The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1920-07-02
COMMUNICATED.
Oroville. Wash, June 80, 1920

| OTONlllc, w dSll., June ~, lJSO.
Editor Dallam.
Dear Sir:-Having just returned
from a trip to Missouri, think owe
it to the district to report some things
that have seen, that we may know
what to plant in our valley.
In the first place let me remind your
that orchard planting in the great
states of the Mississippi basin, is al
most thing of the past. Every year
| more trees are torn out than are
planted. l had seen this in Iowa, Illi-
nois, Indiana and elsewhere, but the
most striking demonstration was when
saw my brothers farm near War
rensburg, Missouri. Twenty-Five years
ago he had about forty acres in orch
ard. Today he has not enough trees to
bear apples enough for his own use.
And that is typical of that whole sec
ton where formerly were hundreds OF
acres of orchards. Farmers no longer
pretend to raise fruit for their own
tables.
The reason is that so often early
warm weather brings out the fruit
buds in time for them to be frozen.
That happens so often that the few
good crops that are grown cannot
bring the average up to reasonable
income on the investment. Another
reason is that one must spray there as
we'll as here with the additional handi-
cap of frequent rains that wash off
the spray materials. Furthermore, it
does not pay to learn orcharding
where crops are so uncertain, so no
one really knows how or cares to take
first class care of an orchard.
Even the plums in that section are
subject to insect pests. The plum cur
culio is as injurious to plums and ap
ricots as is the codling moth to ap-
pies. AS for cherries, only the sour
cherries do well in the central states.
and peaches are very uncertain. The
only apricOts raised are Russian seed
lings, never a fine fruit, and very un-
certain in bearing They are practical
ly extinct by this time. Prunes have
never been grown in that section, bur
This means that if those states are
to have the fruit that they really ne41
for good health, they must get 1t from
the mounain regions, east or west
They can get apples from the east, but
not apricOts or prunes, which are
special Pacific Coast products. The
time will lnever come,.When th4re will
be enough of these fruits to supply the
demand when put on the market prop.
erly. l did not price prunes, but did |
price apricots. ! found fresh apricots |
of medium size retailing for zoe per I,
dozen, and dried apricots at soc per |
pound. If every acre of apricot and |
prune land in the United States were |
bearing heavy crops each year-I mean |
every acre that could be planted with |
a reasonable expectation of crops-it |
would be impossible to raise enough of !
those fruits to supply the demand.
This valley, and especially this dis
these fruits. The sooner our land is all |
planted to them, the better for all OF
us.
This brings me to the one thing that |
| wish to say to the planters of this |
valley. We have chance right now to |
arrange for having a lot of peach,
apricot, prune, plum and Yakimine |
trees grown on contract for us if We
move at once. The Columbia and Okla
hogan Nursery company of Wenatchee
which l am representing here, has
about 100000 peach seedlings ready to
bud. They can bud them to the above
named fruit, but they do not care to
risk such a large lot for their own
trade. They will, therefore, either en-
ter into contract with other nurseries
to raise trees for them unless we ia ie
action here.
They are making us this offer if VIC
will contract to buy any considerable
of trees to be budded in July
or August and to be delivered by the
spring of 1922, we can get them for
half price or less, according to the.
number We take. We wiuld have to pay |
one cent per tree when the budding is
done, and make several more small
but nothing compared to the amount to |
be saved; for when you cut the present
prices of fruit trees in two it amounts !
to something |
There ought to be 10000 apricots |
plum, peach and prune trees planted
in the spring of 1922. 1t is to the inter |
est of every land owner in the valley |
that this should be done. 1t is much |
more likely to be done if the trees can
be bought for half price, and this is
our time to arrange for that. | have
done all that l could to encourage the
c. & o., people to go ahead and grow
this stock for us at their own risk, but
they have had experience in plantins |
too many trees and throwing their
profits away when good trees were on
their hands unsold.
We ought to have these trees. We
natchee grown trees are the best for
us to set out, because they are grown
under irrigation, and enabling the nur
serymen to push the growth of the tree
in the early summer, then decrease the
water and ripen it up before winter.
Furthermore, they can be shipped from
the nursery to the delivery yard in one
day, thus laying them down to us in
better shape than trees grown further
away.
If we had a good strong, co-opera-
tive association, it would be easy eno-
ugh to arrange this. but We have not
Unfortunately the time is short, as
budding time is about here. We must
act at once if at all If the land owners
that are interested will drop me n
card, telling me how many trees Of
each kind, peach, apricot. plum and
prune, they are willing to contract for