The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-06-15

corners who will want to know about
Fruit Growing in the Pacific North
west and will doubtless want to ask
many questions, it seems the proper
thing to anticipate many of these
questions and answer them here and
now.
1t may not be out of place for the
writer to say word about his quail
fications to give information on such
matters. First let me say that 1 am
a practical fruit grower. 1 own and
with my sons operate a hundred
acres of bearing orchards in the Yaki-
ma valley. For number of years I
have been the Horticultural Editor of
the Ranch and in this way have be-
come intimately connected with the
fruit growers of the Pacific Northwest.
When the Chicago, Milwaukee & st.
Paul Railway Company wanted to ex-
plot the fruitgrowing business in the
Northwest, they sought out the writer
and employed him to write folder
for their use and are now sending it
out by the hundreds of thousands.
When this folder was published, the
immigration Agent of this great rail-
road wrote as follows:
Chicago, Dec. 10, 1908.
Mr.. F. Walden,
Horticultural Editor of the Ranch,
Seattle, Wash.
Dear Sir:-I send you herewith
copy of our folder, Fruit Growing in
Idaho and Washington" the subject
matter for which was furnished by
yourself.
In the first place I want to apologize
for the mistake in the signature at
tached to the article This was
typographical error, which will be
corrected in the next edition.
| beg to advise further that the
pamphlet has been exceedingly well re-
ceived and has secured many cOmpli-
ments on account of the conservative,
rational, scientific, and yet practical
manner in which the subject was
treated. Very truly,
GEO. B. HAYNES, immigration Agt.
Knowing, as l do, that when peo-
pie read what a man has to say on
subject like this, they like to know
if he is competent to treat such mat
ters correctly, I make no apology for
the personal illusions here given.
One of the questions often asked
us is, Does fruit growing pay?" l
say from my personal experience that
it does. My sons and l have made
money at the business and we have
every reason to believe that we will
continue to make money. l know that
many others have done as well as we
have, and some have done better 1t
would be untrue for us to claim that
we have done equally well every year.
Some years we have had large yields
when at the same time the crops were
short in the United States as whole,
and the prices were high. In 1901
our net income was 100000; in 1907,
six years after our net income was
greater than in 1901. During the
intervening years we made our ex-
penses and frequently had hand
some profit. The efforts sometimes
made by land boomers to make the
inexperienced grower believe that he
can do equally well every year is mis-
leading. But in the long run, the man
who has an orchard of good varieties
in a good location and properly cares
for it will find the business to be
very profitable. L could give facts
and figures to corroborate these state
ments if our space would permit OF
their use.
"But will the business Of fruit grow
ing continue to be profitable?" That
is an important question and l would
not presume to answer it without due
consideration, but, guided as l am by
the conditions that l have so thor
oughly studied, / unhesitatingly say
that l see nothing discouraging in the