Historic Hood River
Fruit Spraying
4-6-2016
Notes
The caption says, “Pine Grove– Roy Miller on RD4 Caterpillar tractor– 600 gal. sprayer on tractor, run off of power take off “PTO” 4 people could spray at same time. Van Horn Butte in background.”
The History Museum of Hood River County
Bringing the Rich History of Hood River County to Life
Charlott
Good photo of Van Horn Butte. Baby cherry trees growing. The big mansion is blocked out by the stand of trees on top. This photo is taken from the east side looking towards the west from somewhere down near Pine Grove School. Reason I know this is there is no visible road curving up and around the butte, as that would be on the west side.
Fore runner to the actual speed sprayer. Still the heavy old hoses to drag . around. At least this orchard had been disc prior to spraying, which made it much easier to drag hoses compared to tall grasses.
A number of orchardists on the eastern slopes had a gravity flow system. They had overhead piping down through the orchard with valves every so often to hook those old hoses in. They had a stationery area where the spray was mixed in a big tank and then it flowed down to the men who were spraying. My Grandpa had this type of system very early on. He was the "mixer" and I was the "player" in the spray bags and bottles…………..
Marilyn
Makes me cringe to see those men not wearing any protective gear.
Charlott
That was the way of life back then. It is remarkable how many of those men who sprayed like this lived to be well into their 90’s and beyond.
b l
I bet those spray guns are windmaster made in hood river
RHD
b I those are definitely Windmaster Sprayers. I actually have one sitting in my office. The man on the left appears to have some sort of breathing mask on, but I don’t see any on the other men.
J.E. Sheppard
Hukari’s Windmaster spray gun was made until recently by Tallman Ladder Co., has been more recently sold to a manufacturer up in Washington. It is alive and well! I have one of the old originals which I still use, and the parts for the new ones still fit mine. That must have been pretty good engineering–no major changes in around 75 years.