Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-05
IN WEST
FINDING A GOLD MINE

the name of the variety Cor If the variety is
unknown the said box. crate. basket or
package shall be marked variety un-
knownO, and with the name of the actual
locality or district where grown. and no
such box. crate basket or package shall
bear the name of any other locality, place
or district other than that in which said
fruit actually grown"
That there is big money in apple or
cha-dng, industry yet in It's infancy in
the state of Washington, and, in fact,
throughout the northwest, becomes ap-
parent when it is known that trees aver
age five boxes each every season. and that
in many of the older orchards containing
from fifty to seventy-five trees 1t is not
common to harvest from fifteen to twenty
boxes. The younger orchards are set with
from eighty to los trees to the acre.
thousand dollars gross the acre is not I'M
common in the western part of the Spokane
country. where apple growing has assumed
commercial Importance second to none in
the district. Forty and fifty acre orchards
containing from :. 800 to $500 trees are not
rare. These more than twice the size
of the biggest orchards in Massachusetts,
which has an orchard OF 100 trees at
Haydenvile declared to be the largest In
New England. However, big orchards are
not the rule, as there is money in five and
ten acre tracts, which. with the practice of
irrigation. have been made heavy pro-
duCerS. Thousands of acres of land tribu-
tary to Spokane have been put under the
ditch in the last few years and thousands
more will be added quickly as the ma
terial and men necessary to do the work
can be assembled. 1t has been demon
strated that a twenty orchard properly
tended under irrigation will net more profit
than the 1Oa-acre fruit farm In the east.
These small tracts are being rapidly oc-
cupied by men, who while working in
Spokane and nearby towns, find time to
care for their orchards.
While there have been good and poor
years in the history of the apple industry
in the United States. the records show the
export business has been one of gradual
expansion, and while the growth probably
has not been so great as 1t will be during
the coming few years it has been encourag-
ing The number of barrels of apples ex-
ported to Europe was 239, 252 in 1881, and
in 1882 this increased to 1850 The num-
Der had increased to 169 219 barrels in 1884,
and in 1883 the export business amounted to
!, 4o7 400 barrels and this increased in 1896
to 2919, $40 barrels and $4,000 boxes.
There was an unusual number of apples
produced in the United States in 1886,
crop the size of which, considering the
number of bearing trees, may never be
equaIed again 1t is estimated that 65,0OO,-
coo barrels of apples were raised in this
country during the year. Naturally, such
an abnormal crop caused the expectations
of apples to be high. and 1t did not again
equal this record until in 1904, then the
exports amounted to 3,469, 763 barrels and
413.356 boxes. 1t is estimated that the
total will reach 1900 900 barrels or 1900
900 boxes this year, and 1t will continue to
increase more rapidly than ever before in
the annals of the business.
1t is not in apples alone that Washington
has come to the front as fruit producing
state. Reports compiled by State Fruit
Commissioner Huntley and submitted to
Gov. Albert E. Mead show that In addition
to almost four full townships of apple
trees the state had at the beginning of last
year $40, 900 plum and prune trees, 764. 956
peach trees, 500, 633 pear trees, 243. 459
cherry trees, 30.6S9 apricot trees. %, So
English walnut trees, 1915 almond trees
and 6.9SS ounce trees, and that thousands
of trees have been planted since the statis-
tics were gathered for the foregoing state
ment