TWENTIETH AX X UAL MEETING. 145 



grade box fruit ; England, Australia, and the Orient, for tiieir 

 fancy. 



Hood River embraces a valley with an area ecjual to about 

 eight miles in width and t\vent}-two miles long. The Colum- 

 bia River, picturesque mountains, and evergreen-clad hills, 

 give to this region a remarkable scenic effect. The oldest 

 plantings are about eighteen to twenty years old and, as is 

 natural, insect and fungous diseases have to be fought more 

 vigorously than in the newer planted regions. Apple scab is 

 the most serious fungous trouble and is combated mostlv by 

 spraying in the dormant season ; in the fall before the leaves 

 drop, with Bordeaux 6-6-50. and just before the buds unfold 

 in the spring, with lime and sulphur. Summer spraying is 

 mostly for the coddling moth, though commercial lime and 

 sulphur is often used. Bordeaux is now never used as a 

 summer spray. 



A great part of the land is in ten and twenty acre tracts, 

 most of the work being done by the fruit growers, with the 

 aid of their families. This is their one business, to make their 

 few acres give the greatest returns possible. Strawberries 

 are the main crop that is grown between trees ; Clark Seedling 

 IS about the only variety. In the earlier planting of apple 

 trees, numerous varieties were set out and one would be sur- 

 prised to find such old kinds as Blue Pearmain, King, Golden 

 Russet, Baldwin, Greening and Spy. Jonathan, Winter 

 Banana, Winesap, Delicious, Arkansas Black, and King David 

 are also grown, but Hood River specialties are Spitzenberg 

 and Yellow Newtown. Practically all the later planting is of 

 these last two varieties with Jonathans as fillers, when this 

 system is practiced. The valley has a complete and up-to- 

 date irrigation system, but as there is an annual rainfall of 

 about thirty-six inches, manv of the l)est fruit growers do not 

 irrigate at all, preferring surface tillage to conserve the 

 moisture. The soil is the same volcanic ash and is very pro- 

 ductive. I found, however, a few growers who were begin- 

 ning to consider using commercial fertilizer. The people arc 

 mostly of good American stock and very hospitable, many in 



