The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1905-09-21
White Salmon. Wash,

Is packed the orChardist delivers it at
the warehouse in town, and it Is sold
with that of other growers. And un-
der our system we have uniform
pack, and the association guarantees
every box of the fruit. "
We we're told that the cost of the
box, labor Of picking, packing, haul
ing to town, etc, is estimated at
about 80 cents box.
Perhaps many of the persons have
been of the opi0nion that, because
the Hood River apples they have seen
have been uniform in size; that apples
there do not vary in SIZE as do ours
in the middle west. But they do.
Apples of all sizes are grown aud
many styles of pack are made, such
as fourtier, flvetier, etc, the boxes
containing from Y to 2l2 apples each.
The fruit in given box, however,
will be all of the same size, and this
careful grading and packing has made
reputation for Hood River fruit.
The grading Is done by the eye of the
grader, who can tell at glance
whether an apple belongs in four
tier or a five tier box. This requires
careful handling of the fruit, and this
IL where the expert help Is required.
All fruit must be hauled to town
in wagons with springs, so that it is
loaded on the cars in the best posi-
bic condition. This all goes to help
bring the price up to $500 per box,
you see.
Mr.. Shepard agreed with Mr. Smith
that Newtown Pippin and Spitzen burg
are the two varieties to grow.
Frequently one of our members
will bring in an apple and ask how |
like it, said Mr. Shepard, "it may
be good apple, and the man will tell
me he will plant lot of trees. Then
| reason with him like this:
Yes, this apple is good one, but
is it better than Newtown?'
No, it is rot better than a New
town.
well, is it better than Spitzen.
burg?'
"Oh, no; nothing is better than a
Spitzenburg.'
"lhNn why not stick to these two
varieties? IL this new apple has no
points of superiority, or If in growing
it we will have to compete in the mar.
kets with the same sort as grown else
where, why not stay with the New
town and the Spitzenburg, when we
have almost mononoply Of the mar
kets for these sorts?'
"All of our growers are coming to
see that we must make our money
with these varieties, which reach such
high state Of perfection here. "
The illustrations show some of the
| typical scenes in the Hood River fruit
country. Apples and strawberries are
the great crops, although sweet cher
ries do remarkably we'll This year
Bing cherries we're shipped by express
to the city of Mexico and arrived in
good condition. Planting of cherry
trees is being increased, and in few
years this fruit will be added to ap-
pies and Strawberries, to call atten-
tion to Hood River. We visited the
farm of Mr. Chris Dethman, one Of
the members of The Fruit Grower
Family, and found one of the prettiest
orchards in the valley. One of the
orchards which were grown by Mr..
Smith is now owned by another men,
her of The Fruit Grower Family, Mr..
Vanderbilt, who showed us Newtown
trees from which he had picked eight
boxes of apples, in the process of
thinning the fruit This fruit was
picked while quito small and was
thrown away.
That takes nerve, but the Hood
River growers have lots of this quail
ity 1t takes nerve to pay as high as
300 per acre for land, clear it of
stumps, then plant apple trees 30 feet
apart, and give the trees the whole
occupancy Of the land, with no crops
planted between; then to add the ex-
pense Of cultivating this soil once a
week during the summer-all this
takes nerve, but it has demonstrated
that the expenditure Of money and
labor pays.
Hood River is we'll located for ship
ping its apples. Before the locks we're
built in the river, which allowed boats
to come up that far, freight charges
we're ten cents box on apples from
Hood River to Portland. Steamers
now stop at Hood River daily, and
the rate to Portland, where competit-
i've freight rates can be secured, is
only cents box.
Across the Columbia from Hood |
River is another fruit section, which |
is being developed rapidly. This is
the White Salmon couhtry, in Wash |
ington. White Salmon berries have |
the advantage of an earlier location,
aud the berries from that point are
ON the market week or ten days
ahead of Hood River fruit. Fine ap-
pies are also grown over there, and |
orcharding Is ON the increase.
The Fruit.Grower is under many
obligations to Mr.. Smith and to Mr..
Shepard and to Mr.. W. f. Laraway.
MIR, Shepard has one of the finest To-
cations in all the valley, his farm con-
sisting OF 40 acres. Eight acres of
straw berries last spring were very
profitable, and he is now growing a
fine young orchard. We re ;ret we
could not use all the photographs se-
cured in the Hood River valley, but
we present Il number, which will give
one an idea of the conditions which
exist there. We believe that nowhere
else in this country are orchards un-
iformly better cared for, nor is the
fruit crop more carefully graded and
packed. This has something to do
with the high prices obtained for the
fruit.