The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-10-15

ScuuS nnc W n0 INduCh
office and wants judgment pronounced
on them. The following note accom-
panied these prunes: Enclosed you
will find some seeding prunes of my
own growing. They are from seed of
an Italian prune but are about three
weeks earlier. 1 want to know if they
are any improvement on the Italian
prune." My judgment is that they are
an improvement on the parent. The
simple fact that they are three weeks
earlier is decidedly in their favor.
They can be picked and sent into
market, if sold in the undried state,
while the price is almost invariably
higher than when the main crop of
Italians comes in. Then they are
larger than the Italians usually are
certainly longer-and would make an
improved pack. So far as l can tell
by tasting them they rank with the
Italians in flavor. I see no reason
why they would not evaporate equally
as well. II I were in the prune bust
ness I should certainly give this seed
ling fair trial. My opinion is that
men who are looking out for new and
improved varieties of fruit will be glad
to get hold of this Seeding and give
it trial. There are men in the de-
partment of agriculture at Washington,
D. c., who are looking up new and
promising fruits. should recommend
friend Holiday to write the depart
per men.
+
I see a report going the rounds of
the papers about some Anj0u pears that
read like fairy tales. A Mr. Forhman,
of Parker Bottom, Yakima county, has
about sixty Anjou pear trees about
sixteen years old From these trees
he has picked and shipped to New
York city about 1000 boxes of first
class pears. He has a guaranty that
they will sell in New York for not less
than Sc per box. The firm to whom
the pears are shipped sold Anjous last
year for that much but think that they
can get So per box this year. The
freight, icing and commission will not
exceed So per box, so that the net
income from the pears, if no slip oc-
ours, will be over $4,000, and may
reach $4,000. The trees, understand,
occupy about two-thirds of an acre
l. AO VI CudIu ID dUOuC ILL &C IullCO llOuI
my main fruit ranch and I have seen
it hundreds of times and have been in
it quite frequently but not for the
past five or six years. l do not know
Mr. Forhman personally, but from the
statements of neighbors who know
him and have been in his orchard this
year l have good reasons for believing
that the facts set forth above are sub
stantially correct. After the returns
are in I want to mention this pear
story again.
+
l believe it is my duty to drop a
word of caution. Many people who
read this story will think all they
will need is few acres of Anjou
pears in order to have a princely in
come. 1 am not able OF speak def
nitely about this particular pear or
chard, but my opinion is that it has
not been unusually profitable in the
past. If it has been | failed to hear
about it, In my own orchard, three
miles away, and, for anything I know,
just as favorably located, we have a
few Anjou pear trees that have been
set in the orchard twelve years and
during that time have not paid for the
use of the ground on which they
stand, except this year, and we don't
yet know fully as to that. 1t is not
at all likely that Mr.. Forhman's trees
will yield as well every year as they
have this. Whether the price will
keep up to that of last year and this
do not know. But it is quite safe to
say that if trees should yield as well
as Mr.. Forhman's this year, and the
price remain as high the planting of
this variety would be enormous and
ultimately the price would drop, and
the enormous profits would be greatly