The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-04-15

look very nne sell very well Ill
competition with Eastern fruit. Dur
ing the Portland Fair many men from
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chi
cago, New Orleans and hundreds of
other cities told me that they wanted
our fruit for the strictly fancy trade.
1t will not do for us to raise Ben
Davis, Missouri Pippin or any of the
inferior apples and send them to h
Eastern markets and this is especial
ly true of apples that do not look
we'll. Looks goes a long ways in
such matters. If New York or Yer
mont can raise apples superior to
our apples in both color and quality
and thus take away our Eastern mar
kets, let them do it, and not argue
about the matter. If they do, then, |
will say: Seeing is believing"
= + 4
Mr.. A. J. Whitaker, Prosser, Wash,
under date of March 81, writes as
follows: 81 have 80 acres of nice ly-
ing land four and a half miles south
of Port Orchard in Kitsap county,
which | am going to improve. Will
you give me your opinion on the kinds
of fruits best suited to that land?
Could l grow an orchard among h
small stumps while they were rotting
out by c%ultivating the trees largely
by hand? The land gets rather dry
in the summer but will it get dry
enough to kill out the trees?"
| do not think l can fully answer
all these inquiries. If the lands gets
dry in the latter part of the summer
| am afraid that hand cultivation
among stumps would not be the best
method to pursue. Thorough pulver-
ization of the surface is the best way
to conserve moisture. A good deal
of rain falls in Kitsap county, but
during the latter part of the summer
the rains cease. Then comes a criti-
cal time with vegetation. The gar
deners near Seattle frequently suffer
loss during these dry spells.
There are two ways in which to con-
serve the moisture, n is by mulching
and the other is by cultivation. While
We call them two methods, there is
really but one, for cultivation con
serves by making a mulch out OF
dust. Evaporation is what cause soil
to dry out, but If we scatter litter
over the surface it checks this evap-
Grafton and Illus holds the moisture
in the SOL to be used by the grow
ing plants. But finely pulverized soil,
even dust or clean sand, will check
this evaporation. Now l have some
doubL about hand cultivation doing
this rs well as thorough cultivation.
II the soil is stirred deeply and then
the surface thoroughly pulverized, 1t
will hold moisture. l would have
some fears about the young trees
without this, and after they begin to
bear, l fear hat the fruit would not
fully develop without this thorough
cultivation.
The location is a good one for mar
kets, being only a few miles from
Seattle, probably Is to Is, and not
over six miles to Bremerton, Charles
ton and Manette, with Tacoma as
near as Seattle. Summer fruits will
find a ready market in these cities
and on the great fleet of ships and
boats that center in these Puget Sound
waters from all parts of the world.
Just how far to go in raising apples,
l am not prepared to say. Many fruit
growers on the nearby points make a
good deal of money in supplying one
branch OF h apple trade. They do
not get the prices paid for the fancy
apples from Wenatchee, the Yakima
Valley and other Eastern Washington
sections, and perhaps never will, but
being near by and transportation very
low on the boats plying on the Sound,
the growers can make good money on
a cheaper grade of fruit. 1t is doubt
full If the fruit grown here can be
shipped across the continent at a prof
1t except in years of great scarcity,
such as prevailed in 1907.
have my doubts about the advisa-
bility of leaving these small stumps
ON tho lnnd md 1Koitinn fAa- 4IA.o-4A