The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-02-16

Hu maus the largest wood
growth. Then when it came time to
mature the fruit the immense amount
OF foliage took up SO much of the
water that it was impossible to de.
Velop the fruit to the proper size.
The happy medium, therefore, Is a
sufficient amount of water to deyeIop
a normal size tree-not an excass
that develops water sprouts and sappy
wood, rather light application OF
water in the earlier part of the season
SO as not to stimulate too much wood
growth, but an abundance at the time
when the fruit is ripening and the
fruit buds are developing.
i saw an orchard this year in which
Everything that / have described to
you so far had been done and appar
emily well done-the orchard was
bearing from nine to twelve hundred
bushels of apples per acre and yet
the crop was practically worthless
There is, therefore, one more factor
to be considered, and that is thin.
ming. This orchard was a Gano. Jon.
athan, Ben Davis orchard of about fit.
teen years old, and each tree had
three to five thousand little bits of
understood, shrunken apples. The
apples were of little value and the
trees were breaking down and being
ruined. II half or two-thirds of those
apples had been thinned out in the
beginning of the season, the remain
! der would have produced a crop as
heavy as the trees could bear of bet.
ter developed and standard size apples.
There would have been enough vitality
in the tree to develop fruit buds for
another year and everybody would
have been happy. AS it is, the or
chardist got an immense crop of I'm.
salable fruit and next year his or.
chard will not bear at all, since it is
| impossible for a tree to feed fruit
buds under such an excessive load
Two or three cents expended in thin
ming would have made so cents differ.
ence in the worth Of these apples in
the fall
And, by the way, while / think OF
it, let me suggest to you that you be-
| gin thinning as soon as young trees
| first begin to bear. The first year or so
| that a young orchard begins bearing
| the crop is not worth the expense of
spraying and handling, the trees need
all of their energy to develop frame
work for carrying the loads of the fu-
ture years and in every way it is bet
ter to pull on the few apples that APP
pear here and there; and vet to the
man that is developing the young or
chard it is too much like pulling
tooth to pull of one of these apples.
For this reason it is good discipline.
| If you begin at that time and learn
to pull apples OF in order to make
greater profits in the future, it will
not be hard to keep it up and proper
ly thin your fruit when the orchard
reaches the bearing age.
And even after all this is done, the
problem of fruit growing has not yet
been solved. With a fine crop of
standard sized, sound fruit on his
trees, the orchardist faces the prob
lem of picking, packing and market
ing, and right here there have been
more failures in the past than in any
other part of the work, except pos
Esibly spraying. l know two neighbors
with orchards side by side where one
of them received 21a cents per bushel
for his apples more than they cost.
while the other man received so, and
right at this point, let me tell you.
comes the parting of the ways. 1t is
one business to handle ground, to cul-
tivate, to irrigate, to prune and to
spray, and it is another business to
grade and market fruit, and in my
travels through the fruit sections of
the western part of America. have
become more and more satisfied that
those valleys which have been most
uniformly successful in the marketing
Of their fruit are the ones that have
placed this part of the work in the
hands of the business man, regardless
of his knowledge of orchards and soils
One of the best fruit handlers that
have ever come in contact with is as
helpless as a baby when you get him
away from his warehouse and into
the orchard, and on the other nand,
some of the worst failures in the mar.
keting end have been made by pre-
viously successful fruit growers.
The western orchardist has a won
derful opportunity; the choicest soils,
the neyer-ending sunshine and an
abundance of irrigation water are his. |
Nature has been lavish in her boun-
ties. Everything that goes to make |
success is before him. What he must
furnish is intelligent supervision. en-. !
ergetic prosecutions, and love of his !
calling, tempered by conservative |
business sense. These are the essen
tials of success in any line, but in no |
line OF human endeavor will they |
give greater return in liberty, pros
perity and security than in western
orchard management.
Borrowed trouble cannot be paid |
back.