The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. The photo is from the museum’s archives.
JANUARY 26, 1917
Bees Farmers’ Friend
If you want your prune-trees to bear more prunes, then keep plenty of hives of bees in your prune-orchard – such is the new glory won for the industrious bee by experiments made by the University of California. It was found that a French prune tree visited in blossom time by numerous bees which visited also an Imperial prune tree matured fruit from five times as many of its blossoms as the trees of the orchard as a whole, and from 18 times as many as another exactly similar tree from which all insects had been excluded at blossom time. Such is the discovery made public in a bulletin on “The Common Honey Bee as an Agent in Prune Pollination,” written by A.H. Hendrickson, Instructor in Pomology in the University of California, just published by the University, and obtainable free by writing to the College of Agriculture at Berkeley.
JANUARY 26, 1967
Mechanical Prune Pickers, New Signs in Valley’s Future
Harvesting fruit by means of mechanization and the reduction of costs was the topic at the Russian River Farm Bureau Center Monday. Mr. Robert M. Shipley, of Shipley Manufacturing in Cloverdale, stated that a mechanical harvester as such does not reduce production costs, but that the costs are leveled over a five year period. The labor costs five years from now will be higher, but the cost of harvesting the fruit will remain the same as it was the first year. The biggest problem of mechanical harvesting in prunes – an operation that shakes the trees with the fruit dropping onto a device that will get them directly into bins without touching the ground – is that the small dehydrators are closing down and the harvester can pick more fruit than the large cooperative dehydrators can handle. The dehydrators were built to handle a six-weeks harvest. With the harvester, most growers can harvest in three weeks. The quality of smooth, whole fruit should be considered in the initial cost of the harvester. The fruit picked mechanically is much better quality and the sorting charge is not nearly as high as handpicked fruit.
JANUARY 26, 1992
Hall of Fame Campaign on Track
It is the material that the best local sports arguments are made of. Just who really belongs in the soon-to-be-formed Healdsburg High School Sports Hall of Fame? It’s only a matter of weeks before the names of the first four inductees into the Hall of Fame are known. Greyhound Booster Club President Kent Mitchell said on Monday that approximately 60 recommendations have been forwarded to a nomination committee. A separate selection committee will name two Greyhound greats from the 1887-1945 era and two from post-World War II to 1982 for induction. To be eligible, a potential nominee must be a HHS graduate, and be an alumnus for at least 10 years. The inductees will be announced by the end of February, said Mitchell. A Hall of Fame banquet has already been scheduled for March 29 at the Villa Chanticleer. Proceeds from ticket sales will go into the school’s athletic fund. Nominations for your favorite Hound from the past can be sent to HHS athletic director Darrell Barbieri or Healdsburg Tribune sports editor Jim Noonan.
