The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-04-01

not country to which people who
made money in other parts of the
and enjoy their fortunes. However
attractive this section might seem,
the wealth in evidence here had man
ifestly been won from the soil. These
magnificent homes were unques-
tionably built on the profits of apple
and pear and peach and strawberry
and raspberry growing
My road directly west on the high
plateau soon lead me into private
grounds, the highways diverging to
the north and south. In a little
while l reached fruit house where
the foreman of. some fruit magnate's
estate was busy, with one assistant,
packing peaches: and despite all the
notices to keep out and keep still
could not refrain from stopping to
watch the wonderful dexterity with
which they threw each individual
peach from one hand right into the
center of the other, where a paper
wrapping was spread to receive it,
and then twisted the paper around
most adept was averaging al least
one wrapped peach every two sec
onds
Apolieizing for my Intrusion and
blaming the real estate man back at
the city who had told me to come in
this direction, | was vouchsafed a
few words from this lightning pack
or and given permission make MY
way out to the highway through The
orchard SO that I might 90 on, in
steld of turning haal, towards The
city. As tAis was he harvest season
and fruit picking was in progress,
tia. was exactly what | wanted civ
ing me an opportunity to get right
into the heart Of The fruit orchards
II this community where fruit grow
inc is more lucrative than ii most
REGIONS
Not far away came across the
fruit picking outit. and here was
boss whose mouth was not padocked
and who rather enjoyed giving ne
al the information | asked for. In
this orchard the apple trees alter
mated With peach trees in the rows,
in both directions As I remember
it the distance between the trees was
only sixteen feet. The intention in
planting the two sorts Of fruit to-
gether, as is ofen done here. is to
get full crops from the more quickly
maturing peach trees while the APP
Piles are coming into bearing. and
the apple trees have attained their
growth. leaving the latter thirty-twO
feet apart each way. So far as +
could learn. though, no rancher had
ever pucked up courage enough 20
destroy his peach trees, and the re-
suit in this instance at least was that
the peach trees were getting old and
being sadly crowded by the apples.
And yet on these aged and suffice
ing trees were such quantities Of
fruit as I had never seen on peach
trees before, and fruit of the most
delicious flavor, too. think that the
favorite varieties on this ranch was
Elbertas. From ten to twenty boxes
were being picked from each tree.
and these were half bushel boxes
meant an income of six or eight
hundred dollars an acre from these
peaches, and | could readily see why
the owner hated to cut them down
and give the apes the right of way
Still the apples appeared to be no
less abundant than the peaches, and
the boughs hung loaded with re i
checked fruit in such clusters as {
would not have dreamed it to BE
possible that apple trees could bear
Ii really seemed as if I must have
strayed into fairy land. so opulent
was the wealth of fruit here dis
Played, and so completely was each
hough hidden by the clustering ripe
ness.
How scene like this impressed
the senses Of sight taste. smell and
touch and appealed to the !magina
tion | must despair of making my
readers understand. but is was worth
travelling hundreds of miles TO see
one such orchard as this. OF course
! angled across. taking the longest
way out of this wonderful scene.
where the sage desert of ten or
twelve years ago has been trans
formed by few trickling rills of
mountain water into a land of bloom
and fruition Meanwhile ate to re-