The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-07-02
AN INTERESTING LETTER
To The Pennington Times:

To The Pennington Times:
Dear Sir:-I write you that you may
know have not forgotten you and all
my old friends who | believe are in
the best locality of the best state of
the great nation.
We arrived in Wenatchee on sched-
ule time, was met by our old-time
friend, l.. NJ. Cundiff, and family, and
soon got settled; Have been doing
mostly orchard work as this valley is
devoted almost entirely to apple or.
chards, and is said to be the finest
apple district in the woodland ! am
ready to think so myself, for they
sure do raise fine fruit: cherries, APP
| ricots, peaches-all are of the best
This valley is situated on the Column
bia and extends up the Wenatchee
river for about twenty miles. Howev-
err, 1t is rather narrow and contains
about twenty-five thousand acres,
mostly in orchards. 1t is fine vol
canic soil and seems just the thing to
produce fine fruit We are almost en-
tirely surrounded by mountains, being
just at the foot of the great Cascade
range which show snow almost all the
year. The city of Wenatchee is To-
Gated on the Columbia about two and
a-half miles from where the Wenat-
chez river joins it. The city is a mod
ern, up-to-date town, of about six
thousand people, located on the Great
Northern railroad about midway be-
tween Spokane and Seattle-about
It's miles from each Wenatchee has
good roads surrounding it, consider
ing the rugged mountainous country
which makes road building expensive.
They are now building concrete
highway through the valley connect
ing the two principal towns, Wenat-
chez and Cashmere-twelve miles
apart.
We find here excellent schools and
many good churches. The high school
cost over one hundred thousand dol
lars; also good post-office building,
which cost eighty-five thousand dol
lars. Wenatchee exhibits a great pub
lie spirit with push and energy be-
hind it and is growing quite rapidly.
The climate here is very good, with
cool nights, result of being close to
the mountains. We have but little or
no rain to speak of; depend entirely
on irrigation, which the Wenatchee
river furnishes, and is beautiful
mountain stream running through the
valley. This is a good place for the
sportsman who enjoys fishing and
hunting. All the small mountain
streams are well supplied with trout,
also numerous lakes Of all sizes
trough the mountains and are well
stocked with fish. Huntingdon can
take your choice-get into the noun
tains after deer, bear, mountain goats,
or take the Grouse pheasants and
Hungarian quails, some bob-whites
but not very numerous, and coyotes to
fare-you-well.
1t would probably be Of interest to
you to learn something of how the ap-
pie crop is harvested and cared for.
1t certainly constitutes the great
rush of the year and requires hun
dreds of outside helpers. Most or
chards of five or ten acres have an APP
pie house with basement which sure
is necessity. They begin harvesting
about the 10th to 18th of September
for there is but very few other than
winter apples. When harvest begins
everybody gets in and moves; they
even let the schools out for two or
three weeks, as the crop must be har-
vested in about six weeks, and never
to exceed eight weeks. The apples are
all hand-picked, taken to the house
and sorted into 3 grades--extra fancy,
fancy, and C-grade. Then each are
wrapped and put in boxes. Packers
get very expert and working by the
box, make from $40 to SIS per day.
There were shipped last season from
this valley over eight thousand cars
of apples, of approximately seven
thousand boxes per car; SO you can
see this certainly an apple district.
Wages here are, / guess, about the
same as in other parts Of the country
for similar work. And the high cost
OF living seems ever present. Orchards
are selling here at from $4,000 to
$4,000 per acre, where well located
and fairly good improvements and va
rietles of apples, and from what /
have been able to see they pay good
interest on such valuation. Taxes are
quite high as result of rapid devel-
opment and so much waste land in
the county being largely mountainous
and of no value. Taxes on we'll
improved ten-acre orchard range
from 5000 to $500.
You will pardon me for writing
such long letter. am working with
L. M. Cundiff, who was raised in
Pennington, and many of your read
ers will remember him. He has a
good fifteen-acre orchard.
If you like, you may publish this
letter, or any part you might think of
interest.
Yours very respectfully,
A. M. DOSS