HOOD RIVER-WHITE SALMON RIVER AREA. 



43 



Originally all the type was covered with a dense growth of cotton- 

 wood, willow, alder, and underbrush, and over most of its area this 

 growth still remains. Occasional areas of the soil are devoted to grain 

 or various tilled crops. The ease with which it may be cultivated and 

 the abundance of moisture make it a valuable soil for truck and forage 

 crops. 



The followmg table gives the results of mechanical analyses of the 

 soil and subsoil of this type: 



Mechanical ayialyses of Columbia fine sandy loam. 



RIVERWASH. 



Riverwash includes the sand and gravel beds in the Columbia and 

 Hood River flood plains. At the mouth of Hood River, and in various 

 places along its course, this type often consists merely of beds of 

 waterworn cobbles, gravel, and sand, but along the south bank of 

 the Columbia River it includes extensive deposits of a grayish to 

 yellowish fine sand. The areas lie but little above the usual level of 

 the water in the streams, and in the spring practically all of them are 

 under water. 



Owing to the danger of overflow and the usual light, gravelly nature 

 of this type, it has no agricultural value. 



SUMMARY. 



The Hood River-White Salmon River area comprises about 226 

 square miles, or 144,640 acres, in and adjoining the Hood River Valley 

 in the State of Oregon and the Wliite Salmon River Valley in the 

 State of Washington. 



The former part of the area lies in Hood River County in the north- 

 central part of Oregon. The limits of the agricultural part of the 

 valley are marked by the character or degree of slope and by the ele- 

 vation of the surrounding mountains. All of this part of the area 

 lies within the drainage basin of the Hood River and its tributaries. 



The larger part of the Hood River Valley is made up of elevated 

 stream terraces and plateaulike areas, the surface of which varies 

 from smooth and sloping to slightly rolling. The hill and mountain 

 soils rise directly from the floor of the valley and have a surface 

 varying from moderately to steeply sloping. 



