The Wolf Point herald., 1924-07-10

Bitter Root horticultural and
garden products are the finest in
the world. Bitter Root valley
fruits are more delicate in flavor
and of better texture and quality
than any other. Can these pro-
ducts be SO prepared, graded and
packed that they may be placed on
distant markets in excellent condi-
tion-the same condition in which
they leave their native soil? That
is the great experiment that the
Bitter Root Orchardists and truck
gardeners are making this sum-
mer. If their tests are success
full, the future of that mountain
valley, with its warm, sunny days
and its cool sharp nights, that ac-
centuate with tang and zest the
delicious flavor of its products,
will quickly be established as the
home of the worlds most desir-
able table dainties.
To transport to the gilded tables
of New York and Chicago and Phila-
delphia, in its native freshness, the
fragrant, ambrosial berry, kissed with
the glacier-chilled dew-that is the
task to which the scientists of the
Bitter Root have set themselves. They
believe their problem is half solved.
This reason will give the answer.
There are in the country many val
leys with soil as fertile as that of
the Bitter Root, but there is none
where conditions of soil and climate
are so blended and modified, where
in midsummer nights the whiting heat
of day is offset by the freshness of a
breeze that fans down from the
snow-capped mountain crests to inn
part to the delicate fruits the flavor
and freshness that makes them fit
for. the table of king.
Then, too, there is a virility and
hardness in the plants that grow in
the Bitter Root that no other locality
yet has matched. For instance, the
Ever-bearing strawberry may be
planted in the spring in this valley
and the same summer it bears it's
fruit. In other valleys it takes three
years for the plant to bear. The same
story is told of many other products
and fruits.
Down at Hamilton the Bitter Root
Farm Products company, with the
support and cooperation of the far
mers, has installed preceding plant.
That term is purely scientific. 1t
might we'll have been named magic
plant, for certainly its results, if ex-
pectations are realized, will be truly
The preceding plant is, in
its elements, very much like a re-
system. 1t chills but does !
not freeze.
Having toiled for centuries through
out the day, the ideal farmer sci
enlist is now to become a worker by |
night. The Bitter Root farmer, at |
least, is to perform one of the most |
careful and painstaking tasks before
the advent of the morning sun. His |
berries and fruit are to be picked in |
the early dawn and before the heat |
of the sun can reach them they are
to be brought to Hamilton and placed |
in the preceding plant. There by
some alchemy the natural processes
of nature are arrested, fruits are held |
in their highest state of perfection,
sparkling, luscious and juicy. After
eight hours of this preceding treat
ment they are withdrawn from the
plant and packed in the refrigerator
cars, ready to withstand the journey
TO the eastern seaboard or wherever
he market demands. Upon their ar
-ival in New York, for instance, the
berries or cherries, the rhubarb or
Ipples, maintain their firm form and
heir crisp flavor just as at the time
# picking.
If this system of preceding is a
uccess, then the Bitter Root valley