28 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in the Willammette Valley, At Hood River the business of growing 

 np]>les is perhaps the most highly developed of any section in the country, 

 at least, no other section has develoi>ed the business any further. It is 

 a community which is almost entirely devoted to the raising of apples. 

 A community made up of Avide awake, intelligent, hustling people who 

 have become highly skilled, drawn from nearly every walk in life. They 

 are intensely jealous of the reputation which Hood River has and every 

 man, woman and child among them is a booster. A spirit of friendly 

 rivalry exists between the growers, each one trying to outdo his neigh- 

 bor by getting a higher percentage of clean fruit, getting better color, 

 or producing a larger net return per acre. At the fruit exhibits the com- 

 petition among the growers is very intense. Prizes being given for a 

 certain number of the best packed boxes of Spitzenbergs, YelloAV New- 

 towns, Ortleys and Winter Bananas, also for the best general collection. 

 More than once I heard the Slogan "Hood River against the Avorld." 

 The Hood River apple grower's union is probably as fine an example as 

 can be found of the value of a strong association to build and maintain 

 a reputation for raising apples of the highest quality, free from blemishes 

 and well colored, uniformly and skillfully packed. Hood River prides 

 itself on its pack and guarantees it one year with another. By restrict- 

 ing themselves very largely to but two varieties, the Esopus Spitzen- 

 berg and the Yellow Newtown Pippin, the association is enabled to ship 

 in solid carloads. By using these methods, the union has been enabled 

 to sell year after year, almost their entire crop F. O. B. Hood River at 

 very satisfactory prices. The union advertises extensively in magazines 

 which results in attracting new people to Hood River, many of whom 

 buy land and set out orchards and establish permanent homes. 



As to the methods which the growers employ in raising their apples. 

 They believe in doing all their cultural operations thoroughly and with 

 the utmost pains. Each grower studies his trees and his soil. He tries 

 to spray and thin his trees at just the right time and starts and leaves 

 off cultivation of his orchard according to the conditions existing each 

 season. 



Spraying is done by hand pumps in the small orchards and with 

 power sprayers, both gasoline and steam sprayers being used. Before 

 the buds open, it is quite commonly the practice to give the trees a cle^'in 

 up spray of lime-sulphur for both scab and scale. In spraying for the 

 codling moth, there is a divergency of opinion. Some growers spraying- 

 only once for it and at the stage in the development of the apple just 

 before the calyx cup is closed. Others at that stage and at various 

 intervals three or four times or more a season. It is the custom to spray 

 two or three times each season for scab, before the buds open, after the 

 bloom falls and two or three weeks later. 



When the apples have set and reached the size of small marbles from 

 about one-third inch to one-half inch in diameter, thinning commences. 

 The little apples are either snapped off with the thumb and forefinger 

 or snipped off with small shears. Only one apple in a cluster being left, 

 usually the center one, but the aim being to leave the largest and most 

 jierfect apples. Some growers thin to six to eight inches apart. 



A large part of the cultivation is done with a disk harrow. Various 

 tyi>es of smoothing harrows are used. The orchards are kept beauti- 

 fully level with what is called a leveler, consisting of two planks twelve 



