The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1909-08-26
ions and moisture underground with

OF lands depends upon the people who
live upon them than here in Hood
River" declared DIR. W. Ii. Jordan,
director of the New York agricultural
station, at Geneva, n. Y. "a signi-
ticant fact is that the town of Hood
River has University club OF lob
members, all college men. The sue.
cess of the Hood River apples is due
to two things, primarily the attrao-
tiVeness Of the product, the then
the uneXampled organization of the
fIult producers. This organization
is possible because the area ot pro-
duction is compact. believe there
are sections of the country where the
same intelligent application of he
best methods of production and the
same united cooperation and good
business methods would produce
somewhat comparable results. "
"rhe Hood River people," said
DR.. II. Davenport, have adopted u
striking rule, in that there are no bad
apples allowed to get out of the Hood
River valley. We know the Hood
River truit in the East, but we did not
know this system OF sorting the fruit
and keeping up its good record. The
locality should be commended for it
and encouraged in it" DR.. Daven-
port is dean of the college of agricul-
ture at the University OF Illinois and
director of the experiment station.
tie is also sthe author OF an eXten-
sive work on agriculture and has a
national reputation as a scientific in
vestlgator.
80 much do we think of the Hood
River apples, continued DR.. Daven-
port, "that the University of illinois
is sending two experts Professors
Blair and Crandall, who will be here
IN a few days to make an exhaustive
study of your system of apple raising
and zee whether 1t would be apple
able in the East. We have deplor.
able conditions in the handling and
marketing of fruit in illinois and while
we never can produce the qIality that
you do here, we think We may apply
Oregon methods to lllinios and get
better results. But the people there
lack the pI ogressiveness Of the West
erners, and it will be difficult mat.
Ger to induce them to break away
from the old-fashioned methods of
fruit raising.
"You get beautifully colored fruit
here, aud the finish and flavor are
tine. The orchards | saw today we're
beautifully kept up and cultivated,
and the trees we're well cared for.
They ore all Young now and will le
quire special care as they get older.
Just now the trees are in their prime.
"Ihe men here are people who
know the fruit business from the
bottom. They are progressive lot
of people, and understand there are
1903 college men in the club at Hood
| River. But the striking feature ls
the cooperation in boosting the
country and in marketing the fruit.
The people here take broad mind
ed view of the situation. We will
have great trouble in Illinois in get
ting our farmers to allow someone
else to pick oveI their fruit no matter
how much they are told they will be
benefited. But the whole state is
broad minded here. Take the Port
land Commercial Club. 1t shows far
slghtedness by developing the oom-
munity as a whole ,and not Portland
alone.
81 do not like to say whether q
| man could come here without capital
and keep going on small fruit until
| his trees bear, as | have not looked
into the figures on the berries, but II
| is very clear to me that man witt
money eau come in here and make
more money, and lot OF 1t. Jus
how much working capital he should
have | would not want to say. "
III am more pleased with Hood Xiv
or than with any country seen since
leaving New England, despite a tIiI
through California" Is the. way DR..
ii. j. Wheeler, director OF the Rhode
Island agricultural experiment eta
tion, sums up the trip up the valley
GAS far as climate and general con
ditions are concerned Hood River i'm
pressed me very favoIably and as ia
as | have seen the orchards were vel
kept up and the trees look vigorous
| paid cents for some of your apple
from out here last spring and th,
prices sometimes reach 10 cents. Tn
were good and stood up we'll afte
coming out of cold storage. They al
attractive cn account of the perfec
tion of the skin, and this come
ough much spraying and AN idea
climate.
"Were | buying a tract here thin
would rather buy raw land and de
velop 1t and depend upon small fruit
until the orchard was bearing, rathe
than pay the large prices for the bear
ing orchards. think ! would do bet
tor In buying a bearing orchard tina
here but it is a question concerning
the raw land. have seen good Net
England farms sold at from 50 to 81
an acre, but the market condition
are the worst possible there and tn
people do not understand your West
ern prograssiveness. What we neeC
back there ~ to have our young mel
come West and stay long enough t
mbibe some of the Western spirit
The trouble Ia they come and stay
You have new methods in the West
while in the East we could hardly In
duce the people to organize to detes
! the middleman, and the product
from our cheap land, while possibl,
VI BOO" "ONAN NV
much money to the grower as In Hoo
River"
,, "You raise better fruit here than "
: can raise in Ohio, asid DR.. Home
G. Price, dean of the College Of Ayr
culture at the Ohio State University
"Ohio has great trult interests bu
! we have not developed the care OF tt
orchards or the marketing OF tx
: fruit to the extent that the II 90
: River people have. | am impresse
= more with the splendid system Of ma
ketlsg the fruit utilized by the grow
! ers OF this valley. Then the natur
: I conditions are splendid and the resu
= = is the best apple orchards | have eve
" seen,
). With the party in Hood River va
u ley was Baron b. Won Herff, now
New York, but formerly oOnnecte
y with the experiment stations Of NcrI
Il Carolina, Mississippi and Missouri
. Baron Won Hertf has given his lie
u thorough study of the scientific a
o pect OF agriculture, and has made
i. Continued on Page 5.)