The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1902-01-24
willamette Valley Orchards.

Hon. e. L. Smith OF Hood River read
an able paper on the subject Of "The
Apple" with special reference to the
Willamette valley, before the farmers
congress at Salem. The paper was pub
lished in full in the Rural Northwest.
We clip portion Of it that is apple
able to all localities, as follows:
Now, in order to ascertain what the
soil should contain in an orchard, let us
go to the chemist and ask him to give us
the principal mineral constituents of
both tree and fruit. He will takean ap-
pie and burn it to an ash, analyze the
ash and tell us that it contains:
Potash .................... 35.6S parts.
Soda 26.09 parts
Phosphoric acid .,....,, 1859 parts,
Sulphuric acid ...........6 6 to9 parts
He will then analyze the ash OF the
tree with about the following result
Potash 1924 parts.
Soda .,..:...........-..... 1880 parts,
Phosphoric and sulphuric
acids ............,.. Is to 10 parts.
Can we renovate these orchards? To
certain extent yes, by returning to the
soil what we have taken from it; by cul-
tivation, judicious pruning and thor
ough spraying. | doubt, however, if it
is the better plan. What is wanted is
virgin soil, new generation of trees and
pardon me, came near saying new
generation of growers ;for the moss in
q in ctn is / all fbn
trees.
The consumption of and demand forap-
pies is increasing wonderfully. Enlarged
facilities for transportation have given
us the world for market and it is the
foreign and not the local market we
must strive for Last year Hood River
strawberries went up the coast to Skag-
way thence over the mountains and
down the Yukon to Dawson, and more
wonderful still, they were carried by
steamshipto China and reached there
in fair order after twenty-six days tran
sit. IL we can convey fresh strawberries
to Dawson and Hong Kong, we ought
to convey Oregon apples to the planet
Mars, if they ever get that much talked
Of railroad built there.
Pan-American exposition, saw a collec-
ton Of apples, from my own orchard,
which he admired very much, and early
last month he came to Oregon and to
my orchard at Hood River. He wanted
ten carloads of yellow apples for ship
ment to France, Red apples, he said,
were seldom seen on the tables OF the
rich there, and were called pie apples
He wanted especially Newtown pippins;
every one must be perfect and carefully
paper wrapped and for such fruit
he was willing to pay $500 per box
f. o. b. But, alas, the largest lots OF
of Newtown pippins had already been
disposed of and we realized the truth of
the old adage that che is farthest from
market who has nothing to SELL" ! in
stance this case simply to illustrate the
demand for high grade apples. Let us
plant more orchards, for more orchards
mean. more cottages and more school
children. Let us plant in the proper To-
calities and soil plant the right varie-
ties in the proper manner: watch over
them almost as we would were they
members of our families; protect them
against every enemy that assails them /;
see that they have proper food and air
and sunshine; put the spray pump to
work early and late; gather the fruit at
the right time and handle it as you
would basket of eggs ;use an attractive,
clean box, and give an honest pack from
top to bottom Practice these methods and
the fruit will be right and the market
right. The reputation that Hood River
has acquired for both apples and berries
is worth not less than % cents per box
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