Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-02-12
FRUIT GROWING
SHOWS PROMISE
Prune Evaporating Re-
ceiving More At
tention.

InS lnsttu& Vi tHc auStho AAoAlr
cultural society i'm Twin Falls brought
out a great deal OF valuable discus
sion ON questions of vital interest to
the fruit industry of the state. II
was developed that the futune OF the
industry was highly encouraging,
movements now ON foot promising
much benefit. This was true par
ticularly with respect to the prame
| industry
Professor C. C. Vincent % the de-
partment # horticulture, Univ Tsity
of Idaho, exhibited an interesting
collection of evaporated fruits Illus
trating the work that the department
Is undertaking, showing that II iS
practicable for the family or the
neighborhood to engage In the evapur-
ation of surplus fruit and to develop
menchamtable product at moderate
expense. The cost of labor and
fuel used i'm eyaporating the apples
was given at two and une1ourtih cents
per pound. Forty-five bushels, two
thousand and sdxtythree pounds OF
Arkansas Blacks. developed 22S
pounds of the dry product Figures
were given Relating to comparative
results secured evaporating Ben na-
Wis, Rome Beauty and Winesap. The
evaporated product from the Ben Da-
Wis proved to be Iightest in color and
most attractive I'm appearance.
Ci j. Smsel of Boise, In discussing
the Italian prlne. mentioned that
cert bin capitalists would meet him In
Boise ON February IL to discuss tho
establishments of an evaDoratdng
plant involving an expenditure OF
from fifty thousand dollars to Gevemty-
| five thousand dollars, provided q
sufficient number OF orchardists would
contract their entire crop for
period of five yeaHa at a set price. OF
propably SIS to 1850 pea tom. Capi-
talists could not afford to establish a
plant unless they could be assured OF
a sufficient quantity of fruit fOr ell
cessfll and profitable evaporation
Ma. Sfnsel and other speakers favor
ed contracting with am establishment
of this character and thus standard
ize the work OF growing the Italian
prune A positive contract with d
responsible company for term OF
years at a reasonable price would
give stability and value to the uahan
prune orchards.
| w. M. Mckinney stated that the
prune industry lis now passing from
the green to the dry stage, the market
for the green prune Us not umlimited
but there seems to be AN excellent
outlet for the dry prune. He dis
cussed different methods OF drying.
commencing that established by
Miles Cannon of Weiser. A plant
costing seven thousand five hundred
dollars was large enough to handle
one thousand tons of fruit. Mr.. Nc
Birney reported that usually one hum
dred pounds of green prunes would
develop 33 to 35 pounds OF dried
product, ON the present market devab
oping value OF above $26 per ton
for the green prune. Comparing the
cost of evaporating the Italian pr7lns
with coal as compared with the Call
fornia method of drying by sun heat
since the cost of coal rs only one
quarter cent per pound for fruit the
Idaho method was preferable PruneS
for evaporation are allowed to re-
| main ON the trees until quite ripe
and then are gathered from the
ground as they fall. making frequent
pickings from time to time.
The Italian prune, with its large
sugar content, rapidly exhausts the
fertility of the soil. Orchards 16 to
20 years of age showing decay and
exhaustion simply require cultivation
and heavy application of such fertdl-
| izers as cam be secured One OF their
40.acre orchards of prunes, said MT.
McBirney, was fortunately located
alongside OF took feeding plant
from which they have been able to
| secure year after year large amount
of excellent manure. Application OF
10 loads per acre for series on
years had maintained the fertility OF
the soil and the orchard was now
i'm the best possible condition and
highly productive at the age OF III
years.