The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1903-03-13
THE INSTITUTE.
An Interesting Gathering Of
Fruit Growers in Hood River.
Continued from second page.)


Dr. Withycombe-How much do you
put on?
Chas Chandler-About so to rs
pounds to the acre.
DR.. Withycombe-Yes, that is the
amount we use, and land plaster is just
what we need
Prof. Knisely--Wh a man plants
red clover Is there not a tendency to run
out? He will get pretty good crop the
first year, a fine crop the second year,
and then the clover will fail. How
long can you keep clover in before you
plow it up?
DR.. Withycombe-It depends a great
deal upon the land. Here they can
grow longer than they can with us. We
cannot let clover 60 over two years, but
here you can let it stand four or five
years. think the root borer will be in
troduced here sooner or later, then in
two or three years your clover fields
will have to be plowed and renewed.
Chas. Chandler-W With me the timo-
thy crowds the clover out.
DIR. Withycombe-Yes that's true.
will tell you how it is in the valley. In
the early days we could not grow timo-
thy hay satisfactorily. But we began
sowing timothy with clover, the first
year the timothy and clover were nearly
equal, the second year it was about two
thirds timothy, and the third year it
was almost ali timothy
f. l.. Smith-Is not the timothy a
poorer hay than any Of the clovers?
DR.. Withycombe-Ye sir, but it is a
good hay for horses subject to hard
work, feeding it with heavy rations of
grain.
Chas. Chandler - | would always
rather have clover and timothy mixed
than clear clover.
f. 2. Friday-What do you use for
fertilizer on your lawns?
PROT Knisely-They use wood ashes.
DR.. Withycombe-Do they not use a
combination?
Prof Knisely-Yes, sir, but don't
know just what it is.
Dr. Withycombe Nitrate Of soda
would be better than that think.
Prof. Knisely--A good fertilizer is
wood ashes, but should be put on thinly,
If you put it on in shovelfulls you will
kill your grass.
DR.. Withycombe-You must be care
ful in the use OF commercial fertilizers,
very careful or you will kill your
plants. One OF our citizens at Cor
wallis sowed guano on his grass very
generously and killed every spear of it.
Here during a breathing spell B. X.
Tucker brought up to the chairman's
stand some fine samples of Arkansaw
Blacks and Yellow Newtowns. which
were admired and commented on by
those near at hand and led to some gen
eral conversation respecting the COM
paratiye merits of the Oregon and the
Michigan apple. Prof. Knisely being a
native of Michigan, thought the apples
grown there now are not so good as
were those he ate there when boy. 1t
was intimated that he had been eating
better quality OF fruit here, perhaps,
was what caused the change; but the
general opinion was that a quarter to a
half century's experience in the world
has tendency to clear away the CLAM
our that lowered over and surrounded
us in the days OF our youth, and we now
see things as the are. Speaking Of the
apple called to the chairmans mind a
little incident that occurred atthe world's
fair at Buffalo. The Michigan fruit ex-
hibit was arranged along side the Oregon
show,and the chairman, who was visiting
the fruit displays, remarked to the gen
ial attendant i'll charge OF the Michigan
apples, 81 don't understand how you
can enjoy such a reputation for fine
apples, when they are evidently so very
much inferior to our Oregon fruit" The
attendants eyes twinkled as he solemnly
replied
He who whispers down well
About the things he has to sell,
Will never reap bright, golden dollars
Like he who climbs tree and hollers."
Resuming, Professor Knisely spoke of
the Texture of the Soil he said:
We hear more or less about the texture
of the soil and will tell you something
about what it means. We know what
will make up the soil with reference to
making it loose or friable, when | tell
about its having a fine texture or a
coarse texture. In the department OF
agriculture at Washington there is one
bureau that devotes all its time to the
study Of the soil. They are making
hundreds Of experiments and analyses
they can sort out the different kinds OF
soil. They take sample of the soil and
see how much OF it will go through a
coarse sieve, then they see how much
will go through a finer sieve, and so on.
In this way they learn how much
coarse gravel there is in given sample,
then how much fine gravel, then how
much coarse sand, then fine sand, and
then very fine sand, and then sand that
is still finer that they call silt, and then
finer still that they call clay. This
has all been brought about within the
past few years. Before that time every
thing that was done was accomplished
by chemical analysis; but it was found
that these analyses did not tell all about
the soil. For instance, you will take
a chemical analysis and find one sample
OF soil rich in plant food, and another
sample comparatively poor in its supply
OF plant food, then when the crops are
grown on these two soils, the one having
smallest amount of plant food prodnced
a more abundant crop than that with
the greater supply. SO there they
found something they did not know
about the soil. To illustrate further,
a gentleman took hammer and knocked
chunk off of rock from the corner
of his house, then he went out in the
road and picked up some hard cloddy
clay, and then again soil from the very
best land he had, of the very best text
ure. These he had analysed and found
that the rock had more plant food in 1t
than either of the other two sam
pies, but the rock did net produce any
thing, and the clay contained the next
highest supply OF plant food, but pro-
duced no more than the rock, while the
soil of fine texture, although poorest IN
its supply OF plant food raised an abund-
ant crop. The rock, OF course, had no
texture, no humus in it, and it proves
that no matter how rich your soil may
NAV be in plant food the soil must be IN
"A condition to make that plant food
available OF it will be worthless.
From an examination OF the soils
around Hood River among the straw
berries, think the texture cannot be
improved very much, but it can be in
iured ureat deal / want to try and