaint a larger proportion of our population with the fundamental,
or at least elementary, principles of crop production. Agriculture
should be more generally taught in the public schools of the state.
It is a mistaken idea that this branch of instruction is suited for
the country boy only. The city boys should know something of the
farm and the problems of rural life. Often by reason of health
and inclination they desire to engage in some branch of husbandry,
but are precluded on account of a total lack of knowledge of the
most simple things pertaining to the farm. "Back to the soil" is a
popular slogan, but it is dangerous to heed without some preparation
to cope with rural conditions. The work of this association is greatly
to be commended inasunich as it has not overlooked the importance
of the farm in its great scheme of industrial education.
There is another unoccupied field for agricultural instruction of
an intensely practical type. This is a field worthy the consideration
of the philanthropists. For example, a large body of land suitable
for small farm homes maj^ be secured and upon this departments of
dairying, poultry husbandry, orcharding, truck gardening, and general
208 APPLE GROWIXG IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
farming be maintained; the labor to be performed by yonng men from
the city who desire to take up life upon the farm ; these men to receive
a wage and board for their work with the understanding that they
may secure ten or twenty acres for a home when they are ready to
meet certain definite requirements which should be within the reach
of any industrious, frugal young man. Such a farm, under a proper
system, should be self-supporting and intensely educational in a prac-
tical way. It requires greater skill to successfully manage a small
farm than it does a reasonably large one. Thus it is imperative that
before a city young man undertakes to farm for himself, he should
have some practical knowledge of the industry.
The state has been wisely committed to the policy of supporting
demonstration farms and experiment stations for which provision has
already been made for the support of six. It would be well, however,
whenever practical, for high schools to be established within easy
reach of those farms in which w^ork in agriculture is given. These
farms would then have the dual purpose of demonstrating to the
farmer correct systems of husbandry, and be a potent source of in-
spiration and education to the high school student. So far as possible
the state and county should co-operate in this work. Nothing will
improve a rural community more quickly in a financial and social
way than a general dissemination of correct information relating to
agriculture. Technical knowledge is power only when it becomes dif-
fused through industrial activities.
Oregon is a magnificent state, rich in opportunities and possibili-
ties. At present, however, there is grave danger of over-production
in some directions. The virtues of much land are extolled for certain
specific productions which really are of questionable adaptability.
This is a serious mistake, and the reaction that in many eases will
inevitabl}^ follow will be harmful to the best interests of the state.
The purpose of this address, however, is to emphasize tlie small farm.
As before stated, Oregon is destined to ])e the home of the small
farmer. Ten acres will perhaps l)e tlie smallest unit for some time.
This even appears as a very small fai-in to many. Rightly managed,
ten acres of good typical land in the humid or irrigated sections of the
state can be made to yield a good living for a family. It may be
hazardous, however, for one to undertake to make a living upon
ten acres of land without a Avell-grounded knowledge of local con-
ditions. A larger unit would be better so that mistakes which are
liable to occur would not bring such finaticinl disaster. Upon a small
farm a single mistake, or the failure of a single crop, may affect
seriously the total income. The success of any farm, whether it be
large or small, will depend largely upon the personal equation of the
TIIK SMALL, FARM AND HOW TO MAKE IT PAY 209
owner or the one in charge. Some men will make a phenomenal
success of the small farm while many others will make dismal fail-
ures. It is doubtful if a single crop production will prove successful,
but a little of several things coming in rotation, or products that
bring in a constant revenue are better than the ordinary one-crop
system. A few cows, poultry, and some fruit and vegetables should
receive the attention of the small farmers. Not only is the constant
revenue from this system an advantage, hut it also affords continuous
employment and the cows and poultry will supply much valuable
plant food for the different crops. It is especially important that the
soil of a small farm be kept in a high state of fertility.
A spirit of co-operation should be prevalent in a small-farm com-
munity. This is especially necessary in team work. Each small farmer
should have one good general purpose horse, which can do all the
work except plowing and general preparation of the soil for crops.
When plowing is to be done, it should be well done, and this requires
at least a team of horses. It should be arranged to have the neigh-
bor's horse assist in this work. There will be many instances where
co-operation will be highly desirable. The investment in a high-class
dairy sire should be under community co-operation. This same prin-
ciple should enter largely into the general distribution of crops. Or-
ganization and co-operation is the very life blood of a successful rural
community. Without this it is doubtful if the small farmer can possi-
bly reach the highest attainment in civilization and wealth. Co-
operation in social and intellectual affairs is highly important, in fact,
this spirit should thoroughly permeate every rural activity.
The class of farming undertaken should be largely governed
bj^ soil adaptability and local market conditions, although a few cows
and some poultry are practically indispensable for success. It is not
to be expected that all of the feed for the poultry and other livestock
is to be grown upon the farm. The grain and mill feed should be
purchased, but this must be judiciously fed and fed only to stock that
will give maximum returns for food consumed. The farm must also
be made to produce the largest possible crops. Soiling must be prac-
ticed for the cows and all by-products carefully conserved and utilized.
The small farm must be made to grow steadily richer rather than
poorer. It is a good maxim to follow upon the farm to keep nothing
in the form of livestock but what is growing in value or yielding a
revenue in service or production. The hens must be young and vig-
orous, and the cows not old and declining.
It is impracticable to establish any definite rules for conducting
the small farm. Systems must be worked out to meet local market
conditions, adaptability of soil and other problems of interest must be
210
AIM'LE C:l{OWI.\(i IN TIIK PACIFIC NOKTilWKST
Iiilfriur uf ;l JImdJ liixfr ai)ple packing house.
considered. In a general way one acre should be utilized for the
buildings, lawn and home garden ; four acres should be devoted to the
growing of hay for the livestock. For Western Oregon conditions this
hay should be mainly clover. Four acres of good clover should yield
15 tons of hay and furnish one month's pasture. One acre of tree
fruits, comprising early fall and winter varieties of apples, Bartlett
and winter pears. If the land is sandy, peaches may also be included.
One acre of small fruits and vegetables; one acre of potatoes, two
acres for grooving summer forage and winter succulent feed for the
cows. One acre of this shouh] be planted to corn to be fed green
after the clover pasture is done. Tlie remaining acre should be planted
one-half to kale and a fourth to mangels and a fourth to winter rye
and vetch for cni'ly spring cutting. This series of crops should fur-
nish, untler good cultural methods, sufficient green feed and hay for
four cows and one horse for one year.
The gross returns from this system of farming should be approxi-
mately as follows :
Butter fat, 1,100 pounds at '^'2v per pound. .+:5,"')2 : 24.000 pounds
of slv'im milk at 30c per hundredweight. $72. This is estimating the
food value for poultry, hogs (U- calves. Eggs from 200 hens, 2,000
dozen at 28c per dozen, $560; potatoes, $100; fruit, .$250; vegetables,
$75; total gross income, $1,409.
THE SMALL FAKM AM) HOW TO itAKK IT PAY 211
Expenditures — Feed for poultry, $200; 51^ tons of grain and mill
feed for horse and cows at $28 per ton, $154; four tons of straw at $5
per ton, $20. Total cost of feed and liedding, $374, thus leaving a
balance on the right side of the ledger of $1,035. From this, of course,
should be deducted the cost of seed, depreciation in value of horse and
cows, spray material, repairs to buildings and fences, blacksmithing,
interest upon the investment, taxes, etc., which would aggregate about
$165. This would leave a net balance of $870. It is understood that
the OAvner and his family does all 'of the labor on the farm. This is not
a large income, but indicates that a good living may be made upon
ten acres of land Avhen well managed. The cost of living upon a
small farm will be appreciably less than in the city. "Wood will cost
less, water is free, and the home garden will supply all the vegetables
for the family.
It should be definitely understood at the outset, however, that the
smaller the farm unit the greater skill is required for its successful
operation. Also that single-crop production, as a general rule, is not
the best system to follow upon a small acreage. This, of course, will
depend more or less upon local conditions. For example ; If the
land is peculiarly adapted for such special crops as onions, horseradish,
asparagus, or celery, it may be advisable to make the growing of
these a specialty. The one great objection, however, to these special
crops is the want of general distribution of labor requirements upon
the farm. Systems that recjuire more or less constant labor are better.
This also insures, as before stated, a steady return. The income
should be constant from month to month upon the small farm.
The small farm community has many advantages over more
sparsely settled agricultural districts. Social opportunities are much
better. The problem of good roads is more easily solved. Country
life under such conditions more nearly represents urban life. It
combines the opportunity to enjoy the health and vigor of rural life
and the social and educational advantages of the city. The small
farm is destined to solve the problems of country life. It is here we
shall find our sturdy, intelligent and patriotic citizenship.
Questions and Answers.
Q. How about irrigation for your ten acres?
A. These clay soils are hard to handle with irrigation. Volcanic
ash soils are all right for irrigation.
Q. Is there not some soil west of Roseburg that is rather poor?
A. Up there in the hills the soil is all right and can stand irri-
gation.
212 APPLE CiKOWI.NC; IN Tin; I'ACIl'IC NOKTUWKST
Q. On ten acres one would need a team of lioi-scs and have
four eoAvs to pasture?
A. Turn the cows on your pastui-c aliout a nioiitli cadi year,
then feed them on your kale and buy your mill feed.
Q. What do you estimate the returns on ten acres?
A. I think about $1,500. There will be about .$.");")() for expenses,
which should leave about $950 net.
Q. Does a cow need range?
A. If you have a lot, that is all tbat is necessary. At the college
we have cows that have not been pastured for five years.
Q. What would one raise for chickens?
A. I would not raise feed for chickens. One gets so much plant
food from the poultry to keep up the land, he can afford to purchase
the feed. If one has poultry of the Mediterranean breeds, they will
lay at least ten dozen eggs per hen, and average 2,000 dozen eggs. At
the average price of 26 and 28 cents per dozen in this mai"ket. this
Avould anu)unt to over $500.
Q. Would not apples bring a good deal more?
A. They may some years, but when frosts come as sometimes
happens there will be no apples.
Q. Mr. Mason, of Hood River, stated here that his average for
five years was $500 per acre.
A. I would not start on that kind of a proposition. That record
was made under exceptional conditions.
Q. Can alfalfa be raised on red shot soil?
A. One must test his land. Alfalfa will not grow on acid soil.
One can correct the acid with lime, and then it will be all right. One
would be surprised at the amotmt of alfalfa that can be grown here
in the valley on unirrigated land. We cut the crop four times.
Q. Doesn't alfalfa exhaust the soil very rapidly?
A. It does if one sells his alfalfa. If he feeds it to his cows, it
does not exhaust it. It takes a good deal of potash, phosphate and
lime.
Q. Is air-slaked lime of value to the soil?
A. It is the only means of correcting acid.
Q. How much should one use to the acre?
A. About 500 pounds. Lime is not needed except for special
crops.
Q. Do you consider it of any value for fruits?
A. I am not a horticulturist and caiuiot say. hnt I should not
think it would do any harm.
(^. Will red-shot soil grow SAveet i)oiatoes?
A. 1 think it is too far north np here.
THE SMALI- FABM AND HOW TO MAKE IT PAY 213
Q. You haven't said anything about the hog.
A. Hogs are all right, but I would not want too many on the
fann. Hogs are to go more with grain farms on a large scale. Poultry
will consume your food more profitably than hogs. Depend on the
(H)w. Of course I am a cow man and see things through a cow spe-
cialist's eyes, but 1 know tliat the cow produces $14,000,000 worth of
wealth in Oregon.
Q. "Would you separate for four cows?
A. Yes, unless you sell the milk to a condensary, but as a rub;
it pays better to sell butter fat rather than milk.
Q. What valuation of the ten acres are you figuring on?
A. I am figuring on about $1,500. About $500 in a house and
$200 in a barn for four cows and the horse. An able-bodied man can
build a pretty nice cottage for $500 or $600.
Q. Don't you think it would be profitable on a small place to
raise a few hogs for a person's own use?
A. That would be all right, but it is better to sell the hog and
buy your own meat. There is great waste in butchering hogs in the
country. Since the country has gotten so settled up there is oppor-
tunity to get fresh meat all the time. Two great packers are getting
rich out of the by-products. They have been able to save everything
but the squeal.
Q. What would be the cost of cows, etc.?
A. The cows would cost about $50; chickens about $1 each.
Cows are good for about 12 years. Hens should be replaced every
year. A horse is good for 20 years.
Q. What would be the necessary investment on a ten-acre farm?
A. About $125 per acre for the land, $750 for the buildings, and
then the cost of your stock, making a total of about $3,000. Roughly
speaking, this starts one nicely so he can make a good living.
Q. Do you advocate keeping bees?
A. Yes, a few stands of bees are all right.
Q. Would you consider Guernsey-Jersey good for butter fat
production?
A. I would not cross the breeds.
Q. How is Jersey-Durham?
A. That is trying to produce beef and milk. I would grade up
the Jersey.
Q. What breed of chickens do you recommend?
A. The laying breeds, such as the ]\Iinorcas or Leghorns.
Q. What vegetables would you plant?
A. That would depend upon your market conditions.
Q. How do loganberries do?
214
APPLi: GHOWING IX TIIE PACIFIC XOUTIIWEST
Bianrli of aiii)les from Pullman, Washington.
A. Thej^ do reiiiarkfihly well and bring good returns. They are
going to grow in popularity. A frnit jniee is ])eiiig nuule from the
loganberry that is very popular.
Q. How about tomatoes"?
A. This is not a tomato country. We eannot (Mmipete with Ihe
warmer sections. Tlie nights are too cold.
Q. IIoAv about celery?
A. Celery is all right.
Q. Would ycni tile land?
A. The greater portion of the Willamette Valley land should be
tiled. Land should be tiled three and one-half feet deep and loll to
2r)0 feet apart. ]\Iost of the Washington ('ouid>- farms are tile di-aiiied.
These tiles average about 800 feet ai)art.
Q. Would you use a silo?
THE ,S.MAI,L FAKM ANU IIOW TO iNIAKK IT I'AY
215
A. T wonld not use a silo in Western Oregon. I would reeoni-
mend kale instead. A silo is too expensive to maintain on a smnn
farm. One ton of kale is worth tAvo tons of silage.
Q. Does kale exhaust the soil?
Yes, but the cow Avill put it back again. She fattens tlie
A.
ground
Q.
A.
Would you recommend buying day-old chicks'?
That is all right. It is quite an industry in California, but
be sure to get stock that you can depend on.
Q. Does the college sell them?
A. We do not sell them. Prof. Dryden is working a plan of
setting four hens, and when the chicks come off, they are given to two
of the hens and the other two are put l)ack to lay again.
Q. How do you apply the droppings from the hens?
A. Just mix them with soil and sow that broadcast over the
ground. Use about half and half of soil and droppings. Fifty hens
will fertilize an acre of orchard.
Q. Do you set the kale plants out?
A. Sow them like cabbage, then set them out three feet apart.
Thej^ Avill stand a temperature anywhere from ten above zero.
Q. Don't these tile drains soon fill up.
No, they rem.ain open indefinitely.
There is some of the white land that does not seem to produce
A.
Q-
much ?
A.
All that it needs is drainage. There is no land in the valley
that will require closer than 150-foot tiling.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11