Historic Hood River
Corn as High as an Elephant’s Eye
7-24-2019
Notes
That’s Leroy Childs of Hood River’s Agricultural Experiment Station circa 1915. I don’t know of many people who grow corn in this valley anymore. Those are some pretty impressive corn plants. It reminds me of this W. D. Rogers cabinet card, one of my favorites.
Charlott
A very interesting person with his start in Redlands, California on his fathers farm. He naturally went to grade school and high school there and then finally to Palo Also for college. Upon completion of school he worked for the forest service for six months, prior to being employed by California State Horticulture. In 1914 he became the assistant Entomologist at O. A. C. (now Oregon State and soon was sent to Hood River.
He lived in town, but had a 40 acres ranch north of Dee and had at one time 22 acres planted in pears, it being the largest, at the time, pear orchard in the state of Oregon. It was on his own orchard that he did a lot of his experiments.
He and his wife Hazel had two sons, Winston and Allison Oliver, and one daughter Sally. Tragedy hit the family when their son Ens. Winston Leroy Childs was shot down in the Pacific on 6 May 1943. He was serving with Carrier Group 11 (CVG 11)
L.E.
Probably field corn, so probably not very good to eat.