In attempting to eradicate fire blight in any section one of the important considerations is the extent of the spread throughout the territory as well as the severity of the disease on the numerous varieties of apples and other fruit trees that may have become infected. The age of the trees and the location of cankers vary the time and the cost of doing the work as well as determining the cost. Since the cut and burn method is the one that must be employed, the method is a tedious and costly one. The presence or absence of wild plants that are hosts of the blight bacterium is a point that must not be overlooked, as the destruction of these hosts is one of the most important lines of work to be taken up. Wide areas of land growing infested hosts makes the work very discouraging while an absence of such plants makes the beginning of the task at least more encouraging. Nothing is more discouraging than the lack of moral support in a community where the control of the disease confronts one. A lack of such support usually means an indifferent physical and financial support. In fighting this disease it is impossible to accomplish results unless the right kind of help can be secured to do the work. It has been the experience in the past that the man who has no interest in the work other than the pay he draws for the time he works is not as effective a worker as one who has a financial interest in getting results. In sections where the orchards are large, it is oftentimes true that the results are not so good as are obtained in smaller orchards. Such results are attributable to the personal element of help, as in the larger orchards less reliable help must necessarily be depended upon, while in the smaller holdings the owner personally lends much assistance that bears good returns. The nature and importance of this work requires a director who has the training requisite to do such work. He must be well trained along pathological lines in order that he may appreciate the true nature of the parasite causing the disease and to instruct the field workers so that they have a good working knowledge relative to the control of the disease. Every laborer must be taught to thoroughly understand the life-history of the bacterium, as to its method of passing the winter, how the organisms spread in the spring and how they are placed in the blossoms and other parts of the tree, how these minute organisms grow and multiply in the juices of the plant, and last and the most important of all, the fact that the wood may be diseased and yet no discoloration visible to the naked eye is evident, which knowledge has a direct bearing on the effectiveness of the tree surgery to be practiced upon the infested portion of the plant. The use of the disinfectant constantly on all cut surfaces and all pruning instruments must also be enforced, since the minuteness of the organism is not comprehended by the untrained worker who usually lacks faith in the work of using the disinfectant to destroy something invisible-believed by a majority but a matter of conjecture by others, many of which fail to make known the fact that they are doubting Thomases. The effectiveness of the work in controlling or eradicating fire blight largely depends upon how well the work is organized and that the work when once started can be conducted to its completion without delays. The time of starting the work is also a very important consideration. The slow advance made by the disease during the dormant period of the tree makes it advisable to start the work as early during the dormant season as possible, so that the same may be completed if possible before the following spring, at which time the disease may spread over a portion of the ground already covered. The work should be done at any and all times, as the occasion requires. CO-OPERATIVE ORGANIZATION OF FRUIT GROWERS. By H. C. ATWELL, Fruit Inspector for Washington County, and President of Forest Grove Fruit-Growers' Association. I am asked to offer a few suggestions as to best means of effecting and utilizing co-operative organization among fruit-growers, and to explain the work which the Forest Grove fruit-growers are undertaking to do. My first suggection would be, do not organize hastily, nor before the volume of fruit production in your community is of sufficient proportions to support your undertaking. Do not allow real estate exploitation to force you to premature activity. LIMIT STOCK HOLDING TO FARMERS. As a first step, the farmers should organize a fruit-growers' association. When I say farmers, I mean farmers, not merchants and bankers. Forest Grove Fruit-Growers' Association has over one hundred stockholders, every one a farmer. The business men of the city are not barred, but we did not ask them. We did not want them, because they are not directly interested in fruit-growing. In times of stress they would want their money out. The organization and its equipment would not appeal to them as in itself an asset, independent of their investment. They would not be patrons. In other words, their interest would be limited to their stockholding. We did not need the townspeople's money, because we had enough of our own. It is a poorer community than any in Oregon where a hundred farmers can not raise five thousand dollars during a year to capitalize a farmers' co-operative organization. The banks groan under the weight of the farmers' deposits, and the farmers plod along, in need of various public enterprises, waiting for someone to establish them with the farmers' money, and reap the rewards. Why should not the farmers do it themselves? We limited the earnings on our stock to six per cent, so stockholding in itself would not be attractive. We limited individual holdings to five hundred dollars. We would have placed the limit at two hundred dollars, had not an enterprising farmer subscribed five hundred before our by-laws were adopted. A MODEST CAPITAL. An association without capital can not accomplish much in handling fruit, either by way of shipping fresh or manufacturing. If your association is to be more than educational, it must have some financial resources. However, it is not good policy to try to raise a large capital at the start. If you have a big capital, you will have big ideas and be tempted to do things on a big scale. The results may be as disastrous as those which have marked the history of many co-operative undertakings among farmers. Better grow up from small beginnings, and practice rigid economy, confining your operations to a few lines, until you have felt your way to solid ground. Capital can be increased when more is needed. BUYING FOR CASH. I speak of this subject now, because it is involved in consideration of what is a necessary capital. With a modest capital, say five to ten thousand dollars (ours is five thousand), it follows that you can not, without heavy borrowing and considerable risk, buy fruit extensively for cash. Your capital will be largely absorbed by the site, buildings and equipment. You will of course have to borrow some money, but the aim of the directors should be to borrow as little as possible. Herein is involved the essence of co-operation. Merely clubbing together to buy a site and erect and equip a building, is but a short chapter in the story of a truly co-operative association. Growers must expect, and be glad, to contribute their fruit to the association and wait for the larger part of their returns until the fruit is sold, confident in the expectation of a larger profit by so doing. This idea is remarkably difficult for many farmers to grasp. They apparently expect to deal with the association, of which they are a component part, as though it were a stranger; and they ask "what are you going to pay"? My answer has been: "The sole purpose of this organization is to secure to its members the greatest possible profit from their products. This purpose can not be attained by buying for cash, but by members being willing to wait for the major part of their returns until the product is sold". Last year the Portland canneries paid three cents per pound for loganberries. The same price was paid by the management of the Eugene Fruit Growers' Association to the ten per cent of its members who insisted on cash at delivery. The ninety per cent who better understood the true principle of co-operation (or perhaps who were less pressed for money) received, a few weeks later, returns which netted them three and a half cents a pound. This difference in return amounts to sixteen and two-thirds per cent. Farmers are prone to complain of the large profits made by others on the output of their toil. Why should they expect an institution to tie up twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars in cash necessary to do a cash business, and take all the risks, without exacting a handsome margin therefor? Why rather should not the farmers treat their output as capital, distribute the risk among themselves, and put this margin into their own pockets? Why should they not, as Manager Holt of the Eugene association puts it, treat their association as the "business end of their farms", and make it yield them the extra sixteen and twothirds per cent? PURCHASE OF A SITE. Do not be too economical in the purchase of a site. Provide room for future expansion. You will probably erect but one building at first but later you will need more. If you contemplate a cannery, remember that in a few years it will demand considerable space. Manager Holt says that their two acres are none too much. Locate where you can secure a railroad switch. Our association has an acre accessible to two railroads. BENEFITS FOR MEMBERS ONLY. It is but fair that you should limit the advantages of your organization, both as to pooling and in the purchase of supplies, to members only. It is a business proposition. Those who have invested their faith and money are the ones entitled to the benefits. |