The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-04-04
What's the Matter With WeRatchee?
By o. M. Thomson.

Nothing.
Take down map of the state of
| Washington and draw a pencil mark
up the Columbia river until you
reach a point about ten miles south
of an air line from Spokane to Sc
attic, at the confluence of the We
natchee and Columbia rivers, and
you have the geographical location
of the city of Wenatchee, which ten
years ago was a sage brush desert,
and is now a thriving city of 5000
souls, surrounded by thickly popu-
lated valley of five thousand more.
Wenatchee is in the lower end of
the throbbing heart of the most fam
Gus section in the world. This dem
onstrated by the fact that she has
carried off nearly all the first prizes
and so to 80 per cent of all the
prizes in every apple show and ex-
position at which she has been a
contestant.
Wenatchee apples are the highest
colored, the most deliciously flavor
ed, the most perfectly formed, the
most uniform sized, the longest
keepers and the highest selling ap-
pie produced.
Good orchards will yield ten to
forty boxes of apples a tree. The
net price seldom goes as low as 81
a box and as high as 50 and $3.50
Count 80 trees to the acre and fig
ure it out yourself. An acre of good
apples will net from $500 to $4,000,
while according to the department of
agriculture at Fayetteville, Ark, the
best cared apples in that state will,
net from 500 to 1920 an acre. In
the poorly managed orchards the
profits run about $40 to SIS an
acre, while in Wenatchee valley we
have apple trees that produce from
80 to 80 boxes selling for two and
two and a half box and cherry
trees that have produced as high as
200 boxes. selling at SO cents box.
These, we are willing to admit, are
exceptions, however. But take the
lowest average of about $500 per
acre and compare it with Arkansas
lowest average of $40 to SIS an acre.
Compare 1t with the best black land
of Texas which produces from one
| fourth to one bale of cotton per acre,
which sells at about $50 per bale;
compare it with Kentucky's best to-
bacco land where it costs 5000 to
produce 76S pounds of tobacco which
sells at about 121z to Is cents a
pound, thus netting about $40 an
acre; compare it with the average
corn yield of Illinois, where it costs
$4.44 an acre to produce an average
of 35 bushels of corn, which sells
for about SO cents a bushel; compare
it with the average Kansas wheat
crop, the largest of which since 1860
was % bushels an acre, and the
crop of 1908 which was II bushels
an acre and grant that it Melted 81
a bushel; compare it with the fam
Gus Sacramento, Cal, orange and
| lemon country which averages about
SIS to $50 an acre, and then say
whether our estimate of Wenatchee
is exaggerated or not.
Couple all this with the fact that
| Wenatchee is located in the midst
of a community that thrills and vi
ibrates with growth, development and
, activity That she is endowed with
a most ideal climate. That she has
as natural Inheritance the great
Columbia river flowing at her feet.
That several hundred thousand acres
of undeveloped land flank her on
every side. That she is bordered on
the east with an immense wheat
country. That she is set within a
| cluster of valuable water power
sites, several thousand horsepower OF
| which have been developed. That
she is buttressed on the west by a
vast timber and numbering region.
That only 40 miles up the river by
steamer is the most beautiful body
of water in the west cached away
like a mirror in the heart of the
Switzerland of America" a sum-
mer resort OF note, where tourist