Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-10-27
ORCHARDS co. A BIG CONCERN
CONTINUED from Page Three.)

books of the company show that
$1.50 per box f. o. b. Talent for ap-
pies is equal to $500 on consign-
ment in an eastern market, as we'll
as more satisfactory in that they get
their cash as soon as the car is sealed
and have no after troubles and wor-
ries.
The Talent Orchard Company has
the two best if not the two only ar
tesian wells in the valley. One we'll,
which is already "harnessed," has a
capacity sufficient to nearly fill six
inch pipe and flows steadily night
and day. Water from this we'll is
piped to the houses and barns on the
place and also furnishes water for ir-
rigation and for spraying, standpipes
being erected at convenient places
for filling the spray tanks. The COM
pany expects to harness the other
well and also develop third shallow
well, when they will have water to
irrigate not only their orchards but
their fields and pastures.
The ranch is certainly we'll worth
visit by anyone interested in the
problems confronting the fruitgrower
and farmer of the Rogue River Val
ley.
OF course, the business, like any
other, has it's vicissitudes. In ten
minutes one afternoon in 1912 the
company lost $4,000 in its apple
crop of that year by hail, which also
killed the fruit buds of this years
crop to an extent which probably cost
them nearly $4,000 more. This is
one of the reasons, as we'll as be-
cause of an adherence of waste, that
has induced Mr.. Thomas to go heav.
lily into hogs as a method of taking
care of the unmarketable fruit.
The writer has felt ever since COM
ing to the valley, and has frequently
said, that there were just two ques-
tions which must be solved to make
the Rogue River Valley the richest as
we'll as the pleasantest spot on the
globe. One is the question OF mar
keting; the other is the question OF
utilizing the waste. The former will
be solved by men of keen business
training who are now beginning to
give their personal attention to their
holdings in the valley, and the latter
must be solved largely by the feeding
of the unmarketable fruit to hogs OF
cows. A third problem is going to
be-in fact, already is-the labor
problem, and it is going to be one
of the hardest to solve. Any system
of combined fruit raising and stock
raising which will enable the large
orchardist to keep larger crew prof
itably employed the year around will
help solve this problem, as the draw
back has been that there was not
sufficient work in the off seasons to
Keep all the good men busy and they
left the valley. If they can be kept
busy at living wages during the of
seasons and can get good wages dur
ing the pruning, thinning and pick.
ing seasons there are thousands oi
laboring men in the middle west who
would like to come to the valley, gel
a little acre tract and work for theiI
larger neighbors most of the year
They would be infinitely better than
the floating help which must now be
depended upon. And, too, there are
thousands of Scandinavians and 9th
ers of the better peasant class OF
Europe who would do the same
thing. There must be a permanent
working element in the valley and
they must have work the year
around, or the orchardists will always