The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1897-05-13
The 0flcial PAPER of San Juan County.
THURSDAY. MAY 18th, 1897.
FRUIT PRODUCTION.

The prospects of large fruit crop in
San Juan county have not been better
for number of years than they are now,
wherever intelligence, good care and
good judgment are brought into req
uisition in carraying on this important
branch of the great business of agricul-
ture. But farmers who look upon
spraying and pruning as new tangled
notions and believe, or profess to be-
lieve, that nature requires no aid from
man to give the best results, will I'M
doubtedly be found complaining as
usual in the fall that this country is
not adapted to fruit,or that the supply
is greatly in excess of the demand and
that no money can be made in the bust
ness. That these pessimistic assertions
are the veriest nonsense is pretty well
attested by the fact that the best horti-
culturists in Western Washington are
charging and improving their orchards
year by year and adding snug sums to
their annual savings as their well
cared for trees increases their product.
Instead of there being any danger of
loss by reason of overproduction. there
is scarcely any reason to doubt that
the profit in the business would he
larger and more safely to be relied
upon if the acreage devoted to fruit
culture on Puget Sound were many
times as great as it is now. We would
then be able to ship by carloads and
train loads and Washington fruit
would be known and sought for in the
markets of the east. 1t may we'll be
doubted if cherries and some varieties
of pears can be grown to greater per-
lection anywhere on the American
continent than they can right here in
San Juan county, and yet there prob
ably are not 10000 cherry and pear
trees altogether in the county and
commission men have never been able
to gather up so much as single car
load at one time. Many varities of
apples ripen as well and produce as
abundantly here as they do in New
York or Michigan, and this favorite
fruit almost invaribly commands
high price in the markets of the Sound.
Plums and prunes, while tLey cannot
be counted upon quite so safely, gen.
orally yield abundantly, and in quality
they are unsurpassed. Our soil and
climate ale especially favorable for the
production of small fruits which will
bear comparison as to size and flavor
with those of any portion of the globe.
We should produce strawberries by the
car load and ship them by express
freight to Chicago and the cities of the
Upper Mississippi. There is money
in the business. Let us not lie down
and kick and wall about overproduc-
ton, The same cry was heard in Cali
fornia years ago and yet the acreage
and the production 60 on increasing
at an enormous rate. In 1880 there
were 546 car loads of fruit, not includ-
ing wine, shipped out of the "Golden
State" In 1890 the shipments of
green, canned and dried fruits, nuts
and raisins amounted to 16, 1876 car loads
and in 1894 the aggregate was 31,274
carloads. We haven't the figures OF
later years at hand, but the incrase
still continues. If you will take your
pencil and multiply these 1874 car
loads of ten tons each, by 10000 and
divide the product by our population.
you will have nine pounds per capita for
the year, or about three-fourths of
pound month.
Where did this fruit sell? The dried
and canned fruit probably distributed
itself widely. But the green fruit, de-
ciduous and citrus, of which there were
14,S75 carloads, was not widely dis
tributed. According to figures COM
piled by William HI. Mills, it was con-
sumed among about five million people.