The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-03-09
NO MISGTVINGS AMONG GROWERS.

The people in this town, on the bor-
der of the section which produces the
worlds best apples sometimes have
misgivings about the apple business
and certain of them take Ipleaure in
voicing those misgivings. They are
croakers. They are not fully informed
on the business and do not know it at
first hand. They see many people com
ing into the valley and buying land and
many active real estate dealers. They
hear much talk about the big profits of
orcharding. They make the false in
ference.that every newcomer displaces a
resident who may be dissatisfied. This is
far from the case, for most of the new
settlers take up part holdings Of older
residents or get tracts Of raw land to
develop. That accounts for the rapid
ly increasing population. Nearly all
who sell their entire holdings in the
valley reinvest in other lands, or in
case of older men move to town to re-
tire.
The misgivings of the people who
are unfamiliar with the business would
be dispelled if they had been in attend
ance at any one of the three horticuI-
tural institutes held in the valley this
week. There they would have found
about couple Of hundred men gath
cred to hear from experts and from
each other the How of raising the best
apples. The men there knew how but
no one would have acknowledged that
he did not learn some new things at the |
meeting. The institutes will result in
bigger crop Of apples in this vale"
next fall. These men were not talking |
about selling their land to the new set
tier and not one of them would have
been willing to part with his land for
less than record figures. They did not
figure on the profits they were going to
make. They were solely interested in
producing the most Of the best and they
know from Tast seXprience that the
profit would take care Of itself They
did not even talk of the sale of the
product. They have a Union which at
tends to that.
These OrcharGists gathered at these
meetings know that they produce some
thing good and so does the world know /
it. 1t is their aim and their enthusi-
asm to produce something better and
they will succeed although most of the
world might think it impossible They i
leard how to get rid of the pests which
hey have and how to keep rid of the
pests they have not and now they had
'idded themselves of the pests they
lsed to have. Hood River has mini
mum of tree pests because this is :
Dad climate for most of them and be- :
,ause the ever present pruning knife +
and spray nozzle make it bad neigh {
for the pests which can stand
1t is no disgrace to find
something wrong in your orchard but
: is disgrace to see it twice. The ,
Hood River orchardist has to keep on
Ipeaking terms with all the orchard
roubles else he would be too familiar =.
With them. In the Institutes he gets
/ line on the ones he does not know and
s just as anxious to keep them out of
his neighbor's orchard as out of his
Dwn. There were no misgivings at the
Institutes for it is not the man who
raises the apples who has the misgiv-
Ings. SO long as the Hood River Spirit
of enthusiastic cooperation possesses
the scientific horticuturist of this val
ley, he will have no misgivings, and we
venture to say he will have none, be
cause misgivings do not pay.