HOOD RIVER-WHITE SALMON RIVER AREA. 15 



ment companies, and there are now a number of such, holdings 

 which are 1,000 acres or more in extent. 



Experience in this and in other sections has fully demonstrated 

 that the best and most satisfactory results are obtained from small 

 orchards operated by the owners, and the tendency here is to reduce 

 the holdings to tracts not exceeding 20 or 40 acres in extent, and the 

 preference is for the smaller size. 



Unimproved land is, generally speaking, held at a rather excessive 

 figure. It may occasionally happen that unimproved land, always 

 in this area covered with forest or brush, may be sold at $100 an 

 acre, but the land is usually held for $150 to $300 an acre, and in 

 some cases the latter figure has been obtained for favorably located 

 tracts. When everything is considered — expense of clearing, cost of 

 the trees and of planting, pruning, and spraying until the trees come 

 into bearing, taxes, and interest on the investment — the cost of a 

 bearing apple orchard would be almost too great to justify the price 

 asked for this land. 



Throughout these valleys the general appearance of the farm- 

 houses and outbuildings and the neatness of the surroundings is 

 a matter of favorable comment by all who visit the developed 

 sections. It is the exception to find an unpainted or poorly kept 

 house in the orchard section, and a considerable number of the 

 houses are large and modern in every respect. Here and there, 

 particularly in the outlying sections where the original homesteads 

 still remain, log houses and indifferently kept frame houses may be 

 found, but these are rapidly being displaced by modern structures. 



At present the agricultural output of these two valleys is prac- 

 tically limited to apples and strawberries. A few head of stock 

 are occasionally shipped to Portland, and there is a small and un- 

 important shipment of pears, peaches, and plums. In driving 

 through the Hood River Valley one passes mUe after mile of orchards 

 in all stages of development, with here and there small acreages of 

 strawberries, planted either separately or in rows between the smaller 

 fruit trees. In the outlying sections, which include the mountain 

 slopes and portions of the upper valley, there are large areas of 

 forested and logged-off land, but these are rapidly being cleared 

 and givmg place to young orchards. In the White Salmon River 

 Valley the extent of the orchard planting is much smaller than in 

 the Hood River Valley, but this is largely due to the retarded develop- 

 ment of this section, caused by the longer deferred building of rail- 

 roads. The lands that were first cleared and devoted to the pro- 

 duction of grain and hay are being rapidly planted to orchards. 

 This development is being carried on in all parts of the area, and 

 eventually all lands not too steep to permit cultivation, or with soil 



