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The Mt. Adams, Sun, Bingen, WA., March 17, 1955, page 4

MAGAZINE LAUDS UNDERWOOD MAN

Louis Thun, Underwood fruit grower since 1907, was the recent subject of a magazine feature in "Goodruit Grower", official publication of the Washington State Fruit Commission.
The author, Bill Hoard, un-earthed some interesting information about Louis, a former Portland landscape gardener who fell in love with Underwood Heights the first time he saw it.
Hoard notes that modern attempts at weather control and hail storm dissapation through cloudseedingis nothing new to Louis Thun who saw the same results accomplished with much more noise over 50 years ago in Vienna.
Louis vividly recalls how Austrian farmers broke thunderheads and hail storms that threatened their hillside vineyards by firing cannon shells into the storm fronts.

Weather Problem

While the weather on Underwood mountain seldom goes to extremes, Hoard says, there have been exceptions. One August day Louis' apples and pears were actually cooked on the trees by a temperature of 115 degrees.
Neither well Louis forget the winter of 1919, when on Nov. 15 a severe freeze caught his trees with the sap still in the trunk. Thousands of trees died, their bark split wide open. Those that survived still carry deep frost scars on the southwest side of the trunk.

Shot Soil

The soil on Underwood Hts. varies, but much of it is known as Chemawa Shot Soil, Hoard says. It is 30 feet deep in places and ideal for holding moisture.
The "Shot Soil" gets its name from hard, round pellets of partially decomposed rock, about the size of a shotgun shell shot, mixed with the loam, sand or clay.
Several valiant but futile efforts have been made to irrigate parts of the district. The most successful one ended 40 years ago when loggers accidentally burned down the irrigation flume with their slash fires. Pumping projects and gravity systems have also proved impractical in most cases, the article states.

Better Fruit

Annual rainfall in this area is four to five times greater than is normal in the irrigated Yakima and Wenatchee valleys. This lowers production per acre but results in better-keeping fruit.
The author highly recommends the drive through this "checkerboard orchard and forest country" and hearing its full story from Mr. Thun.
To offset the lack of irrigation, Mr. Thun and his neighbors rely on cover cropping, soil management and fertilization. The cover crop is seeded in the fall; grows during the fall, winter and spring; and is disked under in late spring. A western-type Culti-Packer is used to pack the earth after disking to help maintain moisture.
Fertilizer is spread over the entire ground surface and is primarily intended to feed the cover crop instead of the trees.

Other Interests

While Louis' chief interest was fruit farming, he has not kept his nose to the ground. He is also interested in politics and local affairs.
Hoard notes that Louis Thun served three terms as a Skamania County Commissioner (Republican), 1921-25, 1925-29, and again from 1933-37.
"He was one of only two Skamania County officials on the Republican ticket elected in that Democratic landslide year of 1932," Hoard points out as an indication of Louis Thun's community standing.