The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-12-25

Dealers Of Hood River al the present
time are taking almost as keen an in
terest IN prospects for motor truck
sales as IN passenger vehicles. Every
dealer is paying Just as much attention
% his truck lines as to his passenger
automobile offerings. With record re-
turns from their big apple crop, grow
ers. stimulated by the memory Of this
Years transportation problems and
tcw visiting motor trucks saved the
DAY bid fair to buy almost as many
motor trucks the coming year as tour
ing cars
Not only can motor truck handle a
large tonnage Of apples with a great
deal more dispatch than h0rsedrawn
vehicles. but growers and shippers
al ke say that he gasoline driven ve-
hlcles deliver the fruit in better con-
dItlon. The hOrsedrawn wagon is an
ntieXlble cOntraption. and growers are
required. when using them, to equip
the holsters with springs. The springs,
however. are but a makeshift at best,
ami the wagon gives the apple some
severe Jolts ii the road has any ruts.
Hauling by motor trucks. il is said. is
an insurance against bruised apples.
At the neighboring fruit district of
Mosier, where all growers are mem
bers Of the Mosier Fruit Growers AS
s0clatlon, no grower is permitted to
haul his own apples The cooperative
shipping concern operates six motor
trucks and the apples are hauled on
these from orchards 10 the big com
munity packin5 plant.
The motor truck adapts itself even
more particularly to strawberry ranch
INC than to apple growing. Growers
owning any acreage Of berl les at all
hnd 1t almost necessity now to own
motor truck of small tonnage. Straw
berries must be rushed from the field
to storage plant. Each days harvest
must leave that day. With motor
truck the grower finds that he can
easily accomplish this. With trucks
hauling IN most of the fruit last
spring, the shipping of the fruit was
greatly facilitated. In former years
horsedrawn vehicles were arriving at
shipping points late at night, but with
the more modern means of hauling en-
piCyed the berries arrived in the early
evening and are loaded out in refiger-
ator express cars for immediate ship
ment.
japanese, who seem to take natur.
ally to the strawberry business and
who furnish the major portion of the
Hood River valley berry tonnage, have
been heavy purchasers of motor trucks
the past season. The Orientals use the
small cars both for freight and passen
ger service, business and pleasure was
almost the term used, but when Jap.
anese burns gasoline you may be sure
there is as much business at least as
there is pleasure about the journey.
The so-called commercial car, or ord
mary passenger chassis equippd with
truck body but with pneumatic tires,
seems especially popular with orchard
lists. The car can be used for the town
shopping the year around, carrying
small freight and passengers. 1t is
also capable of hauling a heavy ton
mage of apples. The f, A. Franz Co.,
handling the Oldsmobile here, expects
unprecedented demands for such We.
hlcles next spring. A permanently es
AdbilSlltu IUl al tApItSS SySltu mas
been established here. using this type
of car. The two cars of the concern
are kept continually busy hauling small
freight to and from all parts of the
valley. One of them is used in trans
porting students of the Pine Grove dis
trict who attend the local high school.
The casual consumer of Northwest
efn boxed apples would probably never
think of gasoline as having anything to
do with its production. Yet it is new
true that, provide gasoline
fl mine were to strike the country. a
large percentage of the apples would
be wormy. as result of idle power
81 rayers, and it would be impossible to
market the full tonnage for lack of
getting them hauled to shelter before
damaging freezes set in. The gasoline
motor has become a part and parcel of
tie necessary equipment of the com
mercial orchardst.