The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-04-03
GROWER CRTTICIZES
POORNESS OF PACK
Hood Rive. Ore- a.22.la

Hood River, Ore. 3.23-l3
Editor Of the Glaeier:-In a recent
issue, a short article appeared, Com
missioners Find Bad Apples, 4" which il
certainly most interesting reading In
the light Of recent events in our conn
ty. II hardly seems possible that thew
found any Hood River apples in PORT:
land that were bad. But of still
greater interest is why they hould de-
sire to buy this particular box of fun
gus fruit.
1t is barely possible. judging from
recent oecurnees, that they desired TO
have a souvenir Of a now supposedly
extinct oTchacrd pest; or maybe To
present an object lesson TO all fruit
inspectors in the future who are der.
elTct in their duties, or more valuable
still to form the nucleus of museum
Of predatory insects and pests that pes
tered the apple growers of Hood River
valley in 1918 b. C.
At any rate, we taxpayers ought to
know why they wanted to possess this
particular box of infested fruit. Un-
less a reason is advanced. we shall ex-
pect jury Of amiable personalities TO
declare the salaries of said county
court null and void during the time
spent in bartering for a worse than
worthless box of infested fruit when
they should have been engaged in pre-
venting scores Of similar boxes leaving
the valley.
'Tis true wewant to get rid of the
infested fruit, at least some of US, even
though we opposed every effort of our
once constituted authoritity preventing
the continuous production of infested
fruit all for the sake Of few paltry
dollars economically invested in expert
advice. IL is all the more surprising,
when we must remember that only last
Wednesday the Hood River apple grow
ers in mass meeting voted to undertake
the incorporation of a business controll-
ing over quarter of million dollars
worth of property which business de-
pends for its success upon the complete
eradication of every form of orchard
pest.
Quite recently, an authority on the
apple industry in our valley publicly
said, in referring to our present facili-
ties for rigid fruit inspection, I'VE
have been sitting round like lot of
'woodin lnjuns. He might well
have said. MANY of us are either fools
or knaves." And between dealing with
the two | take the knave.
Fellow Fruit Growers isn't it about
time we were ceasing that big noise
outside the valley about perfect fruit
and doing inside little or much, as indi-
vidua cases demand, by compelling
owners to clean up or grub up their in
tested trees? Why should any orchard
ist be allowed to harbor these death
dealing pests across the fence any more
than to allow him to walk abroad when
his family is afflicted with the small
pox? There isn't any, other than our
cupidity of the ''woOdin Injun" type.
We will get an experiment station
but what about the interval now exist
ing when everybody is law unto him
self? An emergency, crisis, has
arisen, but our boasted production of
perfect fruit is a mockery so long sa
we allow selfish interests to interfere.
We are like the fellow who bought a
pocket book and had nothing to put
into it. The present idea seems to be
to advertise the glories of Hood River
while calmly smiling at the dishonest
methods of influential growers and TAX
ing the successes of the older orchard
lists as criterion, as well as, their
time-worn advice in carrying on any
sort of permanent campaign agalnsl
the constantly increasing inroads Of
pests. fungi, etc.
The result earnest desire to buy a
box of fungus apples.
Yours truly,
Jas. X. Forden