Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1909-01-29
SOME CHANGES OCCURRING
Facts Drawn From Experience and
Predictions Are Made
for the Future
BY H. c. Bateham.

L
am tempted to divide 1t up as the
Latin students do Gaul translations:
that is into three halves. Some will
consider 1t In three lights, past, pres
ent and future. To say that barren
hillside or an uncultivated plain will
not produce good fruits and vege-
tables simply because they never
have done so has proven most eyre
gious error. ] well remember the
time when the early settlers In the
Hood River valley would not think OF
locating on any of the dry sandy or
gravelly hillsides near town, but went
further up the valley and selected
damp creek bottom and springy plac-
es, thinking that only there would
they find moisture and fertility suf-
ficient to perfect fruit. Now these
neglected locations are, with water
for irrigation, selling for $1,000 per
acre for fruit, while the creek bot
toms are classed as Simply hay land"
and sell for about 500 per acre.
Such is the proposition here today.
will risk the assertion that the
best fruits of the future will invari-
ably come from the higher lands
the red soils of these hillsides, as
well as from the granite slopes with
which this country Is abundantly
blessed. On these will be the valu-
able orchards and vineyards of the
future. Water will be used so some
extent as sort Of insurance, but 1t
will be the rich soil and the bright
sunshine that will be largely respon-
sible for the fine fruits which this
section Sill for all time be famous.
The possibilities of the decomposed
granite soil which constitutes much
of our higher lands are not fully dem
onstrated, and yet the value in the
estimation Of the public is rapidly ris-
ing as testimony continues to come in
of luxuriant gardens, orchards loaded
with most luscious fruit and hay and
peas that grow higher than the fences
on granite land. Those who have
been here longest say that the granite
land warns up better in the spring,
thus producing better and earlier
strawberries and small fruits than
any other soil.
What is needed is men, real fruit
growers, who will undertake the
great transformation and help make
the desert blossom as the rose. A
well-known horticulturist once said
THE trouble with our fruit growing
operations In this country Is that
most of our fruitgrowers are simply
farmers"
The inference is that fruit growing
takes more brains. All hail to the
men who are now coming in here and
taking hold of our neglected or
chards, whose owners, lacking In
horticultural knowledge as well as
} stick -to-it-iveness, abandoned theii
places and struck out for the mines
or sawmills. There are few such
orchards yet to be had here, but be
fore another year they will all be TAX
en- up by the new owners or will o.
necessity fall a prey to the inspector
who well knows that an orchard with
out a caretaker is a fit subject foi
condemnation.
II is plain to be seen that a bette
day is dawnlng for the fruit grove
in this valley--already he Is bette
! paid and consequently he has a rlgh
to feel encouraged. His fruit Is II
3 demand because II is OF superio
Z quality.
y II has been we'll and truly remark
z ed by one OF our Grants Pass writer
\ that observation teaches us that tn
: art Of fruit growing can only be az
: quired after careful study and exper
4 ence. The man who would succee
! in II must be worker, and to such
! man success comes as a matter
= course. what have seen convinc'
' me anew that fruit growing demand