The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1904-11-03
$500 an Acre None, too High.

| DubliC1o Ue' tiRipNSAtNf
OF q nature Of interest only to the pro-
fession, looking to a better general
understanding among members OF HE
fraternity, and to the framing Of legls-
lation of benefit to newspaper men and
the public alike.
BY courtesy OF the good people Of the
town, drive through the famous Hood
River valley was given the visiting edi-
tors and their ladies', who we're at once
enchanted and amazed as thousands OF
acres Of apple orchards, strawberries
and other fruits passed with kaleido-
scopic effect into view. Mount Hood,
snow-clad, majestic, eternal, seeming
but stonetbrow from the head OF the
valley, there caps one OF the grandest
scenes ever gazed upon by man, and its
melting SHOWS furnish the water that
goes TO make the winding, tumbling
Hood river, whence are drawn the
many streams that give life and vigor
to every growing thing in the valley;
for this is land Of irrigation, where
you get your moisture just when you
want it, and everything blossoms as the
rose.
In this valley are grown very extern
eively, strawberries that are not excelled
anywhere in the world, and on still
larger scale, apples Of almost every
known variety, Of size and coloring so
marvellous as TO challenge the unstinted
admiration Of all who are privileged to
see them.
These hustling, wideawake Hood
Riverites have got the apple business
down to a science, being adopts In pol
ishing, sorting and packing, and it is no
wonder that they secure the very best
prices going. This year they are get
ting as high as $2.l0 per 45-pouDd box
OF Spitzenbergs at Hood River, from
New York buyers, who cater to the
best trade and are always on the look
out for the best products. These apples
average pound apiece--45 to the box
and their beautiful coloring is at once
the envy and despair OF the artist who
attempts to reproduce it on canvas.
And now word or two concerning
the soil that produces those world
beating strawberries and apples. II Is
OF a loose, sandy nature, and very rich,
In truth, but not one whit richer than
hundreds OF thousands OF acres else
whore In Oregon now devoted to wheat
and other less remunerative crops.
Thousands OF acres In Wheeler and
other Eastern Oregon counties, are
capable Of growing apples as big, as
handsome and as luscious as the Hood
River apple, and will be doing so ere
two more decades shull roll around.
But IL takes time and care, this apple
growing business, also convenient trans
portation by railroads, which by and
by will traverse this whole state even as
| the arteries intersect the human body.
Hood River has our best thanks for the
double object lesson 1t has given us, in
| first demonstrating what the soil can do
when made the most of by human
ingenuity, and, second, In letting the
whole world know 1t. They are not
hiding their light under bushel down
there, by any means, and are but reap
ing richly merited reward in the
extraordinary interest in their fruit
lands that Is being manifested by not
only the people Of Oregon, but Of the
| entire nation as well.
Apple and strawberry lands are sell.
ing all the way from 800 70 $400 per
acre, according to condition, quality
and location Some say that these
prices are ruinous, and will bankrupt
| The buyer, but hearken moment, say
we to the doubters. Far away In bonnie
Scotland there is strawberry section
very similar TO that at Hood River, only
more extensive, and we might say more
intensive. There the writer first saw
the light, and there he became acquaint-
cd with the art Of strawberry and rasp-
berry farming. From one acre he has
often seen four tons of berries harvested
in one year, bringing price OF 40
pounds--about $20O--per British ton,
or a total OF $500 per acre. One man
would pay as high us 500 rent per year
for one acre and with his children do
all the work upon it by hand, spading
every inch OF the ground and off that
one acre would rear aud educate u
healthy, honest, industrious, God-fear-
ing family. This il not dream, but
merely one of many actual cases. To
be sure there are many others there
who raise berries on far larger scale !;
we merely cite this case to show what
can be and is being done along this line
by industry, perseverance and applied
intelligence; elso 10 demonstrate that
values at Hood River are still far below
the top notch, and that il will pay to
give $l00 aud even more per acre for
lands that will produce berries or apples
In such profuslon as is the case in the
Hood River valley.
Those who lift their hands in holy
horror when told that thousand dol
lars worth OF apples have been raised on
one acre in one year, should do little
private investigating before branding
their informant rs a colossal Ananias,
aud then they will make the old, old
discovery that some things exist that
were not dreamt OF in their philosophy.
In Sears Il Porter's orchard we saw one
ten-year.old tree loaded down so heavily
that il would have been impossible to
have found bare spot on which to
hang single additional apple. Hon.
Il. L.. Smith, the brilliant president of
the State Horticultural society, who
accompanied the editors, and who, by
the way, would make no slUuch of an
immigration agent himself, estimated
the apples on this one tree at thirteen
bushels, worth S27 80, and there seemed
to be dozens of trees just as good, in
this and other orchards. In fact, in
Beulah Land orchard, which is one OF
quite number Of orchards planted in
the valley by our friend, the afore.men-
toned f. L,'Smith, the dean of Hood
River apple growers, we observed a
number OF trees that seemed to us TO
contain bigger crop OF apples than the
tree to which our attention was specific
ally called in Sears 4 Porter's orchard.
Robert Burns wrote a stanza that has
long seemed to the writer as ii il
expressed the Alpha and Omega of
earthly happiness, 1t is this, and when
he wrote it the poet must have had
some such place as Hood River or Fossil,
Oregon, in his eye
"To maxi happy freside cline
To weans and wife,
That's the true pathos and sublime
OF human life"
One might sing pages Of song in praise
OF the wonderful Hood River valley,
=