The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1915-10-14
UPPER VALLEY
MAKES PROGRESS
MANY NEW HOMES BEING BUILT
Residents Not Worried Over Apple Indus
try as they Work Out their Prob
lens for Themselves

The ranchers of the Upper Hood
| River valley during the past five years
have plantd more apple trees. perhaps,
| propOrtionate to their tillable area than
any other section Of Oregon. Yet,
| from all appearances they have been
given to less worry the past year over
the ultimate success of sales agencies
to get good prices for apples than any
other fruit community, These rancher-
orchardsts think just as much Of their
orchard tracts as ever, and they may be
found working them with the same
| conscientious care displayed when apple
prices and stories of them were remun-
erative assets of real estate agents.
But they have ceased setting the fertile
| red-shOt and volcanic ash soil to apple
trees. This practice was discontinued
as early as two years ago. Some men,
who had set their entire tillable acre
age to apple trees even went so far as
to pull up portions of the trees. Clo-
yer, grain ard alfalfa are grown in
their places.
Nevertheless the building of ranch
homes-not the little ship-lap boxlike
structure that is often found on the
hN" AltullhEt bub llihutIl buHRdluWH.
such as would grace with credit a
fashionable suburban district of a me-
tropOlis- has been carried on actively
the past two years. A dozen country
homes, equipped with water works,
electric lights and other up to date
comforts have been erected in the
shadow of the fertile valleys white
peaked guardian, Mount Hood. Much
land, too, has been cleared. A large
area of the Upper Valley offers few
difficulties to the homebuilder. Fires
of days before the white man had
dreamed of Oregon fruits burned over
these areas, and today they are COW
cred with growth of mountain will
lows. Speak to an easterner or man of
the middle west of willows and he
would grow suspicious of the land on
which they grew, thinking the species
OF trees denoted excess moisture. Here
in the Hood River valley this peculiar
willow tree is taken as the harbinger
of soil of great fertility. Willow land,
because of the ease with which it may
be cleared. is in demand.
In other places the stumps of gigan-
tic frs have been torn by dynamite
from their deep setting, and the leaf
mould of scores of years has been pul.
verized to nourish the roots Of grain
stalks, alfalfa or clover. And land
clearing by no means is over yet. Just
last week +. F. Sharp, of The DaIles,
who owns an Upper Valley tract, gave
a contract to resident Japanese ranch
ers of the district to prepare 60 acres
of brush and timber land. This will be
ready for cultivation next year.
The Upper Hood River Valley may
be said to have two types of residents.
One went to the remote district
quarter of a century ago and homestead
ed some of the fertile soil. For years
he worked small tracts of cleared land,
grew little orchard for home use and
grazed his cattle on the meadow land.
While he and his family lived from an
abundance of products of the soil and
were contented, because of the remote
ness there was no great incentive to
extensive development. The soils
adaptability to the apple became
known, and as orchards increased acre
by acre in the Lower Valley, the fever
spread, and the homesteader of the Up
per Valley was stimulated to action.
Then came the influx of new settlers,
iiNh nv bobBhA pOih hipilo VI ibtiCNNuhos
This new type of orchardist came
from the city. They came with the
idea of growing apples. But few of
them were ever interested to a great
degree in the general ranch. Whereas
the old homesteader had taken rather
reluctantly to the growing of apples as
business, the new rancher was skep-
tcal of mixing swine raising and milk
ing cows with the production of apples.
There has been leaVening. The for
mer homesteader is as careful an orch
ardist, although he still keeps his live
stock, as the former city man. and the
latter still watches the trees he has
planted and at the same time has be-
come an enthusiastic dairyman or live
stock raiser.
And in these practices, to those who
have made a close study of the apple
industry, lies the secret of success for
the orchardist. The sooner, unless he
owns orchard tracts on a gigantic scale,
he becomes farmer, with the farmers
tendency to be frugal, with the rural
spirit of producing as much as possible
of his food from the soil he tiIls, the
sooner will his general prosperity come
about.
The jump from the life of city GUS
toms to the habits of rural commun-
ty is long leap, and one on visiting
in the Upper Hood River Valley might
expect to find some discomfort. Appar-
emily, however, a more contented rural
population does not exist. 1t is true
that they have some of the Injuries in
the way of water and light that elimin-
ate many rural drudgeries, especially
for the housewives. These city men
and their wives and children have fall
len in love with their surroundings.
Over rs per cent of the new cOmers to
the Upper FOOD River Valley, when
they settled were fresh from eastern
colleges. While others of the larger
institutions are represented, Princeton
has the largest presentation. Reun-
ions of the New Jersey institution are
frequently held on the occasion of some
visiting college mate, and the rah
rahs of the alma mater resound at syl-
van homes.