Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1911-03-10
APPLE NDUSTRY'S need
UP-To-DATE AND INTENSIVE
METHODS MUST BE USED.
horticultural Expert Gives Instruc-
tions Regarding Planting, Prun-
ing, Culture and Marketing.

THE great need of the apple indus
try in the Willamette Valley is NOR,
up-to-date and intensive methods,
according to- Professor c. T. Lewis
who was one of the principal speak.
ers at the recent horticultural meetine
held in Dallas.
I'VE must use more care in the Sc
lection Of our orchard sites" he con-
tinued. Gently rolling locations that
have good air and soil drainage and
good depth of soil, preferably the clay
loans, should be selected. One-year
old trees should be insisted upon.
These should be headed low, from IS
to 20 inches, and an attempt should
be made to keep the branches from
growing out at nearly the same point
by careful summer watching the
first season we can develop much bet
ter heads to our trees. We should
give the trees plenty Of room to grow,
too. When they are on strong bottom
land, 80 to 35 feet will be needed for
proper growth, while hill lands will
stand closer planting. Deep and inten-
and the young roots should be encour-
aged to strike deeper. Follow this
with frequent shallow soil cultivation, /
not over three inches in depth, new
er allowing the ground to become /
caked or to dry out. In the young
orchard cultivation should cease about
the first of August, so that the trees
,rtfIII
not winter-kill. Old, heavy bearing
orchards will need intensive cultiva-
ton late into September In many
cases.
Cover Crops.
Nearly all our older orchards and
many Of the new orchards planted on
fallow wheat fields should be sown to
cover crops. About 40 pounds of Or
egon vetch and 10 or Is pounds of
rye to the acre, drilled in at the first
of August, is very satisfactory in this
valley This should be plowed under in
the spring, at the time when we nat
urally plow the orchard.
Pruning must be followed annual
ly Severe heading in and thinning
out the first three years, following
with light annual prunings in subse-
quent years, should be the rule About
the third or fourth summer light
summer prunings from the first to the ,
of July will aid in bringing d
The trees into bearing.
The hardest point for decision is
hat of the choice of varieties to plant :"
)ne must simply choose from among "
uch leading varieties as Yellow New
own, Grimes Golden, Jonathan, King
# Tompkins County, Gravenstein,
Northern Spy, and Spitzenberg. h,
should only be planted 81
n deep, rich, but not too heavy soils, In
}ith sun exposure. ge
Need of Training. he
I'VE need to have better orchards, wi
nd much better methods of handling bc
ur crops. Very few men in the Will IA
lmette Valley can put up a CONNER ch
ial box of apples. They should either NO
ttend the apple packing school held nj,
lch winter at the College, or apply hi,
II packing school IN their COM by
unity each fall. These can be con- fa,
ucted in various parts of the valley wa
very small expense to each com on
unity. flo,
"One great advantage in the Will wi
mette Valley is its abundance of MIA
eap lands. One can. in many sec an,
1ns, bring apples into bearing at a ass
tai cost of $3.50 an acre. That will
y annually from 800 to 5000 an
re, with proper methods of hand
&. This makes a safe investment.
I'VE need to encourage more people she
come out and settle among us and cen
y 30 or 40 acres of fruit lands. The was
acre unit is the cheapest one to citi
lelop, as one man and pair of the
rses can do the greater part of the info
rk, and it Will not cost much more Roo
develop 40 acres than TO- The 10 recC
e apple orchard, under ordinary maj
lditions is too small, and is not pop
e investment for the average man." sus