Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1906-10-19
HOOD RIVER FRUIT
FAIR BIG SUCCESS
Display of Apples Fine-Orchard rd
lists Get Big Prices. v alley Pros
porous. All Through Union.

Charles Meserve, secretary and
manager of the Grants Pass Fruit
Growers Union, returned Sunday from
\ a weeks trip north, three days of
which he spent at Rood River seeing
the fruit fair at that place and in
taking notes of the methods of grow :
ing and marketing fruit in that Val
ley that holds the honor of getting the
highest price paid for apples this year
by any growers n the United States.
Mr.. Meserve reports most profit
able and enjoyable trip and he ex.
presses appreciation for the many
courtesies extended to him by Presi-
dent Z. L. Smith and Secretary G.
D. Thompson of the Hood River
Fruit Fair Association, aud to Mana
ger E. H. Shepard and Assistant
Manager E. A. Franz of the Hood
River APPLE Growers Union and who
are also publishers Of Better Fruit,
and to A. l. Mason, one of hood
Rivers most successful apple growers
and to all the citizens of Hood Ri, er
town and valley. who each was a
committee of one and all working
together to entertain to the fullest ex-
tent the visitors to their progressive,
handsome valley.
Though in a busy season, for apple
picking was on, the farmers were out
in force at the fair and they and their
we'll dressed families came in buggies
and carriages and not lumber wagons,
and when they paid bill it was with
cash or a check and not in brass
money or a long winded promise.
And what was most noticeable there
was not poor skeleton Of scrub
horse driven by these farmers such
as can be seen all too frequently on
the streets of Grants Pass, for the
Hood River horses look as sleek and
well fed as do their owners. The
Hood River roads are fine turnpikes
and the rural mail and telephone
covers the valley and each farm has
these essentials to modern rural life.
The dwellings have the tasty appear
ance of town homes and the barns
and apple houses are we'll painted.
A traveller will not see cows in the
front yard and pigs at the back door
of Hood River orchardist's home,
nor are gates to be seen that are off
their hinges and the barn yard lit
tered with farm implements 10
various stages of repair.
The orchards are the center of it,
terest to the visitors to this very
handsome and productive valley for
they are in their perfection the en-
bodiment of the application of brains
and muscle in farm work, but more
of the former than of the latter, for it
takes the reading, intelligent person to
grow fruit, and the man who reads
little and sits in saddle or on a
spring seat to raise stock or grain
would make failure at fruit raising.
All the trees in the Hood River or
'chards are as uniform and symmetrical
as though grown in mould and they
are as vigorous and healthy. as the
trees in the forests for they are given
the best of care and the highest of
cultivation. AS to being given the
sickly, scrubby appearance by pests.
as is the case with every orchard i'll
Josephine county, the Hood River
orchards are as free from pests as it
is possible to secure aud it is the
rule that in an entire orchard not a
box of wormy or scaly apples can be
found. Their county fruit inspector
is on duty all the time and is paid 80
a day and all expenses, and if he finds
the least indication of disease or pest
in an orchard the owner is forced at