Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Washington State Library; Olympia, WA
Newspaper Page Text
Page One line of business intimately and vitally connected with fruit growing is the nursery business. I take pleas ure in laying before our readers the following circular, which is self-ex planatory: "The various committees which are at work for the convention of the American Association of Nurserymen at Milwaukee, in June, report that this meeting will likely be one of the larg est and best in the history of the or ganization. The programme committee is arranging an excellent programme, and the entertainment committee will have plenty of diversion for those who attend. One feature of the entertain ment will likely be an excursion to Lake Geneva, near Milwaukee, where are located many beautiful summer homes, and where some very fine orna mental planting may be seen. "In arranging the programme, all parts of the country are to be repre sented. M. McDonald, Salem, Ore., will discuss "Horticultural Inspection Laws as They Affect Nurserymen," and H. Harold Hume, Glen St. Mary, Fla., will read a paper on "Semi-Tropical Thoughts for the Nurseryman." The increasing interest in pecan culture, especially in the Southern states, will be recognized by a paper by H. D. Simpson, Vincennes, Ind., on the sub ject of "The Pecan." Others who have been asked to take places on the pro gramme are Judge Eugene W. Stark, Louisiana, Mo.; J. M. Pitkin, Roches ter, N. V.; D. Hill, Dundee, 111.; Dr. Jordan, of the Geneva (N. V.) Experi ment Station; J. B. Pilkington, Port land, Ore., and others, so that it is expected that the programme will be complete with most excellent papers. "Nurserymen of the Northwestern states are particularly interested in this meeting, and will likely attend in large numbers, for an effort will be made to secure the meeeting for Seattle in 1909. "George C. Seager, Rochester, N. V., is the secretary of the American Asso ciation of Nurserymen, and will be pleased to furnish information regard ing membership, which is open to all interested in the nursery business, or allied industries." The fruit grower, in most cases, is dependent on the nurserymen. It is true that some few growers raise their own trees. I did that myself but my experience would lead me, if I were in the same, or a similar position again, to buy my trees from a good, reliable nursery. We saved money in the cost of trees but we lost money in our first crops of fruit By raising our own trees we were put back two years. Some of my neighbors bought trees and set out their orchards the same spring in which we began our nursery business. I found that the two years that we lost in this way cost us two paying crops after a few years. We lost ten dollars in these crops where we saved one in using our own trees. Whenever a man decides to go into the growing of fruit, the sooner he can get his trees set in the orchard the better, provided his ground is in suitable condition. The time when the fruit grower is sorely tried is when he is waiting for his trees to come into bearing. Trees must be pruned, the soil must be cultivated, in some cases spraying must be done and damage from rabbits must be warded off. I have known persons to get so discour aged that they gave up and quit the business. I know one case where a man sold out for a ridiculously low price and the purchaser sold enough fruit the first year after buying to more than pay for thu place. In any line of business any one to succeed must have stick-to-itativeness, but this is preeminently so in fruit growing. It may be thought that we are more certain in getting trees true to name if we grow them ourselves. It was not so with us. We t bought our grafts already put up and in some few cases they proved not true to name. There is no more certainty of getting grafts true to name than trees true to name. In some few cases proven to be very unreliable but such HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT Edited by F. Walden cases are rare. Most nurserymen are honorable men and would not inten tionally defraud any one. Mistakes will sometimes happen in spite of ev ery care, but the man that allows too much of this will kill his business. * * * The following statement has been sent out by the State College, Pull man, Wash., and I recommend its careful consideration by every reader of the Ranch: The codling moth ruins a couple of millions of dollars worth of Washing ton apples every year. How much of this wormy fruit does yourorchard pro duce? Have you a reputation for hon est, clean, worm-free fruit? If you have, isn't it worth money to you? Isn't it your reputation that fixes to a large extent the selling price of all the apples of your locality? If you have wormy apples, and a wormy rep utation, read this: No orchard is so badly off but that it cv.n be reclaimed by a single season's spraying. If you want to find out: 1. Why you should use arsenate of lead and nothing else. 2. Why you should not use misty vermorel nozzles. 3. What pressure to use. 4. How much spray to put on a tree. 5. When it pays to get a power sprayer. 6. When you can spray in a rain. 7. How long a time a spraying is effective. 8. Whether your spraying is so poor ly done that you should do it over again at once. 9. How to lit up an extension rod that is better than the one you are using. 10. What sprays should not be com bined with codling moth spray. 11. How to tell when late spray ings are not necessary. 12. An easy way to time sprayings. 13. Whether to band the trees. 14. About codling moth traps. 15. What danger you have from your neighbor's moths. 16. The value of the dust spray or the gas sprayer. If you want to find out about any of these points, or a hundred other suggestions on codling moth spray ing—in short, if you want to raise 100 per cent of clean fruit with a single spraying, write to the director of the Washington Experiment Station, Pull man, for a copy of Popular Bulletin 5, entitled "Spraying for Codling Moths," by A. L. Melander. It is free. * * * George Heatherbell, of Colwood, B C, makes the following request and gives the reason why he wants this information: "I would like if you would be kind enough to give me some of your best reasons for advising the vase form of apple trees. Also give any other good authority for same, you may know, that believes the same as you do. Does Van Deman or Pro fessor Piper or Lake believe in the vase form? "Why I am troubling you on this question is that our Superintendent of Institutes, J. L. Anderson (whom you perhaps will know) and others here think the vase or goblet form is no good. I have had a quarter of a century of experience with fruit trees, and firmly believe with you that the pyramid form is not the best, and when talking on fruit tree planting at our institute meetings I always advise the vase form of heading the tree. They say I am wrong, and say that the pyramid form is the best with the first limbs starting out nine inches from the ground. I always anxiously look over your column for informa tion." In replying to this request I wish to say that where good men differ it ill becomes anyone to dogmatize, so 1 have no disposition to try to carry my point by assertion. I can give my have The JR;anchr reasons for preferring the vase shape tree, and others can give their rea sons for the pyramid shape, and there we must let the matter rest. There are some very good authorities on both sides of this question. I think this difference arises mainly in what is meant by the best shape. If the strength of the tree is the point sought, then I would not hesitate to decide in favor of the pyramidal shape. If the quality of the fruit is the determining factor, I would cer tainly decide in favor of the vase shape. The pyramidal tree looks well on paper and looks well in the orchard when, young, but when it becomes loaded with fruit it folds up like an umbrella and does not readily admit the sunlight. This is its chief defect. Let me give a little experience: On April 16, 1895, I set a tree of the pyra mid form where a tree was missing in an orchard set in the spring of 1894. It was a fine specimen. I wanted to give it a thorough trial. It was a beautiful tree, having the limbs com ing out on the different sides of the main stem and something like a foot apart, but on all sides. In a few years I found the top was entirely too thick and I had to cut out some of the large limbs, and that marred the tree and left large wounds to heal over. That tree today is in bad shape, and never can be what I want a tree to be in shape. The vase shaped trees all about it bend apart when loaded with apples, but this tree tends to fold up. The trees that bend apart let in the sunlight far better than the one that folds up. I do not need to remind my readers that sunlight is the one indis pensable factor in securing color for apples, and quality and color go to gether. From my experience, not only in this one case, but in many oth ers reaching back for fifty years, 1 would never train my trees with a center stem, but would use the vase shape. As to what Van Deman, Piper and Lake have said on this question of shape I am not prepared to say. I have nothing at hand from either one of these men favoring one side or the other on this question. Piper has twice visited my orchards and ex pressed his admiration of my trees, but so far aft I can call to mind he ex pressed no preference for the one shape or the other, for that point was never mentioned. His admiration for my trees without a note of criticism might be construed to be an indorse ment of the vase shape. While I can not give the views of these men, I can give some very decided indorsements of the vase shaped tree from others of our leading pomologists in the United States. The present head of the Department of Pomology, which is a division in the Department of Agriculture, Wash ington, D. C, is G. B. Brackett. No man stands higher in pomology than he. In the Yearbook for 1901 Brackett has this to say about pruning the ap ple tree: "Pruning and training are important factors in the successful management of an apple orchard. The objects to be attained are (1) symmet rical and evenly balanced heads, and (2) the admission of sunlight and free circulation of air into all parts of the tree top while maintaining a sufficient density of foliage to protect the trunks, branches and fruit from the direct rays of the sun, which are lia ble to scald and injure both tree and fruit. If the trees are one or two years old when set they should be cut back to the height from the ground it is proposed to form the head of the tree. This cutting back will cause several of the upper buds to grow, which will form the head at the prop er neight. These should be watched and only such left to grow as are to form the main branches. Those left should be the strongest shoots at equal distances apart around the stem, and should tend to an outward growth to spread and make an open head." See Yearbook for 1901, page 601. Noth ing here is said about vase shape, but 9 An Investigation of Wilgrow When an advertiser uses v two page announcement offering to send a sam ple of their product to every reader of a publication, and to friends of the readers, without any charge; and when the results have been sufficiently great to necessitate the advertiser sending out more than a thousand free samples, it is only a natural sequence that some one should want to find out something about the merits of the advertised ar ticle. And Wilgrow has not escaped the Usual investigation. The manufactur ers of Wilgrow were glad to have it in vestigated. This fish fertilizer was first thought of a little over five years ago, but in the beginning of its manufacture it of course was not up to the standard which has been reached through expe rience and by dint of hard labor. One of the most serious troubles to be overcome was the fact that the soil of one locality did, not require the same kind of fertilization that was required by the soil of another locality. Be cause of this fact, it was necessary to secure soil analysis from all over the country. As each soil analysis was received, it was very carefully entered in its proper place in the card index file and put away together with the proper for mula for the particular kind of Wil grow which would be necessary to properly fertilize that kind of soil. The reader will immediately see in the foregoing that it is quite impos sible for the manufacturers of Wilgrow to be sure of complete success unless they supply each and every locality with Wilgrow made for that particular soil. It may be that a soil is lacking in phosphorus and requiring but little potash. In this case it is necessary to make Wilgrow in the proper propor tions of phosphorus, potash and nitro gen. And then again, these plant foods to gether with the other ingredients con tained in Wilgrow must be so mixed and at all times in the proper condi tion to be the most quickly available for the plants which shall feed upon them. Another feature which the manufac turers have always had in view was to so prepare Wilgrow for use that there would be no inconveniences and no great expense in properly distributing it over the soil. This effort necessitated the elimina tion of bad odors, and the reduction of the fertilizer to a concentrated con dition, which would permit of the use of a very small quantity to produce very large results. This has been ac complished both for garden and for field purposes. Wilgrow for the garden or for flow ers or for the lawn is put up in a small carton which retails for 25 cents, and that little 25 cent package is the equal in plant food value to a large load of barn-yard manure. A table spoonful scattered along a foot of a row of radishes will double the yield and has been known in test to do a great deal better. For field purposes Wilgrow is put up in 25 pound bags, two of which are sufficient for a thorough fertilization of a full acre. But a small amount is necessary in the fields as well as in the gardens. Having originated, developed, and being the manufacturers of Wilgi'ow, we can positively state that if a rancher or gardener will use Wilgrow as directed, he will receive better re sults and a greater degree of satisfac tion, than he could from any other fer tilizer manufactured. If such- of the readers of The Ranch who have not sent for a sample of Wilgrow will forward their names to us together with those of three of their neighbors with the names of their dealer, we will gladly send them the sample free. They can test Wilgrow themselves and at our expense. The r. B. CARLISLE CO. Port Angeles, Wash.