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National Geographic : 1960 Apr
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Northwest Wonderland: Washington State into cider and chips. In one Yakima plant I saw an honest-to-goodness apple polisher! By then I thought I knew a thing or two about apples-until I dropped in at Washing ton State University's Tree Fruit Experiment Station at Wenatchee. Here apple wizards told me of chemical thinners that knock off weaker blossoms so a tree won't overproduce one year and exhaust itself for the next. They've got insecticides that cut spraying time in half; nitrogen treatments that pro duce bigger fruit; hormone sprays that hold fruit on trees until it attains its richest color. Apple Sports Make Better Eating "Washington must produce big quantities of better fruit," Dr. L. P. (Jack) Batjer of the U. S. Department of Agriculture told me. "We can't move an equal apple into Eastern markets when we have $1.25 a box freight charge. It has to be a better apple." An apple tree begins to produce a fair crop in seven or eight years, sometimes still bears when a century old. But Washington's or chard industry is constantly turning over its trees as new varieties catch the public fancy. Two sports (mutant varieties), the Stark- ing and the Richared, stole the limelight from their parent, the Standard Delicious. Growers replaced these in turn with "supersports" (sports of sports) after a freeze in 1955 killed almost every tree under eight years old. When these varieties come into heavy production in the next few years, many older trees will ruthlessly be replaced. The latest trend? Dwarf trees, that produce years earlier, are easier to pick and thin. Central Washington doesn't put all its fruit in one basket. Yakima County also leads the Nation in cherries, pears, and hops; ships huge quantities of peaches, plums, and apri cots. Its rangelands and feed pens-like those of neighboring Ellensburg-are full of Here ford and black Angus steers. Ponderosa pine forests keep its lumber mills buzzing. But the apple is king. In a good year 50 million dollars' worth of these red and golden ambassadors make friends for Washington State all over the Nation and abroad. The historian Bancroft tells a charming story of how the apple came to Washington. "The first fruit-tree grown on the Columbia sprang from the seed of an apple eaten at a dinner-party in London," he wrote. A lady 463
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