The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-08-30
GRADER BUSINESS
Is GROWING FAST
CUTLER BROS. GET MANY ORDERS
Odell Factory Has the Biggest Pay Roll Of
Any in the County Except the
Large Sawmills


the building of something more pre-
tentious than mouse trap, but proper
tionate to the size of the apple grading
machine they have invented and per-
fected as compared with device built
only large enough to snare the tiny
rodent, just so much has been in
creased, in length and frequency of
use, the beaten path from world apple
districts to their East Side orchard
place. In wilderness of prolific com:
mercial apple trees on the orchard
place they have built factory for the
of fruit sizing machines
that has set new pace for Hood
River.
Except for the big sawmills of the
valley, the factory of Cutler Bros. EN-.
ploys more men than any. other Hood
River valley enterprise, and dur ng the
past six weeks orders for the time and
labor saving machines have been pour
ing In, not only from northwestern ap.
pie districts, but from far points of the
globe.
Australia has heard of the device
and has placed experimental orders.
One of the machines has been shipped
to the Pennsylvania State College, in
order that northwestern methods may
be taught to the apple growers of the
Atlantic coast. A visiting Kentucky
fruit man saw one of the machines al
work while on northwestern tour,
and Immediately placed an order fol-
one to be shipped to his place at Hen
Jacksonville. Several Cutler graders
have gone forward to the fruit dis.
tricts of Canada, and scores of then
have been placed in community anC
private packing houses of Hood River
Yakima and Wenatchee apple districts
The California growers, too. have made
demands on the local manufacturers.
Asa B. and Frank w. Cutler are pri
marily orchardists. Making grading
machines has developed for them as {
side line, but it bids fair to become the
chief enterprise of their East Side
home place.
Cutler Bros, when orcharding was
at it's heyday, and when growers were
harvesting dollars from the sale of the
big red and golden northwestern ap'
pies, then a novelty to eastern mar.
kets, bought their valley place. Both
young men had attended the University
of Illinois, the younger, Frank W.,
having specialized in mechanical engin
eering.
When apple orchards began to grow
from a negligibly small acreage to vast
areas, miles wide and long, Cutlel
Bros. saw that something must be done
to meet new conditions. The old meth
cd of hand sorting and sizing must b,
supplemented by mechanical device
Five years ago Frank W. Cutler spen
an entire winter engaged in expert
ments on a machine that would me-
chanlcally size his apple crop. At the
time he had no thought of a future bis
manufacturing enterprise that woul(
turn out graders to revolutioniyze the
northwestern apple business and per
haps that of the world. According t.
his statement, he was thinking of his
own orchard and how he could bes
handle the crop of the coming season
His first grader, as compared with thai
being made today, was rather crude
affair. Apples, placed in the slot be
teen two wooden strips, moved down tn,
center platform of the machine. The
slots, as they advanced, gradually wild
ened through the action of certain
ratchets, and the apples were released
first the small ones and then the large
sizes, to drop into padded bins, al
ready for the packers. Neighborine
growers heard of the new machine, an(
Cutler Bros. were persuaded to builC
several for other men with large orch
ards, and thus the commercial end Of
the grader business gradually devel
oped.
But Frank Cutler was not satisfied
with his first invention. He kept aheat
with his experiments. The measuring
process of sizing apples was found t,
be imperfect, because of the various
shapes of apples, and working on tn,
principle of weighing each apple, Mr.
Cutler developed new style of grader
Along the sides of the machine owe
the packers bins, appears rows of can
vas pockets. When the machine i
ready for grading, real apples ar
placed in these pockets for counter
weights, and into the respective bin
are dropped apples weighing to frac
tion of an ounce the same as the frui
placed in the counterweight pocket.
Sizing devices such as that of Cutie
Bros. have received the approval of tn
Office of Markets of the United State
Department of Agriculture. Such ma
chimes make possible the development
of the community packing house sys
tenn, and, in fact, a large percentag
of the seasons orders from the Odel
plant have gone for the equipment o
community plants.
While the Odell plant of Cutie
Bros, over 100 feet long and 60 fee
wide, is but the extension of an oil
barn on the place, it is operated almos
as orderly as though military law pre-
vailed. All machinery is driven b
electrical power. Each of the 80 car
penters and mechanics knows his task
and constant stream of raw materia
is kept coursing through the factory
reaching its final destination in the as
sembling room in fully equipped grad
ing machine, which is all set up an,
given a rigid test. The machines ar
then taken apart in sections and Grated
On every working day for the past 81,
weeks, one of these graders has bee
hoisted onto the waiting racks of
motor truck-Cutler Bros. old pleas
ure automobile having been converte'
into this serviceable vehicle-and start
ed on its seven mile journey to the o.
W. R. & N. freight station.
1--WE have often been asked, y say
Frank Cutler, why we did not bull
our factory in city. But We can op
crate it more economically here. First
we do not have the big overhead eX
pense we would have in city. 9Th
cost of transportation to the freigh
station is, believe, less than woul
be the case were we located in som
suburban district of a large city. Fun
thermore, located as we are, we ca
give our attention to our orchard place
ALREADY the demand for our ma
chimes has become so great that we ar
planning on doubling our floor spac