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The Hood River News, Hood River, OR., July 2, 1913, page 10

MANY ATTRACTIVE UNDERWOOD HOMES
(Oregonian)

While it is one of the smallest of the Mid-Columbia fruit sections, Underwood, Wash., in the southeastern part of Skamania county, just across the Columbia from Hood River, has been making rapid strides during the last half decade. Five years ago not more than a half dozen families had made their homes in the community. Today the homes of almost 100 families are dotted over Underwood Flats and on Nobility Hill, each newly-made residence the center or at the edge of an orchard of apple trees, peach trees, plums, pears and currants. The men who have bought tracks in this district are for the most part retired businessman, erstwhile merchants from the Middle West and Portland, retired ministers and a former shoe manufacturer of Boston and an ex-head chef of the Potter Hotel, one of California's famous hostelries, located at Santa Barbara.

Apples Coming Into Bearing

The Underwood district is as yet too young to have made any great reputation for its apples, although a number of carloads are now being shipped out each year by the White Salmon Valley Apple Growers' Association, comprised of the growers of this section bordering the Columbia Gorge, and those of the Husum district, about three miles up the White Salmon River. Two old pioneers of the district have planted large apple tracts and the product of their orchards may be taken as an example of what the community may be expected to produce when the many tracts of 10, 20, and 30 acres come into bearing.
While the future of the district is based on the apple orchards, the men tilling the soil there are diversifying with small fruits. Their places are already self-supporting; for not one of them does not grow some variety of small fruit, strawberries, currants, quinces, peaches and loganberries. With this product they are maintaining their families and laying away savings.
There are no large places such as one may find in the larger and more developed fruit districts, for labor is scarce and while the resident of Underwood may look daily down across the broad Columbia at the expanse of Hood River orchards, the places there are in a way isolated. The Underwood fruitgrower must do his own work, and accordingly he has cleared his land gradually by his own efforts and has set out small tracts. But there are many of these small orchards adjoining each other and the aggregate acreage is reaching into the hundreds of acres.
The stranger visiting the district is impressed by the beauty of the homes, small bungalows and cottages, all of them with a setting of vines and surrounding patches of small fruits. With its south exposure the Underwood district is especially adapted to the growth of these small fruits and vegetables, and many growers of them find it remunerative to grow this truck for the early market.

Strawberries Are Early

Underwood strawberries are always a little earlier than those across the river at Hood River, and the growers, of course, realize the top of the market. Melons thrive in the warm sunshine of the protected fields, and one grower has set a large orchard of young trees to eggplant, his tender transplants set in symmetrical rows, and each protected from winds that might wither it by large cylindrical sheets of tin.
One of the unique sights of the Underwood district is the "squab factory," the pigeon farm up of H.A. Hussey, who formerly manufactured shoes and boots in New England. On account of failing health Mr. Hussey had a call back to the soil, and chose his home in the scenic environment. His sheds house several thousand pigeons. The squabs, which are gathered from their nests twice a week, sell readily in Portland, Seattle and Spokane. "If I had no orchard," says Mr. Hussey, "I would be gratified at my returns, but I am bringing into bearing one of the best orchards in the district, for when I find a tree that is not thriving as those around it I feed it with the pigeon fertilizer." As a result he is developing trees of extraordinary vigor and strength, stocky and sturdy and with luxuriant foliage.
A neighbor of Mr. Hussey, C.S. Clark, was from the time of its completion until four years ago the chief cook at the Hotel Potter. Mr. Clark bought with his savings a 10-acre tract, which he immediately began clearing and setting to strawberries. This fruit has maintained him since it was planted, and among the berries are thriving young apple trees. When one sees him working in his berry patch with scythe, topping the plants, one would never suspect that he had once been at the head of the cuisine of one of California's largest and most fashionable hotels.
The largest orchards of the Underwood district are owned by A.J. Haynes and W.A. Wendorff. These growers have paid special attention to peach culture, and their large orchards are planted with peach and apple trees, the former having been used as fillers. The peach trees have been bearing now for several years, and these two orchards alone send out each season carload lots of luscious Crawfords, the variety that gives the best returns in the district. The apples are coming into bearing now and soon the peach trees will be cut out.

Chickens Thriving Industry

The chicken industry has made its appeal to these Skamania county fruit growers, and one may now behold well-kept poultry yards among the small fruit orchards, the young chicks growing healthily among the berry bushes and keeping them at the same time free from insects that might prove injurious.
The Underwood district is non-irrigated. The growers there pride themselves on their non-irrigated product, which they declare has an excellent flavor because of their ability to grow it without the use of irrigating water. However, the entire district never suffers from lack of moisture. There is a slope from the Mount Adams foothills that has an abundant sub-irrigation. The growers all get their water for domestic purposes by digging shallow wells and from the many springs of the district, and most of the homes are equipped with waterworks and sewage systems. Underground streams digging into the earth's surface for three or four feet.