The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-12-14
THE STORAGE PROBLEM.

As an apple growing community, the
Hood River Valley has just begun the
development of its resources. At the
present time but a very small portion
Of the Valleys acreage is in full bear
ing orchard. great percentage Of It
has never been touched, still remaining
in the raw, natural state. However,
every year new orchard is set out, new
land is cleared and the orchards that
have already been set come into bear
ing. With the increase in the bearing
orchard. the yearly apple crop is IN
creased and a greater need is felt for
more local storage.
Indeed, the storage problem is the
greatest facing the Hood River Valley
apple grower. The superiority Of the
. quality Of the fruit is recognized IN
every market and its sale at satisfac-
tory figure is assured if the storage
problem can be handled. Last spring
much was said locally and abroad about
the distribution OF fruit. Of course,
proper methods of distribution must be
worked out, but without local storage
only a small headway will be made.
All know that the returns Of the
bumper crop of 1910 were not as salts
factory as all would have wished. This
was laid to a failure to properly distrI-
butte the fruit. Too much of it went to
the large eenters, il was asserted. And
all Of these statements were true; for
taken indirectly more attention should
have been paid to the smaller markets
in the South and Middle West, when
the distribution was being worked out.
Yet, the primary reason for the unsat-
isfactory returns, the real reason for
the poor distribution, was q lack OF
home storage The apples had to be
stored somewhere, and this somewhere
was only offered at the large eenters.
Under these circumstances the words
Of Mr.. Sproat in last weeks issue of
the Glacier should be weighed care
fully by every apple grower in the
Valley. 1t should be realized that the
Unions vital need at the present NOM
ent is a large addition in its storage
capacity. AS Mr.. Sproat says, 'it is
a well known fact that the returns are
better, when the marketing can be
prolonged HThe storage at home will
alone enable the grower TO prolong the
marketing profitaby. The data given
by the Union manager shows that for
eign storage is expensive as is storage
in transit. The local storage plant
will give the Union an independence.
1t will be able to seek the best mar
kets for its apples.
The building of local storage ware
houses will free the Union from many |
smaller problems. A shortage of cars
in instances might be disastrous. With
local stbrerooms of ample capacity this
fear would be done away with.
However, Hood River apple growers,
whose success has been extolled to all |
fruitgrowing regions of the world and
whose cooperative methods have been
taken as a model by other fruit grow
ing sections, usually look at the prob
lens that face them in the proper
light.
They will see that they cannot afford
to be without a greatly increased
amount of storage room and undoubt-
edly the Union warehouses will soon
be increased.
In connection with the storage story
of last week il may be we'll to call
attention to mistake of figures. In
referring to the shipment of apples a
clause stated that, 1T will require the
moving Of 20, 600 boxes of apples or 80
carloads daily" Instead of 10000, il
should have read 200. 900.