The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-07-27
LONG LETTER TELLS
OF COUNTRY'S CHARMS

The following is part of long and
interesting letter. appearing in re-
cent issue of the 0gle County, Illinois,
Republican and written by Mrs. Re-
becca Kaufman, formerly of the city
of Oregon of that county, who with
Mr.. Kaufman has spent the winter
here:
The summer weather here is fine.
One day recently when We read in the
paper il was 90 in Chicago, the mer-
4 curry here stood at "a. Indeed, the
season has been too cool for full crop
Of Hood River strawberries-more
than usually cool, and the late rains
have been delightful to us, but not to
the growers who wanted the sun to
ripen their fruit for the early high
| prices.
The first Strawberries that came into
the market were shipped at Sc crate.
/ Now they are bringing from 81. rs TO
So. In Portland last week | saw a
small berry selling on the street for
three boxes for quarter. At another
stand big, lueiOus berries in pretty
mahogany stained quart baskets were
marked as high as thirty five cents.
/ Hood River is the home of the
Clark's Seeding, particularly on the
| West Side of the Valley. When fruit
was first planted in the Valley it was
| thought apples would only do we'll on
the East Side, bat this has proved not
to be the fact-though Strawberries
certainly do well. picked some wild
Strawberries the other day on ranch
| four miles out that were the size of a
cultivated berry. The wild strawberry
grows in great profusion everywhere
in the Valley.
Perhaps some of your readers will
remember.the Hood River strawberries
that attracted so much attention at
the Worlds Fair in Chicago. The fruit
is, as they say, picked "'pink" for
shipping. 1t is then solid, and can be
shipped long distance, reddening on
the way. The fruit is assorted in the
berry house and then packed-all fruit
is packed" in these fruit regions,
and, indeed, it does add to its charm.
The assorted berries are replaced in
boxes, with top layer laid in, round
end up, in rows. The culls are sold at
home for less. The crates are shipped
in refrigerator cars and by express by
the Davidson Fruit Company and the
Hood River Apple Growers Union,
the ice used being made here blythe
Davidson Company and the Union.
A mail and express train, having only
one observation Pullman in addition,
goes through here at 8 :25 each evening
on the O.-W. h. & N. line from Port
land to Chicago in three days.
Last evening we went down to see
it. There were three American Ex-
press Refrigerator cars and about 600
crates were placed loosely in the express
cars. The shipments were to points
in Oregon and Washington, Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Ne
braska and the Dakotos.
About so cars will be shipped during
this season. The 0.-W. X. & N. Co. |
is building here, on account of the
increasing shipping and travel, a sta
tion and equipment costing $4,000.
An interesting accompaniment to the
strawberry season are the Indians who
have come in to help pick the fruit. |
The entire family comes es-men, women, |
children, even to the baby papoose.
A few of them live all the year in |
the neighborhood, and may be seen
any day walking and sitting about the
stores and sidewalks. These are rem
nants of the Multnomah, the Wasco
and Klickitat tribes. But for the
berry picking they come, too, from
the Warm Springs Reservation in
Eastern Oregon. and the Yakima Res
ervation. An officer of their own race
in Uncle Sans blue, comes with them
to see that all goes well, as they are
Heaven bless these once free owners
of all our proud domain) now only the
wards of its rulers. In a good season
the best of these .lndian pickers will
make five and six dollars day. They
are the reliance of the growerssof ber-
ries and hops, sticking unfaiingly to
the work to the end.
This evening a number of them who
are living in tents two and half
miles up the Valley in pine grove
will give an observance of some of
their religious ceremonials, which we
hope to see. Though the Red Man
has, by so many people, been so slight
ly regarded, to me he has always been
an object Of interest and sympathy for
the manner in which he has, from the
first, been defrauded and prosecuted.
The Indian, his legend, his tradition,
are here indissoiubly connected with
the mighty Columbia as it forges its
way through the deep canyon of the
Cascade Mountains and one cannot go
on its waters anywhere from The
Dalles to Portland without feeling
their spell. In time | believe shall
grow as fond of this great stream, fed
by glaciers from snow-capped peaks
and mountains and walled in on every
side with thick forests of fir and pine,
as | have been of the Susquehanna and
Blue Mountains and Rock River with
its charming bluffs. What bothers me
here is to find thrifty apple orchard
where one may look daily upon the
beauty Of Hood River and the Column
bia. Hood River is clear, cold, turb-
ulent stream, flowing into the Colum-
bia through deep gorge from Mt.
Hood, % miles.distant, ami the famous
Hood River Valley lies on either side
of it. AS write, look out on where
it emptes into the Columbia and across
the river, now at its highest water
mark, to White Salmon on the Wash
lngton side.
A launch ferry goes back and forth
" pblulS OH IHG uIuGT Slut-dIlu WHGIl
the wind is high, sailboat makes the
trip, which | lost no time in taking
directly after coming here. In the
current the water is 70 feet deep;
little above it is l50 feet.
The owners of these ferry boats and
launches made Lbetween four and five
thousand dollars last year. and have
just put on an excursion launch that
will carry rs persons.
Another instance of this being the
land of opportunity is that of former
sehool-mate of ours in Pennsylvania,
Mr.. Jos. A. Wilson, who has been in
Hood River nearly twenty-seven years,
barring a year or two spent in the
klondyke. He has worked with an
engineer corps all over this region,
and about ten years ago put in the
irrigation ditch for the farmers COM
pany on the West Side. This gave him