The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1903-12-24

origin, of the right texture to be easily
worked, and also containing sufficient
mineral salts in an available form that
artificial fertilizers have not seemed nee
essary The growers are now planting on
ly those varieties of highest quality such
as Spitzenburg and Newtown, and are
planting them "a to 80 feet apart. They
spray very thoroughly every two weeks
from the time the blossoms fall until
September with Bordeaux mixture
and white arsenic, aiming to keep the
apples entirely covered with coating
of the spary to defeat the Goblin moth
Thinning the fruit is almost invaria-
bly, practiced in this section because
the trees tend to overbearing, which is
very evident when one can count from
eight to II props under the limbs of
each tree in an eight-year-old orchard,
and because where two apples touch
there is left spot on each which is
free from spray, and which fact the
Goblin moth is not long in finding
out. 1t is in giving the very clospst
attention to these seemingly small de-
tails that several of these orchardists
have been able to harvest 95 per cent
of perfect fruit. In picking the apples,
the orchards are gone over three or
more times, picking only the mature
fruit each time, which allows all the
fruit to stay on the tree until it is the
best possible product.
was unable to learn of any trouble
from the canker worm in the Pacific
coast orchards, and it is not unusual
to see only the one branch which con-
tains the apples sprayed of young
tree while the rest is left bare, thereby
saving time and material, but the ma
terial is not saved where there are
apples; in fact, when was there (Octo-
ber y the apples and leaves were so
white with spray that it was hard to
distinguish them when driving along
the road OF course, each apple has TO
be wiped off before packing. The trees
are headed low, so that the highest
branches are reached from low step
stool. No ladders ale used.
The apples are packed in the boxes
by professional packers who are noli-
fled beforehand when the grower will
be ready for them. They are paid $500
per day, and average so boxes each per
day, which makes the cost five cents
per box for wrapping in paper and
packing. The box contains exactly
one hushel and the usual grade is
called four-tier box containing 81
apples. However, of the larger varie-
ties it only takes three tiers to fill the
box (45 apples) The growers have
learned that after growing this kind of
apples and getting them packed uni
fornIly in boxes it is IA comparatively
easy matter to sell them, so this season.
they simply pooled their product and
advertised for bids with the above
mentioned results. Fig. 3l3 shows a
four-yeaT-old Wagner apple tree in
the orchard of Sears & Porter that
yielded over four boxes of apples
this season which sold for ~ per box.
The tree originally came from u West
ern New York nursery.
Most of this fruit goes to Asiatic
ports, since it can be carried across
the Pacific at cost of 20 cents per
box as compared with 80 cents per box
to New York and 81 .06 to either London
or Liverpool via New York. 1t is inter-
esting to note that there are practically
no Ben Davis being planted now in that
section, although the orchard acreage
is increasing rapidly, and | believe |
have learned some of the reasons why
Oregon Spitzenburgs retail on Broad
way at "two for quarter" each year
at holiday time.