WOMAN'S EDITION THE DALLES TIMES-MOUNTAINEER
1
319 a pioneer in the same undertaking1,
daking homes and raising fruit on dry
uphill lands. The spring of J872 saw
the first trees planted on top of a hill
by Mr. Roberts. Ic afterwards) proyed
the orchard most secure against
frosts. Bearing peaches one . year
when the entire peach croD grown
-elsewhere in the region was destroyed
by frost. As is the case when men try
something before conside-ed imprac
ticable, these men were the butt of
many a jest and sarcasm. H. J. Wal
iron, a prominent citizen of The
Dalles, said: ''Roberts, I will have a
large bust cast of you for your grand--children,
if you succeed in making a
living on that dry land." Not only
were trees planted on top of the hill,
but corn, potatoes and watermelons,
also This was going farther than
-any one had dared to think; for " water
melons must be irrigated."
These were the fore-runners of the
-carloads that have since been shipped
from this locality. Side by side with
the market wagons from the creeks
came the wagons from the dry upland
farms. ; ''Soon people found that the
corn was as sweet the squashes and
pumpkins as yellow, the potatoes
mealier and the watermelons sweeter
-and finer grained than those that had
been irrigated. Many looked on as if
to say, "If you succeed, we will try it,
too; but we would rather not be count
ed fooU yet, if you fail." But failure
was never one of the ingredients of
the soil they tilled, nor was it woven
into the tissue of . bbeir brawn and
brain. When the fruit came, all their
expectations were realized. Now
they were not alone in their venture,
for others seeing these, results began,
similar farms, and Wasco county was
ready for homes in the valleys or 01
the hills. In the following ten years
most of the rolling tillable land be
tween The Dalles and Fifteen-Mile
creek was entered.
To raise fruit for the home market
was all that any farmer attempted.
The Columbia river steamers, with
their high freight, and the pack ani
mals to the mines, were the only
means of transportation. When the
O. R. & N. line of road was com
pleted, an impetus was given to the
Iruit industry, and the population of
The Dalles increased for home con-
sumption, ana a market opened to
Portland and the East. To the Seufert
Bros, belongs the honor of making
fruit shipping a possibility to the
farmers. Here begins a new chapter
in the history of fruit raising. The
few orchards that had been previously
planted gave such evidences of good
results that many were induced to set
more largely. Red winter apples and
strawberries were especially planted
in the Hood River valley. When the
Indian owned the country and hunted,
fished and gathered "dailies, '"the Hood
River valley was his finest strawberry
patch, and when the white man came,
he, too, gathered them in their wild
luxuriance. At first only sufficient
quantity was planted for the household
and local market. Before 1889 berries
had been shipped to The Dalles and
Portland markets, but in that year
shipments were made to Montana
points as an experiment. The returns
were so flattering that larger patches
were planted, and in 1890 a few hun
dred crates, of twenty-four pounds
each, were shipped. When the ship
ments reached 2000 crates, growers be
gan to fear the market would be over
stocked, and hesitated about enlarging
their patches. They could not under
stand where all the berries went, nor
that their berries would stand ship
ment to such markets as now take
them. This accounts for the compara
tively slow rate of increase in ship
ments, but in 1894, when 16,000 crates
were shipped, and as much as two car
loads were being sent every day, and
telegrams from Omaha, Kansas- City,
St. Paul and Chicago were demanding
them in car load lots, the possibiUties
of the market began to be lealized.
At the Columbian Exposition at Chi-
scar to Minneapolis, St. Paul, 1 incin
nati, New York, Boston, Philadelphia
and other markets.
Evaporated fruits are becoming
quite an industry. It has been esti
mated that Wasco county produced 250
tons of evaporated fruits last year.
The most successful apple-bearing
belts, are the foot-hills, plateaus and
valleys around the base cf Mt. Hood.
The prune, plum and pear-bearing
belt on the edge of the timber line,
cherries on the low hills, peaches in
the sheltered nooks of the Deschutes,
as at Miller's Bridge; the sandy bot
toms of the Columbia are an exemp
tion from the frost effects; strawberries
in the lower Hood River valleys and
the sandy soils of our creeks and the
Columbia river.
The geologist, the chemist, the re
ports from the weather bureau, the
pioneer orchardist, the progressive
fruit raiser of today, and prices quoted
in eastern markets for Wasco county
fruits, have all proven that from the
Cascade mountains eastward along the
Columbia river from the base of Mt.
Hood to the Deschutes and Columbia
rivers, is a country unsurpassed in fer
tility and climate for successfully rais
ing and shipping all kinds of large and
small fnits; strawberries, black-cap
raspberries, apples, pears, prunes,
plums, cherries and Deaches.
Chnrlotte F. Roberts.
present distance must be taken into
consideration in hauling the berries
for shipment. But the apple crop ia
the upper valley is as satisfactory as
the strawberry crop in the lower val
ley. At the District Fairs, the Me
chanic's Fair, the Columbian Exposi
tion, and we expect the same at the
Omaha Exposition, the fruit of Wasco
county Hood River apples in particu
lar have taken the highest awards.
Their size, splendid coloring, rich
flavor, freedom from the fruit moth,
and unsurpassed keeping; and shipping
qualities, cannot, be excelled in any
other known localiay of the civilized
world. In June, 1894, as an experi
ment, Mr. Sehanno S6nt a few boxes of
yellow Newtown pippins to London
via. Cape Horn. After their eight
months storage before shipping, and
their five months en route, they ar
rived in good condition.
The sandy soil along the Columbia
requires fertilizers and irrigation, but
are somewhat earlier with their crops.
One of the most notable of the orchards
of this class of soil is that owned by
the Seufert Bros., two miles east of
The Dalles. Ij consists of cherries,
prunes, pears and peaches, and con
tains about 40 acres. Ten years ago it
was a tract of drifting sand dunes, but
for six years it has been bearing
abundantly, and yielding handsome
returns. The cherries are particularly
fine, the peaches will equal in size any
thing California ever produced, and in
flavor rival those of New Jersey and
Delaware.
About 6000 acres are now planted in
orchards. Each year increases the
acreage planted at least five per cent.
Fruit trees in this county bear from 3
to 5 years after planting. The farmer,
however, does not wait until his trees
are bearing to realize returns from his
labor. The land between trees may be
planted to small fruits or , vegetables
until the tree3 are large enough to
shade the ground. With the excep
tion of the peach, the trees are natur
ally long lived; old apple trees at Geo.
Snipes' lower place bearing as large
a crop last year as they ever had done
before. The same is true of the other
o'.d orchards, when well cared for.
There are diseases and insects that
affect the fruit of this locality, care
lessly brought here in imported fruits
and nursery stock of former years. To
eradicate San Jose scale, the trees are
treated to a hot spray cf sulphate of
lime before the buds begin to swell in
the winter and when the petals fall,
the Dear and apple trees are sprayed
with London purple or Paris green for
codl'n-moth. It is the freedom from "
these pests that renders the highest GENERAL BANKING
elevations more successful in raisin er
A. H. CURTISS,
-PROPRIETOR OF THE-
Diamond
Roller
Mils
The Dalles. Oregon.
MANUFACTURER OF AND DEALER IN
Patent Roller Flour, Graham Flour,
Self-Rising Flour, White Wheat Flour
Corn Meal . . . . .
ALL KINDS OF HILL FEED, ETC
2j$2G.OO
10.00
1
5$25.00
A Stale Film
5.00 To a Kodaker . . . .
EXAMPLE IN PAINTING,
Cheap Paint for your house
costs, say, $20.00, last two
years $10.00 a year.
Fuller'r Pure Pkepaieed
Paint costs, say, $25.00,
lasts five years $5.00 a
year.
Result:
twice
paint.
Molal: Use "Pure Prepaired
Paint."
Cheap paint
as much as
costs
good
A Stael Film to a Kodaker is like unto
damp powder to a Hunter. . . .
We are agents for the Eastman Kodak Co.
Our films come to us by express every three
days. They are always fresh. . .
.We fill all orders the day received. .
We carry the largest stock of Photograph
supplies on the Pacific Coast . . .
Let us send you our Catalogue 'twill be a
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CODITY
WASCO, OREGON.
BflJIK, WGODARD, CLARKE & GO
Fourth and Washington Sts., Portland, Or.
cagx, the
Clark'a
Seedling, grown
here, took the premium over all other
berries, even though they had been in
the express car four days and had
traveled 2000 miles. While the culti
vation of strawberries could be car
ried on to the base of Mt.. Hood, since
they are found here in their native,
state, the farmers have found that at
apples.
The shipping: season is an active
one. From dawn to dark the fruit
raisers with their pickers and packers
are busily engaged picking, packing
and hauliug the hundreds of tons of
different varieties of fruit to the de
pots. It has been proven that the
women make the most successful pack
ers: their nimble fingers filling the
crates faster and neater than the men.
Pickers receive 75 cents and board
per day; packers 3 cents a crate and
board themselves. (This is for lare
fruits.) During the fruit season of last
year sone 75 persons wers employed
in Amberdale alone. The material
used for the crates and boxes is spruce,
therefore shipped in, but they are
made up in the vicinity using them,
thus giving emyloyment to not a few.
Bartlett pears have not proved to be
a success in shipping. They ripen as
the California crop is closing and the
eastern markets are full. finer
fruit for canning is raised than the
Bartlett peari and to meet this emer
gency as well as to dispose of the many
tons of other fruits, just right to can,
but too ripe to ship, the fruit raisers
of Wasco county are in sore need of
two canneries; one at Hood River, to
meet any strawberry emergency and
other fruits, and another at The
Dalles. ,
Are there not those who can furnUh
the experience and capital?
Cherries, plums and prunes shipped
from Wasco county last year com
manded higher prices in Chicago mar
kets than those from any other locality
on the Pacific coast. The fruit is
shipped , directly east in ' refrigerator
Prompt attention to Com
mercial Collections.
C. J. STUBLING,
J.M
PATTERSON,
President.
V. C.
BROCK.
Cashier.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
w. a. Johnston uineSj jCiquorSj Cigars
-DEALER IX-
fine Srocores
AND CROCKERY
Agency for the greatest American Liquor, -
YELLOWSTONE SOUR MASH WHISKEY
Also a full line of Farm
chinery, Wagons, Etc.
Whiskey from $2 75 to $6.00 per gallon, (4 to 15 years old.)
Imported Cognac from $7.00 to $12 per gallon, (11 to 20 years old)
California Brandies from $3.25 to $6, (4 to 11 yrs. old.)
THE DALLES,
OREGON
iitoite
Hop Gold Beer on Draught and Val Blatz and Hop Gold Beer in bottles,
Imported Ale and Porter.
The way I
to 10 east!
J is to take one of the Barling-ton Route's 4
weeklv personally conducted tourist car
f excursions. They leave Portland even 4
f Wednesday evening, running- over the O. A
t R.&N.Co.andO.S.L.toOj?den, R. G.W.I
j and Denver & Rio Grande railroads to $
f Denver, Burlington Route from thereon.
No chanjre of cars, Portland to Kansas
t City and St. Louis. Only one chanjre to
f Omaha and Chicago. Excursion man- f
f ager with each party. Porter w
car.
1 The tourist sleepers nsed for the Bt
1 ntrton excursions are Pullman's be.
clean, comfortable, modern. Only
S5 for a berth, Portland to Omaha or '
Kansas City; S6 to St. Louis or Chicago.
Through tickets and berths on sale at
ail u. K. & J. and U. 5. L,. ticket oftices.
A. C Sheldon, Gen'l Agent,
250 Washington St., Portland, Ore.
JOBBERS
FRENCH' BLOCK,
IN IMPORTED AND
DOMESTIC CIGARS.
THE DALLES, OREQON
iurl- f
best f
)nly
Only Taper Published Between Dufur and The Dalles.
PUBLISHED MEEKLY.
H. S. TURNER, Prop.,
Dufur, Oregon.