The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-01-15
Edited by F. Walden

designate the highest grade OF our
fruits as fancy fruit" Some of our
leading horticulturists have objected to
this adjective in designating the finest
fruit. but it looks now as if this classi-
fication has come to stay notwithstand-
ing this objection. No fruit can ever
properly be classed as fancy that is
dull in color. Red is the color that
outshines all others. There are some
exceptions to this but other things be-
ing equal, the red apple especially will
take the lead.
It is scarcely necessary to say that
location plays an important part in
this matter of color What are the
essential factors in order to have high
color? They are sunshine heat, and
water Where these are lacking or de-
ficient, good color in apples can not
be secured. Just how nature paints
the beautiful red cheeks of apples we
may not know, but we do know that
this wonderful painting can not go on
successfully where either one of these
three factors is lacking. Our plant
psychologists tell us that the transfor-
nation of the crude sap into the elab-
grated sap can not take place in alb
sence of sunlight. A tree in some Of
it's functions rests at night, and needs
this rest as we'll as a man does, but
continual rest would ruin any kind of
fruit But heat is just as essential
as sunlight. We may not know why
heat is so essential in this coloring,
but we do know that where it is lack
ing the color is deficient. have seen
the old much abused Ben Davis raised
down in our warm valleys put by the
side of their brothers raised in the cold
foot hills. Only an expert would de-
eide them to be the same variety
It may be thought by some people
that water has nothing to do in the
coloring of apples. This is a great
mistake. Sometimes we find in the
fall of the year that a tree in our or
chard has been poorly watered. The
apples on that tree will be dull in
color and the fruit will be tough and
leathery and lack in quality. Any one
who raises fruit by irrigation knows
that such results are common. The
function of water in the growing and
ripening fruit is to carry the food ma
terials from the roots to the leaves
where they meet the carbon from the
air and there, under the influence of
sunlight and heat, are formed carbohy-
drates, fats and proteids; then the
water transports these foods to the
different parts of the tree. Without
this water the prepared food will not
be transported to the growing fruit and
it will grow sckly and never reach
the rosy bloom that is needed in the
highest color. The time that our ap-
pies need the water most for this COL
oring is when the fruit is nearly grown.
If we practice irrigation, we can sup
ply our trees with this needed water
| Just at the right time, but where we
cannot irrigate we must in some way
conserve the moisture by cultivation or
by mulching, for the tree must have
| the water at this critical time or the
fruit will lack in color in size and in
quality.
The location having been secured for
an orchard, the next step is to put the
soil in good condition. Nearly all our
soils are rich enough in their natural
state for the growth of trees. If the
soil has been in cultivation for a num-
Der of years, it may need replenishing.
That which it is most likely to need