The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-09-01
Communicated
the Editor of the Rec.

tiful valley, | am impelled to send
YOU few of my observations for
aAlcation as the same may be of
some value TO some of your readers
| for an outsider will sometimes see
things that are overlooked by the
residents.
There are but few of your resi-
dents. I bslieve, who realize the pos
sibilities of this section in the mat
tiers Of agriculture and horticulture
and especially the latter.
The fact that impresses me most
in connection with the farms is the
LITTLE or nothing that is being done
by the farmers to keep up the fer
tility of the soil. The same mistake
has been made in nearly all new
countries, and after the soil has once
been exhausted, it is next to impossi-
BILE to restore it, and for this reason
many farms in the eastern states
have been abandoned. The keeping
of stock and the growing of clover,
alfalfa, peas and like crops are the
surest methods of preserving the soil
BILE than the mere raising of grain
and hay as followed by the majority
Of farmers in this valley.
The industry which interests me
most, however. is that of fruit grow
ing, as I own small orchard in the
state of Michigan, and the wonderful
possibilities of your valley in this
direction have interested me greatly.
, Nowhere in the United States are
the conditions more favorable to the
/ growing of hardy fruits than in this
valley. and when it is remembered
that an acre Of land planted to fruit
f will yield ten times the value of any
other crop the possibilities of the val
ley in this direction are apparent.
+ The market conditions for your fruits
are excellent, and are bound to i'm
prove with time, for lying at your
, very door are the vast plains to the
cast which through irrigation are
destined soon to contain millions OF
people. Owing to climatic condi
tons fruits can never be grown with
. any certainty in any of that vast
area and the people who settle there
to develop the farms and build the
u cities must come to the garden of the
( Flathead for such supplies. Other
sections. it is true. will compete fol
/ the trade, but this valley will always
= have the advantage in point of dis
e lance and distance is everything il
/ the marketing of fruits.
II The fact which impresses me mos
u in connection with your orchards il
u their practical immunity from tn
e coding moth and other pests. blu
q this condition will not last long I'm
less your orchardists wake up to tn
u danger which threatens them, and
81 is this danger which prompts me t
u write this letter.
y The orchards of Michigan were a
~ one time free of the codling mott
II and even after its appearance
n fattered ourselves that the climat
III would prevent the spread of the pes
~ BUT b. bitter experience we hav
since learned our mistake, for tn
damage wrought by the pest to tn
X apple growers of Michigan for tn
year alone will amount to millions {
dollars, and am told that New YoI
and other states are suffering in liE
" manner. In my own orchard, by dl
st gent and expensive spraying al
of other work. I will be able to mark
wv less than ore-fourth of the presel
ne crop, and many orchardists ha'
ief given up the fight entirely.
Ks | observe the presence of the pc
a il Kalispell, but am told it has n
err yet spread beyond the city limits al
if this is correct no effort should
SHARED to eXterminate the scourge
ats fore it is too late.
The moth has no doubt been init
duced in Kalispell through the cal
if less handling of foreign apple box'
and in this connection | am inform
Ies there is state law which requir
IT'S, the destruction of all such boxes
,ht soon as emptied, but the most str
P. gent laws are of no avail unless
people are alive to the Importance
keeping out the pest.
1t is also stated that you have
state board of horticulture and
orchard inspector whose duty it is
guard against the Introduction a
spread of orchard pests, but from
brief observations | believe these
ficials are doing more to spread
codling moth pest than to check
ravages.
In Kalispell numerous trees hi
been banded with burlaps unit
which the larvae spin their cOcot
before Matching. These bands sho
be taken OF every five days and
worms destroyed, as they hatch i
the moth in eight days, which at o.