The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1920-09-24
HOME OF THE APRICOT.

AsACAACl las OCcu ACTIVE L0lS
summer in organizing the Okanogan
Orchard Homes company, the aim of
which Is to colonize a large tract of
land in the valley south of town, land
than which there Is none better under
the sun. Mr.. Mohler has made study
OF apricot growing as a profit CROP
ana has spent much time in investiga
tion and gathering information. 1t is
the purpose OF the Okanogan Orchard
homes company to encourage the
planting of apricot trees, which come
into bearing early and which are a
certain source of income We take the
liberty of publishing the following ex-
tracts from the prospectus of the COM
pany that Mr.. Mohler drew up, as 1t
contains much valuable information
for the land owners under the West
okanogan Valley Irrigation system:
Apricots are not successfully grown
east Of the Rockies nor west of the
Cascades. and between these two
ranges there is only very, very little
territory in which the apricot bears
regularly. At the same time the apricot
Is easily the most popular canned fruit
on the market. For this reason Gamers
offer high prices on long time con-
tracts, and fresh fruit shippers are al.
ways eager for apricots. The price is
not regulated by competition but by
the ability of the public to buy. So
far as Is now known, there is not an
other line of agriculture or horticul-
ture practiced anywhere in the world
that offers the certainty of continued
high prices and large profits that does
apricot orcharding in the upper Okla
hogan valley
The price smentioned, cents per
pound. Is guaranteed by the great
Puyaliup organization, and even that
price makes the apricot the most
profitable crop grown in the north
west
1t is we'll known that the past sew
eral years have enormously enriched
the apple growers of the Wenatchee
valley. Ranchers have sold crops for
more than $4,000 per acre, and orch
ards there are hard to purchase ex-
cept at exceedingly high prices. 1t is
interesting to compare apple profits
with apricots.
In the first place it takes about
three years longer to bring an apple
orchard into bearing than apricots
This is in itself tremendous differ
ence. Then the apple takes twice as
much irrigation water. as the apricot.
Indeed there are apricot trees at both
Wenatchee and Oroville, bearing fine
crops of apricots regularly without
any irrigation whatever.
Apricots must be sprayed once a
year for scale and peach bore. Apples
must be sprayed once for scale and
up to seven times for worms. In addi-
ton, the tree trunks must be scraped
and banded to catch and kill worms, =
very expensive process IN addition to
spraying.
sApricots are marketed in the sum-
mer when the Great Northern has
plenty Of refrigerator cars on hand
waiting aforst the apple crop, Apples are
marketed in the fall when it Is prac-
tically impossible for the railroads to
provide sufficient cars. Last fall many
thousands Of dollars worth of apples
were frosted enroute to the east and
the apple market was demoralized for
months: to the very great loss to the
shipper and producer. Apricots are
taken by the Gamer, or fresh fruit
shipper. az fast as they are picked,
and run into cold storage or sent to
market under refrigeration. The rail-
road is glad to have this business at
that time of.year.
The Gamer furnishes lug boxes in
to which the fruit is piled loose. There
il no expense of packing or package
at the prices named in the estimate.
Apples require an expensive box and
paper, .andsexpert packing adding
very materially to the cost OF produc-
tionl,This sometimes runs into several
hundreds of dollars per acre
,Apricots are received. at the station
at the prices estimated and the Gamer
pays the freight Apples must 80 1000
miles or lover at high freight rates to
find their market. The, recent increase
in freight makes q very great expense.
Apricots. from our section have no
competition as fresh fruit the Cali
fornia apricots being off the market
before ours iripen. As for the canned
product there lie never enough to sup.
ply the demand Apples meet the com.
petition of cheap barrel apples when
ever the east has large crop, as this
year.
In spite Of all these expenses apples
are wonderfully profitable, and the
ranchers that have stuck to their orch
ards through thick and thin. are reap
ing wonderful profits. II this is true
of apples, think what apricots will do
The conservative estimate of apricot
profits epproximates the highest apple
profits. No apple profits have ever
reached the higher estimates of april
cots.
In view of these facts why are there
SO few apricot orchards? 2; This is be-