The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1920-02-12

OUTLOOK GOOD
LACK OF PLANTS LIMITS ACREAGE
Shippers Optimistic Over Future Market
New Paintings will Reach $50
Acres this Year

With the l22 carloads of Strawberries
shipped from here last year selling for
an average of almost $4 per crate and
market experts expressing confidence
that the long keeping and shipping
Clark Seeding variety of fruit will be
in a better demand than ever for the
next few years. Hood River growers.
as well as those of Washington mid
Columbia districts, are only limiting
their paintings this season to the
plants available. The valley at the
present time has about 600 acres set to
Strawberries. Three years ago. follow
ing low prices of the fruit. the berry
acreage had dwindled to about 450
acres.
1t is estimated that $50 acres of
Strawberries will be set here this year.
and estimates place the Underwood.
Husum and White Salmon districts
new paintings at 100 acres. The larg-
est single tract for the year will be set
here by the Ridgewood Farm. operated
| on the west side of the valley by +. B.
Mercer and j. H. Billingslea, young
Seattle men, who have contracts for
300, 900 plants to set rs acres. They
expect to set an. additional rs acres
J next year, thus forming the districts
largest individual strawberry tract.
The plants alone for their operation of
this year will. cost $l,050. A large
number of purchasers Of acreage of
logged off land in the Upper Valley are
planning on setting tracts of berries.
While the growers there will set their
Strawberries between the tree rows Of
young orchards. Messrs. Mercer and
Billingslea will specialize in berries
alone.
Shipping experts are encouraging
the planting of berries, which do not
require the stimulus of keen foreign
trade for good returns. 1t is pointed
out that the rapid increase in cost Of
labor has driven large percentage of
the berry growers of Missouri out of
business. Other districts, where can
neries and preserving concerns have
not been developed. have ceased to
grow Strawberries. and thus, it is said,
the market will be almost unlimited.
Il am firmly convinced" declared c.
K. Bone. who for many years was a
strawberry. grower and shipper. that
the Clark Seeding strawberry business
sannot be overdone. The Clark Seed
Hing, while it does-not produce the pro
life quantities of other varieties, is the
best shipper known. 1t cannot be grown
to its perfection except in the Cascade
mountain districts. Our only competi-
ton will be from California. and |
know from past experiences that just
ii ioe nirv frt1,f xx,hiah nm a
week or two later. reaches the Rocky
mountain and Dakota markets Califor-
MIA will have to quit, although our ber-
ries demand double their price. Cali
fornia berries simply do not hold up
undr shipment. We can even ship our
berries all the way to Duluth and Chi
cago.
1.-THE Clark Seeding berry was prop
agated at Mount Tabor. near Portland.
and the late Newton Clark fathered it
here. Hood River is its natural home.
In all the 80 years that Hood River
has been shipping strawbrries growers
have had but three seasons of failure.
In 1894 high water of the Columbia
prevented shipment. Another year an
abnormally wet season caused the loss
of most of the crop. On the third fail.
ure. as | recall it. our season was the
earliest known in the district. and we
met Missouri berries in competition,
with the result that the market was
demoralized. But the general record
is good one. Even when ranchers
were going out of the strawberry busi-
ness the crops were showing handsome
returns. The routine of harvest work
and cultivation, however, is annoying
to the white rancher, and for that rea
son Japanese have been more and more
getting control Of the strawberry cul
ture."
Brushland, where the vegetable moulc
is heaviest. is said to be the best sol
for Strawberries.