The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-09-07
TENNESSEEAN PLEASED
WITH HOOD RIVER

The following letter. written by
w. A. Rush, managing editor of the
publication, recently appeared in the
H Mckenzie, Tennessee, Banner:
/ The last week of my vacation, was
1 spent in company with my sister, Wis
iting some lifelong friends at Hood
River, and the JOY of meeting old time
friends and holding weekend reunion
| will long be remembered. The various
points of interest shown US in Hood
River Valley and vicinity will also
be remembered for this valley is one
of the most attractive that have ever
seen.
Hood River, like every other place
of any Importance in the West, has
some one thing the biggest" Wa
shougal has the biggest cheese fac
tory. Kenton the biggest packing
plant, Aberdeen the biggest lumber
mills. Vancouver the biggest steel
bridge, Oregon City the biggest cleo
trie power plant, Astoria the biggest
salmon feet and canneries, The Dalles
the biggest cherries and grapes; so
with Hood River. she has her claims
that ct raising the biggest highest
priced apples in the world.
The town of Hood River (about
1900 inhabitants) is located on the
bluffs along the Columbia where the
glacial stream bearing the same name
comes tumbling down from snowy
Mount Hood, and, as most of the mod
ern Western towns, is quite up to date,
in every respect, electric lights, solid
brick blocks and splendid residences.
Following back over the bluffs one
comes into valley of a most elaborate
| (artifieiaD nature setting-most mag
nificent homes and an apparent end
less stretch of orchards. | had heard
a great deal about the world priced
apples of Hood River but never re-
allied the extent of fine homes that
| saw while making trip through the
valley. The culture of the fine or
chards is kept up to the highest degree
under the direction of most proficient
horticulturists. Some orchards are
well irrigated and others are Success
fully grown with dry culture; the
opinion is somewhat divided as to the
superior merits of the two methods.
The one thing all are together on is
| that the trees must be properly
sprayed at the right time and a thor
ough cultivation at regular and fire.
| quirements.
was somewhat amazed at a state
ment in regard to state law of Ore
gon. on the culture of apples, which
was to the effect that should man
neglect to spray and care for his trees
properly, the trees in question should
be sprayed or cut down just as the
fruit warden thought best FIR public
benefit. In seeing the urgent need of
care and protection necessary to grow
the world prize apples, am brought
| fully to believe that we can profit by
a knowledge of same and apply some
of the improved methods of
spraying and cultivating our orchards
and which | am sure would bring US
| far reaching results over our present
neglected way of growing fruit. Let
US waken up and apply some of the
great Western methods and be in line
for some of the great things.
In our drive we passed over a low
range of bills into what is known as
the upper valley where the apple cul-
ture is just being introduced. We in
| quired into the price of lands here and
were told that lands in the rough, un-
cleared and timber gone, are selling at
| from 500 to $3.50 per acre and that
| lands, just set in fruit. bring from $500
to $1,000 per acre.
Our trip took US we'll up on the
| Af -,
base of Mt. Hood and it was with
much regret that we turned our course
back down the valley as each member
of the party expressed a desire to go
still farther up, and | for one would
| like to have tried my mettle on an
other mountain climb, but our plans
had not been made for long stay so
we had to forego the snowy climb.
On our way home we passed through
an extensive forest where a score of
men were engaged in logging in West,
ern style. The strange part of the
scene was that of the entire absence
of teams of any sort whatever, the
work being done entirely by steam
power. First the trees had been cut,
falling all timber in the same direct
ion, which is not an impossibility there
as the timber stands very straight and
tall. The reason for thus falling the
timber is so as to not have the tree
trunks crossed up, which would inter-
fere with shaking them out" as it is
called. The donkey engines, giving
the power. are small stationary engines
located at the log road (railroad) and
by means of long cables the huge tree
trunks are dragged through the exfor-
est to the railroad, where they are
sawed up into logs by steam. and
loaded on cars ready to be hauled to
the large mill, few miles further
down on the river at Dee. We also
passed that way and were most favor
ably impressed by the gigantic proper
tions of the plant. First we noted a
train load of logs being dumped into a
log pond and following up the scene
across the floating log yard one could
see why the pond never became over
filled by the dumping of trainload
after trainload, for up an incline, into
the large mill, log after log would
glide in to its destruction. We were
told that the mill had daily capacity
Va AOOt WV ASCt Va luiiDCI anu WtLtl tHt
double crew shift, over 1900, 900 feet
is being turned out each week. The
plant, strange to say, is run as well as
lighted by electricity, which is found
to be even more practical than either
water or steam power. When we see
these great wonders, we are made to
realize something of the wonders of
the present age of great inventions.
Passing on down the river we came
to very wild scene, in the form of a
turbulent whirlpool in the stream; and
one may judge something of its awful
ness by the name applied to this fur
ious maelstrom and one can readily
agree that the name is we'll taken.
The fitting cognomen of the whirl is
''The DEVILS Punch Bowl"
Our trip back through the eastern
part of the lower valley was through
the very finest orchards and past some
of the most elegant homes. Some of
the aristocrats of the leading money
powers have built fine homes here and
Aauata THAR An