The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-02-15
FRUIT GROWERS
FORM SOCIETY

One thing our grower must bear in
mind Is that the marketing of the
Hood River apple crop is different
proposition today from what 1t was
ten years ago. Today we have an ar
tiele that has standing with the
trade-namely, our Newtowns and
Spitzenbergs. Ii has a certain fixed
value on the market, and our system
of business should be such that our
fruit should be sold merely on its own
merits. Its value should be deter
mined only by the law of supply and
demand and we sholud cooperate, so
that we will never be at the mercy of
the juggling Of buyers and commission
men.
This Is the age of specialism; that
being the case, let us concentrate our
efforts to three or four Of the best va
rieties of apples that we can raise, and
let us Co operate In the marketing of
the same, so as to avoid competition
among ourselves.
In answer to a question from Leslie
Butler why he did not mention Wine
aaps, Mr.. Franz said that this variety
of apple in Hood River valley usually
grew one-third four tier, one-third
four and half tier and one.third five
tier, and for that reason 1t was diff
cult to get good price for them.
In answer to another question as to
what he thought was the best soil to
produce high color in Spitzenbergs,
Mr.. Franz stated that experience had
shown that soil where oak trees had
grown and a location that had IA
southern exposure and plenty of sun
light had been found to be best.
Pruning" was the topic selected
for ID. Ii. Sears, and he advised grow
ing "a full tree with as many inside
limbs as possible, thereby causing the
trees to bear full and heavy and keep
ing out the sunlight. This, he
thought, produced "A far better COM
mercial tree than any other way.
Il. W. Angus talked on "Observa.
tions of Our Pack and Suggestions "
Mr.. Angus told how the present
method of packing apples could be
improved on, although he said that
the Hood River pack was the best that
had been put in use. lie advocated
more care in packing apples in the
future.
Appolination was j. I. PorteI's
theme, and results of eXperim ents he
said we're to the effect that polliniza.
tion was necessary to all fruit trees,
although the genealogical department
of the Government held to the con
trary. lie told what he thought we're
the best trees for this purpose for
Newtowns and Spitzenbergs, but stat
cd that there was great deal to be
learned on the subject and that he
was still experimenting.
G. IL. Sproat endorsed the co-ope-
rative plan tor marketing fruit estab
lished here and urged the organiza
tion Of unions as the best plan to Sc
cure this result. That any kind of an
organization was better than trying
to market the fruit individually.
Ray Brock explained the method of
manufacturing pure culture cider rs
carried on In Germany with the use
of yeast taken from the fermentation
of grapes used for making wine. |
Some Of the cider thus made was on
exhibition and WAS pronounced very
good by those who tasted it.
In his talk about diseases of trees
q. Il. Castner explained the nature of
anthragnose and said that the most |
effective remedy that had been found |
for it was the Bordeaux mixture. |
Mr.. Castner exhibited piece of a
limb affected with anthragnose which
hs used in demonstrating his talk and
showed how the disease manifested |
itself by finally encireling limb and
destroying 1t.
j. l.. Carter told all about the dead
ly effect of fungus, saying that it was
more dangerous than San Jose Scale |
or anthragnose and more difficult to
contend with. lie stated that the Bor-
deaux mixture was the best prevent
ative of the disease aud also the best
remedy for it.
The last topic on the program was
"Thinning." b. T. Tucker was asked
to speak on this subject and made one
of the most interesting talks of the
meeting. Mr.. Tucker gave descrip-
tion of how he had set out his or
chard, saying that it was small one
and that he had planted six rows of