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The Hood River News, Hood River, OR., February 20, 1948, page 13

UNDERWOOD GROWER WINS IN BATTLE WITH OLD ORCHARDS AND DRY LAND
(Ed. note - The following article, reprinted from the Western States Reclamation Journal, should prove of interest to News readers, for it relates how old orchards, further handicapped by lack of moisture, may be rejuvenated.)

In the bustling Underwood Hill farming community, 3½t miles west of White Salmon, Wash., an alert fruit grower, Harry Card, has gained recognition for his development of land conservation practices in one of the toughest testing grounds in south central Washington state.
Since Card took over his 145-acre steeply sloping, dry land ranch in 1936, he has been waging a hard battle to overcome heavy soil and fertility losses and declining crop yields. But he has now won the victory.
Card's program of conservation farming practices showed marked gains this last fall when his apple and pear crops reached a new high in production, while soil and fertility losses were reduced sharply.

Marked Increase In Yield

Some idea of the worth of the measures employed by Card can be summed up by a comparison of the 10,000 boxes of fruit he harvested from 37-year-old trees with the 3,810 boxes produced in 1943 on the same acreage. That is a very marked increase.
Unprotected farm land on Underwood Hill is made to order for erosion, with this steeper slopes averaging from 20 to 25 percent pitch. Most of the 40-inch annual rainfall occurs between October and May. Under such weather conditions, Skamania county farmers try to use soil and water conservation practices which will control their winter water problems and save summer moisture.
When Card purchased his dry land orchard 11 years ago, he was aware that his trees had passed their harvest peak of 20 or 30 years. Crop yields of his 37-year-old stands had already started to skid.
"My apple and pear trees," Card explains, "quit producing almost as soon as I moved on the ranch. My orchard was thirsting for water and I was losing layers of fertile topsoil during every rainy season. I figured it was time for a change."

Conservation Service Helps

Card combined soil conservation and horticultural practices to improve in his box score. He began by putting the soil-holding and moisture-saving practices recommended by soil technicians of the White Salmon office of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. He took prompt action, too, on a tree-thinning plan outlined by J.I Griner, formerly Washington state supervisor of horticulture.
Griner's plan called for cutting out half of the fruit trees in the 30-acre orchard. The remaining trees thus received an extra supply of moisture. Card pulled out every other diagonal row and opened the distance between trees from 27 to 34 feet. He also carried out a thorough job of spraying and pruning his thinned orchard.
With more moisture to go around and added "growing" room, both apple and pear trees showed a steady pick-up in yields. The 10,000 boxes counted this past season are certainly a sign that Card's trees are again busy on the production line. And before many harvest seasons are past, the output is expected to top the high of 11,723 boxes marketed in 1938.

Cuts Cost 35 Percent

Getting more fruit from half as many trees cut the cost of his orchards operations by 35 per cent. His fruit is of better quality and color and there's plenty of moisture for all.
Now that his orchard problems were practically solved, Card still spotted danger signs ahead. Bearing down from the highlands were seasonal run-offs, washing tons of rich soil before it and carving gullies in the orchard land. Card lost no time and setting up a second line of defense to cope with his slipping soil.
In the pages of his farm conservation plan which S.C.S. soil technicians worked out with him, Card found an effective way of combating his soil losses. On tap were "erosion stoppers," ways of improving his soils, and practices which would assure the permanence of his fruit crop.
Card ridged the steep bank back of the orchard with a diversion terrace. Next he constructed a 2,500-foot wide grass waterway to carry off the run-off water from the terrace. To prevent erosion of the waterway, Card seeded it to alta fescue, blue grass, brome, and alsike clover. A barnyard milch was added after the planting.
Terracing of 70 of his 115 acres of extra-steep grass and crop lands was finished in the summer of 1946. The 1,300-foot long and 15-foot wide terraces are seeded to red creeping fescue as a sod builder and erosion deterrent.

Evergreen For Windbreaks

Card is also growing a windbreak along the banks of the terraces with plantings of two rows of Douglas firs and Port Orford cedars.
Cropland between the terraces is seeded to alfalfa and alta fescue grass. The latter is harvested for seed and the alfalfa is chopped up for orchard mulch.
Card has put plenty of hard work into his new cover-crop system. The thick vegetative cover, spreading over his orchard, anchors his soil, saves moisture, and feeds tree-roots needed organic vitamins. His cover-cropping treatment vary with the needs of his orchard soils.
In the fall the orchard land is seeded to an annual cover-crop of vetch and rye. Card disked it in May and follows up by covering it with a blanket of straw and hay, spread from four to eight tons per acre, depending on the slope of the land. Steeper pitched slopes require a heavier and thicker mulch to stay run-off.
His cover-crops are fertilized with a heavy mixture of phosphorus, nitrogen, and potash, applied at the rate of 200 pounds per acre in the fall and followed with an application of 200 additional pounds in the spring.
His cover-cropping measures used on the Card ranch are now a common practice on orchards in the Underwood Soil Conservation District.
"You can't get results overnight from every farm practice you put in," he said, "but if a farmer expects to stay in business permanently, he should be willing to wait until the conservation measures he has installed begin paying off, as they surely will."