180 Appendix. 



5. Btilb-Grounng. Another unique feature of the Coast Region horticulture 

 is its bulb-growing industry We pay Dutch gardeners alone half a million 

 dollars a year for bulbs, and pay another half million to the bulb-growers of other 

 countries. Most of these bulbs can be produced equally well in the Coast Region 

 of the Pacific Northwest. There is no industry of the Northwest in the success 

 of wliich I have greater confidence than in bulb-growing. Tlie Coast Region, 

 particularly the Puget Sound country, excels in bulb-growing, chiefly by reason 

 of its climate, which is quite similar to that of Holland, the greatest bulb- 

 growing country of the world. Bulbs need a cool, even and moist climate for ten 

 months of the year, and two months of dry, clear weather in summer to ripen 

 them. These conditions are supplied perfectly in the Puget Sound Country. 

 There are now several bulb gardens in Washington and Oregon of which tliose of 

 George Gibbs and C. T. Canfleld at W'hatcom are the largest. There are many 

 thousand acres of fine bulb land in Washington alone. Puget Sound bulbs, es- 

 pecially hyacinths, tulips, crocuses, gladioli and lilies have been tested by many 

 American florists and pronounced superior to the best Holland grown stock. 

 Several large eastern florists liave become interested in northwestern bulb-growing, 

 and we may expect it to develop rapidly on a commercial scale witliin the next 

 few years. 



Mention should be made in passing of the nut industry of the Coast Region. 

 Persian walnuts are rapidly becoming an important crop west of the Cascades,, 

 particularly in the valleys of the Columbia and its tributaries. Filberts, chest- 

 nuts, and other nuts are grown very successfully here also, but the most hopeful 

 outlook is undoubtedly with the Persian walnut. 



The chief lines of development in the liorticulture of tlie Coast Region will 

 probably be in the growing of prunes, sweet cherries, small fruits, seeds and bulbs. 

 There will never be as many large commercial orchards of apples, pears and 

 peaches here as in the inland region. Tlie cost of clearing land is often from 

 .$100 to .$17.5 per acre. General market varieties grown on this high priced land 

 cannot successfully compete with fruit grown on the sage brush land of the- 

 eastern valleys, which can often be bought for from $20 to $25 per acre, and can 

 be cleared for from $10 to 12 an acre. There is too much lost in tied-up capital. 

 Furthermore, the humid climate of the Coast Region is very favorable to the- 

 development of many fungous enemies, and spraying for these is expensive. The 

 fruit-growers of the Coast Region will probably find it more profitable to grow 

 high quality varieties for local markets, rather than standard varieties for the 

 general markets. 



II. THE FEUIT-GROWING OF THE INLAND VALLEYS. 



Crossing the mighty Cascades, we come to an entirely different country from 

 that which has .iust been described It is a part of what the geographies of fifty 

 years ago called the Great American Desert. The luxuriant vegetation of the 

 Coast Region is gone. A few trees and shrubs fringe the streams and cluster in the 

 hollows, but for the most part it is a prairie country. This inland section of 

 the Northwest, embracing all of Oregon, Washington and a part of British Col- 

 umbia east of the Cascade Mountains, may be roughly described as a vast, rolling 

 plateau, cut here and there by the deep valleys of the Columbia and its tribu- 

 taries. It has what might be called a continental climate, as compared with the 

 marine climate of the Coast Region. The uplands are a grazing and wheat rais- 

 ing country, and are not irrigated. Tlie valleys are a fruit and stock country, and 

 are usually irrigated. Witliin a few miles of each other one may see here the 

 horticulture cf Georgia and the horticulture of Maine, so abrupt is the change 

 from the wind-swept table lands to the almost sub-tropical valleys. It reminds one 

 of Southern California, where oranges and lemons may be seen against a back- 

 ground of snow-capped mountains. 



In this Inland Region all farming is on an extensive scale. On account of the 

 difficulties in clearing land, the farms of the Coast Region are mostly small, — 20, 

 30 or 40 acres being the areas commonly under cultivation on any one farm. It is. 



