The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-03-27
OGDEN PAPER HAS
PRAISE FOR ORCHARDS

Below are given some extracts from
recent editorial appearing in the 0g-
den, Utah. Examiner, on fruit culture
and in praise of the Hood River valley.
Leroy Armstrong, who formerly re-
sided here, is now managing editor of
the Ogden paper
There is little valley, its orchard
area at present probably 20 miles
square. There is seventeen-mile
road, macadameu and oiled, from
Hood River around through the valley
and back to the town. You will pass
orchards for the most part, all the
way. Take one man and he is typical
of all. He couldn't parse a sentence
of five words. But he will show YOU
an orchard anytime in the summer
with not twig growing where il takes
needless strength from the tree; with
not a scale of dry, dead bark on the
bole or limbs with lye wash assuring
against attacks of insects with soil
that IS cultivated in all the care and
thoroughness that your mothers gar
den used to know.
lie may not parse a sentence, but he
will tell you exactly the chemical com
ponents of the soil in his orchard,
pointing out that there is little more
of one ingredient here, and little more
of another there, and telling you what
is his treatment for the various ma
lures. He will tell you the Latin
names of the pests he has to fight-and
you better believe he has to watch aud
fight them. He will tell you how long
they live, a period which varies with
the nature and name of the various
creatures. He will tell you how the
arrive at life, and how he seeks to con-
duct them to a decent but certain
death. He will discuss the relative
proportions Of arsenate of lead and
blue vitriO and other poisons, and in
Just what sorts of weather each should
be applied in the form of spray. He
will talk botany to you as far as il re-
ates to apple trees, and his word as to
the stage of development in leaf and
blossom at which treatment must be
made will impress you.
These men go through their orchards
at all seasons. They know every tree.
They know how muchsirrigation water
each tree needs, and give il drink ac-
cording to its demands. They keep
water gauges at the apple house door,
and measure the rainfall. They give
their orchards just what irrigation is
needed, and not a drop'more.
They 60 into their orchards in grow
ing time, and pick off fine looking ap-
plies for no reason other than that this
one apple may touch another, resulting
in abrasion of the skin. He gets Just
as many apples on tree as it can fully
and perfectly developed, and not an
apple more. He picks them in canvas
pals, and the man who bruises one
goes .out of the valley with nothing
apples are not sorted in electrical ma
chimes that can separate ten bushels of
fruit minute into four or five sizes re-
quired for packing.
When a man Elisa box he marks on
it the variety and brand the name of
the grower, the number Of apples in
the box, with the grade extra fancy,
fancy or choice; and that box is just
as good as a certified check for its
market value. Not a man in the world
will question it. Hood River name and
honor and care and training and unity
of interest and of action are behind it,
You can borrow money on those ap-
pies, put them in cold storage. and
keep them indefinitely. On visit to
Hood River by this writer on Noyem-
Der the Commercial club Of that town
opened box Of apples that had been
packed just one year before. Two ap-
plies in the box bore blemishes. One
had a bruise, so light that it left no
mark at the time Of packing. but which
had developed into red spot perhaps
the size of a silver dime. The other
had been pressed a trhe too tightly
against its neighbor, and there was
little shallow depression. but not the
suggestion of rot.
Can we do it? No. Why? Because
we haven't the organization. We have
not the compact territory. We have
not the recognition of the nee essity for
high grade and uniformity-and above
all, Of organization. We have not yet
learned how to stick together.