The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-11-15

reported to have made ever applied
to me for any information about these
things. | can excuse Bro. Hills for
he did not know where to find me, if
| did hear him preach fine sermon
in the Auditorium on the fair grounds
at Portland. But the men who live
here in the west and know my adj
dress Chat is, my farm address, which
is given as Zillah, Wash.), could have
saved their regulations for accuracy
by telephoning or writing me about
these flying reports, which are out
rageous eXaggerations. Much harm
is done by publishing these unreliable
stories. inexperienced people seeing
them rush into the fruit growing bust
ness and meet with disappointment
and, in some cases, ruin. The truth
about this business is good enough
and most assuredly should be told,
whether it is good or bad for adver-
Using purposes. 1 have made some
money raising fruit and expect to
continue to make enough to keep me
out of the poor house-except the
one l live in. | am neither tired
or retired minister so far as that,
work is concerned. l preach almost
every Sunday, but, as in the past
nine years, devote my time in this
line of work to the poor and destitute
and refuse to accept any pay. / would
not mention this fact here had not
several of these misleading reports
pictured me as retired minister with
an almost fabulous income from my
fruit growing.
Perhaps before closing this matter
of reports, it may not be amiss to say
that many of these injurious reports
that are published by real estate men
have in them just enough truth to
make them damaging lies when used
as they are. To illustrate this, one
of my neighbors in the Yakima valley
sold the apples from one acre of
Spitzenberg apple trees in the fall OF
1904 for $1,260. The man buying
them paid for the boxes and for pack
ing them, thus leaving the man net
over $1,000 per acre. In publishing
this the truth is told but the man who
publishes this to make his readers
believe that this enormous income can
be expected every year, either whiting
ly or unwittingly tells most danger
Gus falsehoOd. No such. thing can be
expected and the man who tries to
make the impression by careful word
ing of his advertisements that it can,
is either a knave or fool. 1t does
not exonerate the man who does this
to say that he saw the reports flying
about in the public press and did not
know that they were false. He ought
to know before he becomes a party
to their circulation. Ignorance, in
not few cases, is a crime. 1t would
be good idea if the persons who pub
lish these unreliable reports would
take Josh Billings advice-"Better
not know so much than to know much
that is not so"
A very knotty question is now be-
fore the state horticultural commits
sioner and the county fruit inspectors
in some of the counties in the state of
Washington. The apple crop is very
short this year and the amount of
wOrmy fruit is about the same that
it would be if the crop was large. So
it happens in a good many cases that
about all the fruit a man has is
called wormy fruit. A strict cOnstruc-
ton of the law would not allow the
man having such fruit to sell at home,
to ship it out of the state. even if it
went where no fruit Is raised, or to
give it away. What is to be done in
such cases? Some may say that if
the law is bad, the best thing to do is
to enforce it, and then If we don't like
it's workings, get the next legislature
to repeal or modify it. AS rule this
is sound advice, but it's application
strictly would paralize the apple bust
ness in any section of the state where
the Goblin moth prevails. Not car
load of apples can be packed in which
some worms will not show up sooner