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The Hood River Glacier, Hood River, OR., April 16, 1909 (insert)

UNDERWOOD IMPROVEMENT CLUB

While we are all interested in the growth and advancement of our city we are also pleased to learn, through the kindness of the officers of the Improvement Club of Underwood, Washington, that our sister state has awakened to the fact that in the White Salmon River Valley, directly across the river from us, she has an immense fruit growing tract with a wonderful future. The valley has been greatly handicapped in the past on account of having been obliged to team its product across the 700 foot divide to the White Salmon landing for shipment. A new road, built by private subscriptions, has been completed, following the White Salmon river by a very gradual downgrade directly to its mouth, at which point is located Underwood. The building of the S.P. & S. railroad depot at this point opens a new era in the development of this section. Fruit growing is, however, no experiment in this section, as the following figures gathered by the club from its individual growers will show:
Shipped in 1907, peaches, boxes, 2975; strawberries, crates, 2862; apples, 2735.
Estimated for 1908, peaches, boxes, 7600; strawberries, crates, 4830; apples, 9150.
The above figures cover only the territory on Underwood flat and for three to four miles along the river valley, with the exception of the item of apples, 7000 boxes of which will come this season from the orchard of Mordecai Jones at Husum, six miles up the river, and includes only those who are absolutely obliged to ship through Underwood either to the unions in Hood River or via the North Bank road. This is a new country, but hundreds of acres are being set this year to fruit trees and berries.
At a recent meeting the name of the progressive club, numbering now nearly 100 members, has changed from the Underwood Improvement Club to that of the Underwood and White Salmon Valley Improvement Club, as the majority as were as many of its most wideawake and progressive members are from the mill's up the river, in the middle valley, and the new gateway through Underwood to transportation facilities has been made possible to a great extent by their effort.
At the close of the last meeting of the club an organization known as the White Salmon Valley Fruit Growers' Association was formed with the election of officers deferred for two weeks. This is a strictly commercial organization to which horticultural features may be added later. It is composed only of actual fruit growers and with the object of securing an honest and uniform pack. Realizing that Hood River's enviable reputation is due to a great extent to the honesty of her pack, this association feels she may be pardoned for copying her methods.
The headquarters of this association are in Underwood, only one mile from Hood River, and there is no question but what our soil, climate, conditions and fruit are identical. We trust we may keep our fruit to the same standard of perfection and it was for this purpose that the club was organized.
Mordecai Jones has secured 100x100 feet adjoining the railroad track on which he will erect a cold storage plant immediately. His immense orchard has only commenced to bear, but it is believed and hoped that he will erect a sufficiently large plant to care for the hundreds of acres of other orchards soon to come into bearing.
The recent advertisement in the special local fruit edition of Better Fruit is bringing to the Improvement Club inquiries from all parts of the United States and we believe that the next two or three years will see a greater change in our valley than has taken place in the past 20 for 30 years.