The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-05-11
COLLIER STORY TELLS
OF HOOD RIVER

Arthur Ruhl, a staff writer of Col
liers Weekly, who recently made
tour of the apple districts of the
United States, seeking material for an
article on the new attitude toward
horticulture, chose the Hood River
Valley as the place from which he
drew facts to demonstrate his points.
The article is illustrated with hand
some engravings of the orchard of
Murray Kay and the home of Cutler
Bros. Mr.. Ruhl has studied his sub
ject well and his facts are we'll
handled.
The following are excerpts from his
story, the title Sof which is Team
Work and Apples:
1t is with no intention of exploiting
an already weIl-advertised district
that | choose as type of this new
sort of farming the Hood River Valley.
A label on the end Of box of apples
on New York fruit.sta first at
tracted me to Hood River. And
single it out from its perhaps equally
desirable neighbors because am more
familiar with it and because it exhibits
in compact shape the characteristics of
very modern kind of farming com
munity.
There is so much loose talk in these
days about the magic spell of Western
conditions, so much is ascrbed to soil
and climate which is often mere in
teIigence and hard work, that one
thing at this point should be clearly
understood. And that is that the
growing of these apples is not sort
of picnic in which man does the loahng
and nature does the work. These
growers are doctors and nurses, and
their trees are handled with as much
care as, and perhaps more intelligence
than, the average invalid or child
"The tires milliners and broken
down professional men who skip out
West and pick up fortune in fruit in
two or three years may possibly exist.
A city man, it is true, possesses
certain natural advantages for inten-
sive farming. He has no background
of moss grown traditions and outgrown
ways to hold him back, and he gercr-
ally goes into the new work with an
inge Iuous enthusiasm which born
farmer of the old school rarely pos
sesses. He learns everything he can,
and throws into his task The same
quickly released nervous energy which
he has been accustomed TO use in the
city.
"No man, however, can hope to take
up such complicated business as this
and succeed without a great deal of
study and a great deal of work. Nor.
except in unusual circumstances
when, for instance, trusted friend on
the ground can oversee his orchard
can the absentee proprietor of IA small
holding hope to succeed. A man must
stay on the job himself The business
requires too continuous attention and
is dependent on too many minute
details to make anything else possible.
Even after all the details of grow
ing fruit are understood and the
apples brought to perfection they are
worthless without market. And here
we come to that teamwork which is
the secret Of Hood Rivers success,
just as it was of the California orange
industry, and just as it must become
of almost all sorts of intensive farm
ing, unless they are to be merely a
gamble, compared to which a well-run
roulette wheel is a comparatively safe
form of investment.
Hood River has the great advant-
age of small, compact area and a
population most of whom are interest
ed in the same thing. The growers
consult and advise each other. They
talk, eat, and sleep apples. Organiza-
tiOn was much easier in this homogen-
eous little community than it has been
elsewhere. 1t is SO thorough that
about ninety per cent of the fruit is
sent out bV the association. "