The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1899-10-27
-CommlssIonele schanno,s Report.

I
= Commissioner Schann0's Reports
Hon. Emil Schanno, horticultural
commissioner for the fifth district, has
made his quarterly report to the state
board Of horticulture, from which we
take the following extracts; IS
Since July lst | have visited various
portions Of my district, and particularly
such portions as have orchards infested
with San Jose scale. This pest, so plen-
tiful two and three years ago, is rapidly
disappearing from our fruit, The ma
jority Of the old orchardists seem now to
better understand the method Of dealing
with the scale, spraying systematically
with lime, sulphur and salt, and hence
experience no further difficulty in rid
ding their trees of the pest A few eE-
ceptional cases are noted, however for
example, where the owners OF some ef
the old orchards have leased their places
and moved away. | propose next year.
however, 10 make an example Of somg
OF these non-residents by seeing that the
law is promptly enforced, unless they
give their fruit trees the necessary care
and attention to protect them from the
ravages OF San Jose scale, Goblin moth,
and SO on. "+.-'. rvs,
The fruit crop, on the. whole, did not
come up to expectations this season; at
least, the fruitmen generally expected n
larger crop. At the same time the prices
obtained for the fruit have been quite
satisfactory to the growers. The sui
gestions which I offered to fruit growers
at our meeting IN June, that they load
their fruit into the cars and sell the
same outright to some fruit buyer who
is on the ground, thus being relieved Of
the burden OF assuming all risks incl
dent to shipping East on commission
and upon their own responsibility !
feei'ias -i5een sAs seed sUw1i- IN good
ground. The majority OF the shippers
in the vicinitysot HE. .Dalles disposed OF
their fruit jp this manner this ,snmmer,'
obtaining good prizes f0r it. q, / certainly
believe that thBtA1is the safest and best
way to hdndte' large consignments of
fruit, and will be the only way,in which
fruit Wilt be Slipped in the future.
Shippers ares becQming weary OF taking
cha nees in dealiHgdrectly with Eastern
commission houses, paying freight bills,
and possibly losing their fruit, etc, as
has been the case in several instances
in the past. The best way as j. .h9Ye
deised, is to dispose ,of the fruit, To- a
buyer as soon as the car is loaded.
/ have found this-seaspn that the Ital-
ian prunes are badly affected with q Pc
cpliar Kind Of blight, and | am as yet
unable to determine the real cause
therefor. The blight seems to have left
its damaging traces, upon the leaves of
the trees. ~ \ 1t is . mystery. to
iDe to determine to what source this
leafy blight might be attributed. 8
Tam firmly OF the opinion that one OF
the greatest needs of this state, at least
50 far, as horticulture is concerned, is the
permanent assignment OF some compe-
tent. person, an expert, whose sole duty
1T should be TO treat upon the various
'fungous. Diseases that are peculiar TO
Oregon fruit; for example, the apple
canker, the pear blight, the tomato
blight, etc. Several OF these specialists
are .stationedin different Sedtions ofBal-
ifornia, and it seems to me that nothing
would be lost by having somebody in
Oregon to- cope with the difficulties that
continually confront thesOrchardist as.
well as the fruit commissioners, vile are
not generally in u position to deal with
these things as would be an expert. .,0f,
course, wes' have. the experiment. station
at Corvallis, but the fact is that the pro-
fessors- there have not sufficient time
properly to attend 10 such cases of dis.
eased fruit trees as-G come to their notice;
hence the need ofiar man to devote his
Undivided attention thereto. Two OF
such experts would not be too many.
One might be stationed in the western
parto of Oregon .-orgW aEhngton, for that
matter, Somewhere west OF the Cascade
mountains Ahother might give his
time to the fruit in Eastern 0regoRand
Washington, Under such an assign
ment, am sure each man would find
snfIicient work to- l'keep'his time occul
pied. In Eastern Oregon especially
competentf fr1it specialist would have
his hands full for awhile analyzing some
Of the soils in Which our orchards ore
grown. Some carelessness is clearly &p-
parent in the eastern part of mydistrict,
where many trees are suffering because
Of hayifg been set out in soils BY no
means adapted to'the growing OF fruit;
and a Specialist If he We're III the. field
now, might be directly instrumental, by
analysis of the soils, etc, in remedying
ALI such mistakes. Thus in the course
Of a few years the. fruit sections egsteof
here would be prosperous and thriving
where they are now so woefully scant
and Improbable.