Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1910-11-08

state where the yield of the soil is
either phenomenally large, swamping
all transportation facilities, or dis
couragingly meager
In Illinois it is said that the apple
crop is larger than usual, but, 1t is
added, there is no market for the
product except at prices that Will not
pay for picking and shipping. Thls,
at first thought, is astounding, II true,
for with a short crop of apples in
states Immediately west of the Mis-
souri, River, and the great cities of
Chicago, st. Louis and Kansas City
in the market belt of the Mississippi
Valley to be supplied, it would seem
that a large apple yield in Illinois
would mean substantial profits to or
chardists.
The trouble, no doubt, is in the
quality of the apples grown Compar-
atively speaking, growers do not raise
apples there. That is to say, the sci
entific principles of apple-groWing
have not been applied to the orchards
of the eastern valley of the Mississippi.
The gnarled trees in many orchard
tracts have fought for their lives, un-
aided by the farmer, for years against
the bitter Winters and Summer
droughts of that region; in their neg
lected condition they bear but gnarly
grabbed fruit. Pruning, as known to
the horticulturist of the Pacific North
west. is unknown there; spraying is
too much trouble to the farmer who
depends for the returns from his Ia
bors upon the corn yield The apple
crop is not the crop sought for by
these farmers. Corn, pork and wheat
and dairy products they can depend
upon and time is not wasted on apples.
Again, those Eastern farmers have
not learned and, indeed, have never
had the incentive to learn, how to
put up a fancy pack of apples such
as carries buyers off their feet SO to
speak, with eagerness to buy, and
makes the mouths water of the dwell
ers of New York, to the tune of 70
cents per Alphabetically paid. This
art was developed upon the Pacific
Coast, primarily at Hood River,
Oregon and Washington now sends
the 'fancy pack" in carload lots to
Eastern markets.
For these reasons, apple-growing
pays and will continue to pay, in the
Pacific Northwest. First, we have a
climate in which highly cultivated and
hence susceptible orchard trees do not
| I, oil hn1C ff
cultvating pruning, spraying, thin
ming, picking and packing, reduced
each in its line to a science. Dominat-
ing all is the enthusiasm that these
methods, and their results in fine,
slightly and toothsome fruit and in
sudden fortunes, has developed.
1t is not surprising, therefore, that
Oregon apples find ready and profit
able markets in Eastern cities, while
farmers of Illinois complain that
there Is no money in apples, content
themselves with marketing a few bar
rels at most in a good apple year and
turn their hogs into the orchard to
finish the disposal of the crop. For
obvious reasons this is true, for rea-
sons equally obvious the apple crop
is profitable in Oregon. While tons of
apples of inferior grade-for lack of
hogs to eat them-rot upon the
ground in Oregon orchards every
year. only the cream of the crop being
sent to market, there are yet other
tons and tons that find their way to
purchasers at high prices through the
medium of the fancy pack"
Pessimists say that this cannot last,
but orchardists of the Pacific North
west do not share this opinion. On the
contrary, they see one prosperous
year following another in the apple in
dustry in each one if not "A fortune, a
compe nce.-Oregonian.