The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1905-04-27
Visitor Writes About Hood River.

r. W. Davidson who visited recent
ly with A. c. Buck of this city,
writes as follows to the Minot IN. d.. }
Reporter:
We arrived at Hood River and we're
cordially received by Albert C.
Buck and family. Mr.. Buck and |
were comrades in the army together,
and had not met since we we're
mustered out in 80. 1t was happy
reunion for us EC,h, md made our
short stay in Hood hiver very pleas
ant indeed.
Mr.. and Mrs. Buck, Mrs. Davidson
and | drove out in a carriage,
through Hood River valley, towards
Mount Hood, ten or 10 miles. The
day was warm and sunny, almost per-
feet. The mountain was great sur
prise to me, it's great height was
really awe inspiring. Measuring it as
we could with our eye from its base
to its snow capped peak nearly 1900
feet high.
We could also see Mount Adams in
Washington, the other side of the
Columbia river, but although it is
really the higher of the two on ac-
count of its sides being ragged and
cut up with canyons and water cOurs-
es, it did not look as high as Mount
Hood.
Hood River valley is famous for its
wonderful Strawberries and not much
less for her apples. The strawberry
is known here as Clark's Seeding ori-
ginating nearly % years ago near
Portland, Oregon.
The land is mostly subdivided into
five, ten and 2Oacre tracts and are
called ranches. A man is a ranchman
if he cultivates ten acres Of straw
berries Just the same as though he
had 200 acres. These tracts are all
under irrigation and are valued at
from 500 to $500 per acre. There is
so much expense attending the
strawberry industry | am told, it is
not as profitable as growing apples.
MIR. Davidson, of the Davidson Fruit
Co. informed me that Hood River had
shipped out 80 carloads of strawber-
ries and several hundred carloads
of apples. An apple orchard was
shown me, the owner of which had
refused $1,000 an acre for it, and |
am told it has yielded net profit of
$500 per acre each year for several
years past. They put lot of work
on their land, and have strawber-
ries and apple growing down to a sci
ence. Apple trees are sprayed from
four to six times, during the year, to
protect them from the scale and other
insects. The ground is Cultivted
level and shallow and is as clean as
a garden, not a weed to be seen. |
would rather own an apple orchard
in Hood River valley than gold mine
in the mountains. | was shown
through the Davidson Fruit Com
pany's packing house and box factory
and while there purchased box of
Hyds King apples and sent them to
Mr.. Ace Benton, MinOt.
They are large apple but not the
largest that grow here. There is no
place on the Pacific coast where the
coloring of the apple is as perfect as
in Hood River valley. Hood river is
a montain stream three times greater
than that of Mouse river at Minot,
and it is a wild, turbulent stream
with fall of about 80 to 60 feet per
mile; soft clear water.
The town has population Of 1900
inhabitants, kind hearted, and gen
erous people. The Free Masons have
a splendid temple of their own and
the order is we'll represented, as
also is the Eastern Star We had the
pleasure of visiting with them and
will ever speak well Of our hospitable
reception.