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Page To our subscribers: Owing to the ad vanlcng age of Mr. F. Walden and also to his increasing correspondence, it will be impossible for him to continye the answering of personal letters addressed to him on matters pertaining to fruit growing. It is with difficulty that the management of The Ranch has been able to retain the services of Mr. Walden and this notice is printed here in this place so that the subscribers desiring his ex pert advice, judgment and criticism on matters horticultural will understand that they must look for replies to their letters in this department. Mr. Walden cannot undertake to answer such inquir ies by mail. Further than this, persons who are subscribers to The Ranch living in the Pacific Northwest, can do their Eastern friends a favor by having them become subscribers to The Ranch and readers of this department. EDITOR OF THE RANCH. The correct naming of fruits is a very large question and something hard to accomplish. The first point to be settled in this matter is who or what shall be recognized as authority? By common consent among fruit growers, the American Pomological Society is recognized as the highest authority on nomenclature. Its names are generally recognized, but not al ways. This society in making an effort to shorten names (which is very com mendable), has made some changes that the mass of the people will not accept. As an illustration of this un willingness to accept these changes two examples may be mentioned: The name of the Esopus Spitzenburg is shortened by calling it the Esopus. Now let some grower mark these ap ples Esopus and send them into the markets, and how many dealers would know what apple is meant? Not one dealer in ten would know that the well-known Spitzenburg of commerce is meant, and perhaps not one con sumer in a hundred would know. In fact, very many growers would not know the apple by that name. The other illustration is the changing the name of the Mammoth Black Twig to the Arkansas. There is no question but the old name of this apple is too long, but the change to Arkansas is unfortunate, and the people will not accept it and I do not believe that they ought to. There is another apple called the Arkansas Black, and to call the Black Twig the Arkansas makes confusion. If a grower should mark his apples Arkansas not one in a thou sand would know that he meant the apple that is sold in the markets as the Mammoth Black Twig. If the bet ter informed growers should mark this apple after the nomenclature of the American Pomological Society and in this way bring about the change in name it would result in "confusion worse confounded" by being mixed up with the Arkansas Black. We still mark our apples Spitzenburg and Mammoth Black Twig, notwithstand ing the recommendation of this great and good society. I could mention other apples whose names are changed, but the mass of the people will not use the new names. If the people will not, and perhaps some times ought not, adopt the names rec ommended by the best authority in the land, how difficult it must be to have uniformity in all cases. We may safely say that the thing is impossible. Thera has always been confusion in the names, of fruit and perhaps there always will be. I am led to make these observations on the nomenclature of fruit by re ceiving the following letter from my old friend, Amos Bush, of Alfalfa, Wash: "We are often told when marking our fruit for shipment to be sure and give it the right name. But how are we to know when we have the right name? Now, four years ago I got a bill of trees from the nursery at Milton, Ore., and among them were 50 peach trees of the Wonderful va riety. They are bearing now, and they are indeed a wonderful peach. But my neighbor, Mr. Laughlin, says that they are not the Wonderful, but the Fitzgerald. So I sent one of the peaches to your ranch, hoping to find you there to name it for me, but you not being there, it was shown to your son, Smiley. He said it was not the Wonderful, but did not name it. Mr. HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT Rdite.d by F. Walden Macey has some of the same variety, and he says they are the Wonderful. Now, how am I to find out what to call them? Would it not be a good plan to have some one, say the State Horticultural Commissioner, whose duty it should be to settle such ques tions? It is easy for the nurserymen to make mistakes. If he had come to my orchard to get buds, I would have honestly told him they were the Won derful, and he would so mark his trees, but if he had gone to Mr. Laughlin he would have marked them Fitzger ald." This letter forcibly sets forth the difficulties in the way of keeping fruit correctly named. The suggestion to empower the State Horticultural Com missioner to settle the names of fruits would not always work well. We had one State Horticultural Commissioner whose naming was the sport of all well-informed fruit men. He would name any apple shown him, and if ho could not name it immediately, he would toss it to one side and call it a "seedling." All apples were once seedlings, and some valuable seed lings should be named. If that com missioner had "settled" the names of fruit in this state, we would have had the most unsettled mess ever known in the fruit world. If the State Horti cultural Commissioner was the best informed man in the state on nomen clature he could not name all fruits. During the Lewis and Clark Fair at Portland I saw again and again H. E. Van Deman, whom I regard as the best informed man on fruits in the United States, puzzled to name some apples. Sometimes after careful ex amination he would say, "I can't name it." I honored him the more for not naming a fruit unless he could be sure. The man who pretends to know every thing is generally one who knows but little correctly. We have "raised the Wonderful peach for years and now have it growing in our new peach orch ard. My son, Smiley, knows it well. His judgment in this case, and in many others, is just as good as mine. One of the things that cause con fusion in tne names of fruits is the fact that many varieties have local names. Let me illustrate: The other day I was out at the Western Wash ington Fair, held in Seattle. There were fine exhibits from Yakima Coun ty and from Wenatchee. Among the Yakima apples I found as fine a sam ple of the Chenango strawberry as I ever saw, but it was marked Sher wood's Favorite. I told the young man in charge that the box of apples was misnamed. He said they had the Chenango on exhibition and showed me a small striped apple about as unlike the true Chenango as the lit tle red Romanite (Gilpin) is to the Esopus Spitzenburg. The young man said some one had named what 1 called the Chenango Strawberry Sher wood's Favorite. • When I reached home that evening I consulted my au thorities on the names of apples, and I believe I have as good as can be found in America. The only mention I could find of Sherwood's Favorite was that the Chenango is sometimes known locally as Sherwood's Favorite. Now, the rule among reliable nursery men is never to catalogue a fruit un der a local name, but under the name recognized throughout the whole coun try. Here is where the beneficial work of the American Pomological So ciety comes in. No one is to blame for marking his fruit wrong when he has done what he could to get the name right. A person makes a mistake that may cost him money if he fails to mark a well known fruit correctly. For instance: the Winesap, Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Spitzenburg and Newtown will sell bet ter under their own names than under any other. Any well-known apple will sell better under its own name. It is a serious mistake to try to fool buyers by giving an inferior apple a new name. They will soon catch on to the trick and will treat the man as dis honest, and do right in doing so. Don't call a Ben Davis an Oregon Red Streak or any other name than just R>anctu Ben Davis. The man who tries such tricks will soon be black-listed in the commercial world and will suffer for it. Sometimes where there is a dis pute about the identity of two differ ent fruits, as in the case of the Fos ter and Early Crawford peach, they may be very properly sold as the same. It is an unsettled question whether these two peaches are not one and the same fruit. Then no in justice is done to mark them both Early Crawford. The English Morello and the Wrag cherries may be sold under one name, for many claim that they are identical. Many other cases like these might be mentioned. In a case like the one named by friend Bush, he would certainly be honest in selling his peach referred to under either name —Wonderful or Fitzger ald. What a man wants to be exceed ingly careful never to do is to sell an inferior fruit under the name of a much better one. The offense is as bad as lying and stealing both, and Amos Bush is about the last man in the world to do either. I never worry about these things. I aim never to deceive anyone unless I am deceived myself and don't know any better. A subscriber sends in the following request: "Would you kindly have Mr. Walden print in The Ranch a number of late blooming commercial apples, peaches and pears?" In complying with this request I wish to call atten tion to a fact overlooked by a good many people, and that is that the fruit that blooms latest is not necessarily the latest in getting ripe. Among 25 varieties of the peach that we have tested on our fruit ranch the Alex ander is the earliest in ripening and the latest in blooming. So if I should be able to give the latest blooming peach it would not mean a late peach in ripening. The latest peach in rip ening on our ranch is the Salway, but it blooms before the Alexander. It would be quite unsafe to say that ear ly blooming or late blooming has any thing to do with the earliness or late ness of fruit in ripening. This gener al deduction from my observation will apply to all fruits named by our sub scriber. The only advantage I can see in knowing that any fruit blooms late is that by growing such fruit we may escape some of the spring frosts at blooming time. 1 suppose that this is what our subscriber wants to do rather than to know what apples, peaches and pears ripen the latest. There is not much difference in the blooming of peaches and pears—not nearly so much as in the case of ap ples. Among the apples that bloom late the Geniton, now catalogued as Rails, is the best-known, and is quite a good apple. A seedling of the Rails, known as the Ingram, is also a late bloomer and ranks with the Rails in quality. The Rome Beauty is a late bloomer, though not quite so late as the Rails and Ingram, is an enormous bearer, a good apple, though not a long keeper in common storage, but keeps well in cold storage. One thing that helps out the Rome sometimes is the fact that its bloom strings along, that is, does not all come out at the same time, and the later bloom may escape the frost when the earlier is killed. This habit of stringing the bloom along belongs to other varie ties. The Jonathan sometimes bears a good crop after the earlier bloom is an killed. Last April we had a frost, the morning of the 25th, which killed every bloom on some Jonathan trees that are fourteen years old in the orchard. At the time this occurred we thought everything on these trees was killed. Passing through the orchard a few days later, I noticed quite a num ber of "red heads" on these trees. On a recent visit to the ranch I found as fine a crop of Jonathans on these trees as anyone could wish. Some writers have foolishly conclud ed that when the bloom is all killed by frost new buds are formed. That is a mistake into which no one will fall if he understands the time of the formation of fruit buds. They are never formed in the early spring, but Orchardists and Planters Who give the matter of future returns any thought, are satis fled with nothing but the best in nursery stock. We are always glad to meet the particular purchaser, the man who wants nothing but the best, and who is willing to be "shown." We were never in as good position to supply large commercial orchards in unlimit ed number as we are this season. Our plant is perfection itself, and never before looked as well at this season-of the year. We invite correspondence from prospective purchasers and will gladly welcome visitors to our nursery, which is located in the heart of the Yakima Indian res ervation, isolated from old or chards or forests. Salesmen everywhere; more wanted. Washington Nursery Co. Toppenish, Wash. * * * Write Us Direct Regarding * Shipments of Apples, Potatoes and other Produce. If you have not a straight car, we will arrange to make tip one in your locality. Hull Hamlet & Co. Seattle, Wash. A Perfect Box The Lowest Price We make a -perfect Box or Crate .because we 1 know how—hav ing spent our lives in the business. We quote the lowest prices because we are at the heart of the timber kingdom of Puget Sound and get our supply from the log direct instead of from lumber already cut. Let us quote these prices to you. EVERETT BOX CO.. Everett, Washington. Fine Stock of Fruit and Ornamental Trees. Send for price list. Agents wanted everywhere. Address ENQVOLSEN NURSERY CO., Pert Angeles Washington. THE CASHMERE NURSERIES CASHMERE, WASH. We have a fine lot of apple trees, both one-year and two-year to offer planters. Also quite an assortment of small fruits. All these are grown without irri gation. G. A. LOUDENBACK, Prop. Farmers, Notice If you know of any people who stut ter or stammer, kindly send us their names and addresses, and we will mail to them free particulars relative to a cure. Write The Pacific School for Stammerers, Centralia, Wash. 6