The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-05-07
WHY LAND VALUES
ARE HIGH HERE


comes to the west to buy land goes
away without buying because he
comes to the conclusion that land is
too high here He has learned that
at Spokane, or over in the Snake
river valley in Idaho, or in the Rogue
river valley in Oregon, or some place
else, he can get irrigated land, which
he says lis just as good for fruit"
at one-fourth or one-half the price
he would pay in the Yakima coun-
try.
He is wrong for three very import
ant reasons which he probably has
overlooked.
The cheap land to be found else
where has not yet demonstrated what
it will do in the way of raising fruit;
it is not situated in a district where
the fruit industry is established, and
lit has no such markets as are avail
able for the Yakima producer.
All these reasons are of the very
highest Importance. They account
fully for the difference in land val
ues They make the difference.
In none of these districts where
cheap land can be found now is its
purchase anything but a speculation
In the Yakima district-and in the
Wenatchee district also, where the
conditions are identically the same
the high-priced lands have establish
ed values.
Raising fruit here is not an ex-
pertinent. Everybody knows what
can be done, because it is being done
every year Hundreds of successful
orchardists are here to testify, and
many of them would rather show
their books and accounts than not.
Until the fruit industry is estab-
lished in any district, the best prices
are not obtainable. We now produce
lin this valley each year hundreds of
carloads of each one of several va
rieties of apples, peaches and pears.
This fact is known to the buyers for
the great houses of the east. They
come here every harvest time because
they know they can get certain va
rieties or grades by the trainload if
they want them. The producer in
a section where the industry is not
established must sell his fruit out by
the box or the wagon load to small
dealers at comparatively low prices.
That is the way it was here until
recently. We produced just as good
apples 10 years ago as now, but
didn't get the prices for them because
We didn't have enough of any one
kind to attract buyers from the mark
cts. The new districts, where the
cheaper land is to be found, may
some day produce fruit on as large a
scale as we do; but there is chance
that they may not. At any rate,
they won't do it for 10 or Is years
to come, and that is long time to
wait.
None of the new districts has the
markets that are open to Yakima and
Wenatchee. The Sound markets, to
which we have low rates, consume an
enormous amount of our stuff, and
are taking more every year. Prob
ably a million people on the Sound,
in southwestern Washington and in
Alaska virtually depend on us for
their supply of fruit, and We never
will have any competitors in these
markets, which arec onstantly get
ting better. Then the Hill lines of
railroads give us direct connections
and quick service for st. Paul and
Minneapolis, Chicago and Galveston.
and the intermediate country, and at
least as good facilities as any of the
new districts have for dealing with
the far east.
1t is not the amount Of stuff which
an acre of irrigated land here will
produce which determines the value
of the land, but such considerations
as those we have mentioned.
The values of our lands depend, of
course, on the profits that can be
made from them; but these profits
depend largely on conditions that are
peculiar to the district. The values
of lands in the new districts are prob
! lematical to a certain extent, but can
never. in our opinion, equal those OF
the Yakima and Wenatchee because
there are certain advantages that
from present indications will always
give our producers an ledge on the
game.-Yakima Republic.