The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-06-14
BERRY MARKET
OUTLOOK GOOD
SALES OFFICIALS ARE OPTIMISTIC
With Fruit Of Other Districts OF the Mar
ket Hood River Clark'S Seedlings
Are in Keen Demand

c. w. McCullagh, sales manager of
the Apple Growers Association, ex-
presses an optimism over the 1917
strawberry deal. Weather conditions,
making the season of maturity of the
fruit month late, will, according to
present indications, be boon for local
growers.
''From reports that | have" says
Mr.. McCullagh, 1.-THE berry crop in the
Willamette valley and environs of
Portland will not be over so per cent
of normal. Around Seattle, where the
crop is fair, the berries will not be
ready for market before late June.
The season at Kennewick is already
about over. Many tracts have finished
picking. For the current week ship
ments there will continue in small
quantities but not enough for the de-
mand
"The Missouri crop is spent in a
commercial way. Heavy shipments of
fruit are over, and we will not meet
theirycompetition in our heavy markets
of the middle west. The Kansas crop
has been ruined by recent severe
rains"
While Clark Seedlings are now NOV
ing at the rate of nearly 100 crates per
day. shipping concerns do not expect
to send out carlots before the latter
part of the week.
Here to assist the strawberry grow
ers in obtaining hundreds of laborers
needed in the harvest of the 100 car.
load crop r. p. Bonham and N. F..
johnson, respectively inspector in
charge of the Portland office of the
United States immigration Bureau
and manager of the bureaus public
employment agency, declared last week
that the failure OF growers, OBSCURE
the sufficient number of pickers to
save their crops will be due almost en-
tirely to lack of preparation for TAX
ing care of the transient help.
Because of labor conditions this
season." said Mr.. Bonham, "the
greater part of the strawberry picking
must necessarily be done by boys,
women and girls. If Hood River
growers were prepared to take care of
this class of help, they would have no
trouble in the harvest of their berries.
When applying for such work as is
offered in the local berry fields, one
of the fast questions that prospective
pickers always ask concerns accommo-
dations. When we inform them that
it will be necessary in most cases for
them to provide their own tents and
camping equipment, we lose at least
so per cent of those applying for
Hood River work.
ttTbraa Il &c b. IA
cred in viewing the campaign of get
ting strawberry pickers for the Hood
River Valley. Many families will
come here for the outing the journey
provides. The element of money MAX
ing appeals to many and others may
be obtained by an appeal to their
patriotism. When those who would
make an outing of their participation
in the berry fields find so poor the ac-
commodations offered by growers,
they are lost. When the cost of pro-
viding a tent and camp equipment
overbalances the profit of the season S
berry harvest for those who need the
money, we cannot expect them to ac-
cept the proposition. And then we
are not going to find very many people
carrying their patriotism to the extent
of losing money, especially when with
that money they have to buy the
necessities of life.
"a sufficient time still remains for
the strawberry growers of the Hood
River to remedy their lack of prepar-
edness and to provide comfortable
quarters for strawberry pickers. Un-
less they do, some of them face the
proposition of losing part of their
crops for lack of labor to harvest
Them"
Mr.. Bonham said that all growers
who at present have comfortable
camps for their berry pickers are go.
ing to have no trouble in filling their
fields with pickers.