The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-02-14
OKANOGAN ORCHARDISTS HAVE
NO REASON TO FEEL PANICKY
OVER APPLE MARKET.
GODO OUT OF An I'LL WIND
j. Parkhurst Douglas Urges That Frost
Free OkanOgan Stay In the
Orchard Business.

Neighbors of the OkanOgan, all OF
you who are starting, or were intend
ing to start in fruit growing, harken
to warning, while we review sea-
son of low prices for fruit products
and the results that will follow.
Past season low prices for western
fruits has put the western fruit grow
er up a tree, and he dosen't know how
he is going to get down, or where he
will light if he drops.
The various journals devoted to
horticulture are waking up to the
realization of an acute situation; as
also are the big and little nurserymen,
the country over.
Advertising and Education Needed.
The Fruit Grower and Farmer" is
hopeful and sensibly advises the stim-
ulation of consumption by means Of
advertising, education of the middle
class of the value of fruit, especially
the apple, as an essential food element
and the various ways of it's appetizing
preparation, and a reduction of cost
from grower to eater by the develop
ment and extension of cooperative
marketing associations similar in plan
to that advocated recently in your col
umns by Mr.. Muldrow.
Some Growing Pessimistic
The Country Gentleman" is avow-
edly pessimistic, and. editorially sees
disaster ahead for the western fruit
man when the many young orchards
of the west come into bearing and
"fOOd"-"swamp'-the market And
private reports tell of sections where
the ak and stump-puller are already
at work taking out peach orchards and
hearsay whispers that many -four
ishing apple orchard has suddenly lost
the ardent love of its owner, because,
for season, it has failed to pay one
hundred per cent profit on $1,000 to
$4,000 per acre valuation.
And the net result is Some orchards
are being taken out; other orchards
let remain will receive poor care, re-
trograde and go back; but many Or
chards now planned will not be
planted.
Means Opportunity
And now neighbors-the warning:
Don't be stampeded! Analyze the
situation, and laugh at this panic. Re-
member "Tis an i'll wind that blows
nobody any good" and also, that
What is one mans poison is another
mans meat" so when many go out of
an industry, it is pretty good time
for us to get in. This would apply
even to poorly favored regions, and
to the Okanogan region it literally
means Opportunity.
Nature FavOrs OkanOgan
Some years past, in the study OF
good roads, of irrigation and fruit
growing, the writer made a trip by
wheel, from Yakima valley, Washing
ton, to Iowa, later travelling over Min
nesota, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Indiana. Some sixteen or eigh-
teen states were studied by devious
wanderings. With two exceptions the
states studied are fruit growing states.
Yet not in all this travel did find 500
acres of land with the wonderful rec
ord for frost immunity, and sure fruit
crops, that is the proud record and
most valued asset of the Okanogan
valley from the mouth of the river to
the Canadian line, and beyond.
In these days of "smudge pot frost
fighting" with its costly installation,
| and costly operation, in other regions,
and here, none needed for the past SO
years, will you stop a moment neigh
Dor and try to estimate the tremendous
advantage nature has given the Okan-
ogan over other regions?
The soil, like all desert soil, is de-
ficient in humus, nitrogen, and should
be built up by manure and cover crops,
but rich in mineral salts and iron, and
with this wonderful climate, plus wat
er and culture produces wondrous
fruits of all kinds, and highly COL
ored, snappy fine favored, long ship
ping, long keeping apple that no other
region on earth can equal.
Continued on page six)