The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-12-29

The rest will be boxed and shipped tC
Portland and central and eastern Ore
gon markets for the cooking or house
hold trade. Gull apples moved in
heavy tonnage by motor truck between
here and Portland. The Coumbia
river steamer j. N. Teal carried Gull
apples as chief down river tonnage.
The quick movement of apples from
fields to packing houses and thence to
receiving plants on rail lines has de-
veloped numerous community packing
| houses in the valley. These commun.
! ity plants as well as Individually
owned packing houses are almost in all
instances equipped with power grading
and sizing machines. The manufac.
ture of graders and sizers has devel-
| oped an interesting orcharding side
line. It's possibilities were so great
that Frank w. and Asa b. Cutler, for
merly owners of a large East Side
place, who originally developed grad
| ing machine to handle their own crop,
| have sold their orchard and are now
operating in Portland manufacturing
plant of no mean proportions to supply
all northwestern orchard sections with
graders. The Ideal Fruit q Nursery
Co. has equipped a factory on their
West Side ranch. from which annually
they turn out many graders. Timothy
Newell, an Upper Valley grower of
inventive turn, is developing sizer.
Hood River pioneered in the sizing ap-
paratus as she did originally in the
cultivation of orchards on a CONNER
cial basis.
The fame of the Hood River apple
oaA ba xryIl,,,9o .abn 81
not only to the chief marts of the
world but to apple districts in the four
corners of the globe. Annually fruit
growers of South America, Africa and
Australia, as we'll as many growers
from commercial districts of the east
ern United States visit here. seeking
the latest methods of cultivation and
packing. Their visits and the stories
they tell unfold interesting stories of
the vast quantities of fruit grown in
other parts of the world. In South
Africa orchards as vast as those of the
northwest are being developed. Vari-
eties grown are much like those of the
northwest. In Tasmania and Aus
tralia, orchardists are already growing
and exporting shipload after shipload
Of fruit for the European market.
Hood River is best known abroad for
ner Newtown apples. Recently the
editor of the London Graphic. famed
English weekly publication, wrote to
G. c. Crew seeking photographs of
orcharding in all phases and data for an
article. The Newtown, it was stated,
has become general favorite in
England.
Growers in setting new orchards are
planting Newtowns chiefly. 1t is be-
{ oming better known in America. The
Newtown is aE excellent keeping apple
and yet is of fine quality. 1t can be
kept in storage until late in the season
when the markets of the country are
cleared of the glut of earlier varieties
and cheaper soft product. The fact
that large proportion of their ton |
mage is NeWtowns will enable Hood |
River growers to realize an advantage. |
The apple market, in the face of the |
eastern famine, was glutted through |
out late October and November with |
the Northwestern red varieties, which |
were sold at a sacrifice. The New |
towns went into storage to be held and |
fed to the market gradually, when the
late winter and spring time demand |
resulted in a market reaction.
The NeWtoWn will enable the direct |
water transportation Of Northwestern |
apples from Portland and Seattle to
Europe to be carried out with greater |
success. The water transportation of |
apples his year has reached 200, GOO |
boxes. Most Of these were Newtowns |
of the smaller sizes, shipped to the
English markets.
The magnitude Of the apple business |
and the procedure Of sa lie of the fruit, |
resulting in returns coming back to |
growers slowly requires a system of |
financing all its own. The demands of
their clientele, perhaps. has had as
much as anything else to turn the local
banking institutions into two OF the |
most alert and efficient banking insti- |
tutiOns in a small town in the state of |
Oregon. Growers usually receive an
advance Of 80 cents per box on their |
crops at the beginning of the harvest. |
This requires 100000 and a pledging |
Of the credit of Individual and cooper
ative shipping concerns.
1t has been said that an industry |
rises or falls On whether or not IT can |
dispose, at a profit, of its by-products. |
Growers consider the culls as a by |
product. The II. 600 tons of apples be- |
low C-grade will sell this year for an |
average Of so per ton. Growers re-
ceive cash for this product, and the
culls are a considerable aid in caring |
for the family expenses Of growers.
Hood River orchards. ia the past six |
years have developed an additional |
5ideline that returns a limited steady |
income throughout the year-dairying. |
Growers have established a cooperative |
creamery which is now known as one |
Of the best Of its kind in the north 1
west. Not only does it aid local grow
ars but oTchardists Of Mosier and 1
Washington fruit belts have been stim /
llated to raising cows, because Of the
good prices they receive from their
cream shipped here.
The valley won its first recognition
ln Strawberries, but the apple orchards
ong since eclipsed berry fields. The
berry acreage here today ranges from
$50 to 400 acres. The receipts on
strawberries, which sold for an aver
age Of $3.50 per box, reached about
$50. 0C0. Cherries retuTHed growers
81. 500, and the total pear receipts
reached S55. 600.
APPLE SHIPMENTS