The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1916-09-07
INDICATIONS ARE
FOR FINE CROP
SPRAY INVESTMENT RETURN MADE
Hood River Valley Apples Are Clean
Prospects For Good Returns
Bring Optimism

According to estimates Of growers
the Hood River Valley will begin the
harvest this month of an apple crop
that will probably pack out tonnage
of 800, 600 boxes of commercial fruit, a
large percentage of which will run to
extra fancy and fancy grades. Esti-
mates of the present time can be made
fairly definite. and all indications point
to one of the largest yields of the Mid
Columbia fruit district. A feature of
the years crop that is most appealing
to sales agencies comes from the re-
port that the fruit is clean and free
from the defects caused by fungus.
Interest in the application Of spray
materials has never been keener in the
Hood River valley than during the past
eight months. Investments in power
sprayers and in materials has run into
a sum thousands of dollars greater
than on any former year, but the care
ful. conscientious work of growers,
cooperating with representatives of
the local branch of the Oregon Expert
ment Station and officials of the
Apple Growers Association and Fruit
Growers Exchange will result in one
of the cleanest crops ever harvested in
the Hood River Valley.
Kings and Gravensteins have been
pretty we'll cleaned up. and the grow
ers will next attack the crop Of Jona-
thans. Then will come the harvest Of
the principal commercial varieties
grown here, Ortleys, Newtowns,
Winter Bananas and Spitzenburgs.
Valley orchards we're never in better
condition. Trees that had formerly
shown lack of color in foliage and
poor yield of fruit, have been brought
back to the normal, healthy state by
building up the soil with cover crops.
The frequent rains of the summer
months have kept the foliage and fruit
as we'll free from dust and the apples,
now beginning to take on their charac-
teristic coloring of red or yellow blush.
are of good size.
The pack of Hood River apples will
be standardized to a greater degree
the coming fall than in any former
year because of the use of mechanical
sizing machines. Practically all grow.
ere with large acreages have installed
power grading machines, and more
than half dozen community packing
houses will be in operation in the next
80 days.
Growers and market men alike are
optimistic over the outlook for prices
the coming year. While government
reports indicate that the crop of 1916
will be of about the same tonnage as
that of last year, the distribution will
be such as to bring better prices.
Northwestern box apple dealers will
not have to contend this fall, it is said.
with the heavy yield of barnyard orch
ards of the central states as last year.
The consumption of the Northwestern
crops will probably begin several
months sooner throughout the middle
west than last season. A healthy de-
mand at fair prices is expected from
this district because of the prosperity
of the agricultural districts.
Conditions in all lines of agriculture
10 the Hood River valley have been
good the past year. While growers
lost heavy tonnage of hay during the
unusual rainy periods Of June and July,
the loss was greatly mitigated by the
benefits of the precipitation to growing
grain and forage crops. 1t is estimated
that on approximately 5000 bushels of
grain will be harvested within the next
two weeks by the valleys only thresh-
ing machine. The local potato crop is
estimated at between rs and 35 car
loads. Because of weather conditions
the tubers are said to be Of better
quality than in any former year. The
season has been beneficial to dairying,
and now with almost every rancher
owner of a number of cows. monthly
cream checks of the cooperative cream.
cry have reached gratifying size.