The Harrison times., 1911-04-22
Fruit Growing IN the West

Editor Times:
! shall offer no further apology for
these lines than that they may Sc
cure your readers interest for a few
moments.
am not craving newspaper no.
toriety, rather write to serve my
friends of Arkansas in a more bene-
fetal and unselhsh purpose.
left Idaho several weeks ago and
came direct into the Spokane valley,
noted now as the coming fruit belt
of the far Northwest, and hnve been
engaged in the preparation Of soil
and setting out fruit trees. Fruit
growing here is far different to what
one sees in Arkansas If YOU will
get your slate and pencil, and re-
fresh your memory on Mr. Rays
great work bit, will give You a
few examples in the cost of planting
an orchard in Washington, and You
NAV find the sum difference between
that and planting one in old Arkan-
saS.
The first item IN this valley, look
ing toward fruit growing, is the
location, and raw land in this valley
is very high in price. We will take a
10-acre tract, the very lowest cash
price of which is 5000 per acre, that
is snug little farm to begin with,
but if that is too cheap, You can as
readily find locations up to So, 300
per acre, but being from Arkansas,
you would probably prefer the 5000
land. You next get a crew OF say
twenty men with hammers, picks,
shovels, drills, dynamite, ETC., and
ten teams to haul away the stones
and stack them up as nearly out Of
the way as possible. You pay your
stone diggers $3.50 per day, your
teams and drivers Sc per day. So
now you have that item; twenty
men at $3.50 is $50 per day, and
ten teams is 500 per day. If your
ground is ready for the plow in from
thirty to sixty days you are in luck.
Got that? Then comes plowing and
dragging, and the real rock picking
begins in earnest Then comes the
nursery stock from 25c to soc Il
tree. Got that?
Well, we will say your fruit trees
are now set, and the irrigation COM
pany swoops down on that ten
acres like a hungry hobo on a
spoiled ham. But water YOU must
have, and you know it don't rain IN
this country except when it SHOWS,
and the water man is as eXacting as
an English lord. You have 70 come
through regardless Of price. Water
for this VALLEY is obtained from lakes
high up in the mountains and is
humed through devious ways wind
ing around knobs and walls of gran
ite. These fumes tap Newman lake
on the north and Hayden lake on
the south
After squaring up all discounts
and fixing the irrigation agent, the
next move is to figure up the total
cost up to date, and sit down to
wonder and wait for the next five
years for the Spokane valley is only
an experiment as yet, and aside
from the volume of the real estate
mems estimate, nothing is sure.
Only four varieties Of apples are
planted here. These are the Wag-
ener, Delicious (anew apple, Roman
Beauty and Jonathan. No peaches
are set out, and a large 7-year-old
peach orchard was cut down out
here this spring, having never borne
a single peach. Winter wheat is
very profitable here, and also toma-
toes and potatoes, but neither sweet
potatoes or corn.
There are some families here from
Arkansas. but have not yet had an
opportunity to visit them so that |
might offer them my sympathy,
which in my opinion would be very
acceptable. believe it was Horace
Greeley who, speaking to the young
men, said: go west and grow up
with the country" IfSanyone else
wants to become noted, let him say,
as an Improvement on Greeley:
Young man, 90 west and 90 to
He'll with it," II DERRIEUx.