Churchill standard. (Fallon, Nev) 1903-1908, 1906-12-15
FRUITS
COMMITTEES. ENGAGED IN HORT.
ICULTURE ARE IDEAL
Carson Sink Will In Time Become a
Favored Fruit Section

Great Southwest. have been portrayed
as the place where lands reach their
highest cultural development and most
astounding values. As against the
eastern farm, worth one hundred and
fftv or two hundred dollars an acre,
choice orange land in Southern Califor-
MIA is valued ut one thousand dollars
and even fifteen hundred dollars an
acre. And this does not seem so highly
unreasonable when it is to be remem-
bered that oranges, figs, almonds, NAL
aga grapes, pomegranates and other
tropical products cannot be grown every
where.
Yet there are orchards in the Great
Northwest, which are esteemed as
highly and yield as golden stream
from peaches, aprieots, berries, and
other common fruits, as has ever been
claimed for the orange. Take the
Yakima Valley, or the Wenatchee Val
lev or dozen other mountain valleys
in Washington, or some of the finely
developed fruit regions OF Montana or
Colorado. There you can find men
growing wealthy on returns from ten
and even five-acre orchards. Perhaps
the valley OF the Wenatchee in central
Washington affords one of the best ex-
amples of the fruit possibilities of the
porthwest-situated in the midst of
that region which Daniel Webster des-
eribed as"Fit only for the abode of
wild beasts and wilder men," The
wonderful development of this valley
has been brought about entirely by
private irrigation development, yet the
government irrigation engineers consid-
er if an almost ideal irrigation commun
ity.
FED By The MOUNTAIN SHOWS
In the first place there is a splendid
water supply. To the west, are the
cleaning snog-tields of the Cascade
Mountains whose glacial streams feed
the swift running Wenatehee River,
which as it emerges from the valley,
becomes a tributary to the great Col
umbia. The valley is sheltered from
the bleak winds by surrounding hills,
so that fruit trees have never been
knoan to be damaged by cold. There
are no great farms on the Wenatchee.
The entire valley is not so large as some
ot the vast bonanza farms of the west.
but every acre is made to produce
its utmost, and land values reach
$1,000 81 200 and 81 800 per acre, not
based On the value OF houses and inn
proyements, but upon the productive
capacity of tae soil. Apples, peaches,
aprieots, berries, cantaloupes, prunes,
pears and all the large and small fruits
yield profit OF from 5000 to $500 an
acre Why then should not land, five
acres Of which will net one thousand to
twenty-five hundred dollars, be worth
five thousand or seven thousand five
hundred dollars? The interest is liber-
AL is it not?
There seems to be something very
superior in the fruit raised in the north
west, 1t finds ready market in such
lar points as Boston, and brings price
which more than warrants the heavy
express charges Washington apples
have brought 400 box, of less than
a bushel at the Hub. Nor are The citi-
zens Of Wenatohee, or many other pros
porous fruit sections of the North West
tied down to a wilderness life in order
10 secure themselves large incomes
Nenatchee, for instance, is the initial
point OF navigation on the Columbia.
WHERE Rail AND WATER MEET
Here the Great Northern Railroad
meets the steamboats-where rail and
nyer meet. 1t is but a few hours to
Tacoma and Seattle, while the local adj
Yantages are in themselves very great.
The orchards and farms are so small
that the entire valley resembles great
suburb, II is but calling distance from
one house to another. Each has t ele-
phone, running water, the rural free
delivery, and electric lights are being
installed. The roads are like streets
and schools and churches are at close
intervals.
No more highly developed communi-
tes can be found in the world than the
irrigated fruit communities of the
west. Social conditions reach a
higher plane than in any other class OF
settlement. The owner of five or ten
acres Of orchard enjoys practically all
'he advantages and improvements OF
s"e larger centers. coupled with q
breathing and growing space for the
iSn''iy, and an occupation such as II
was intended tiat man should engage
n The water for iuigating the valley
Is urawn from the Wenatchee River