94 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Spokane. The orchard owner picks his pears, usually sizing them by 

 means of a picking ring when he takes them off the tree, hauls the load 

 to the nearest shipping point of the fruit growers' association, and there 

 receives a due bill for the load, at the price current on that day, less the 

 charges for grading, wrapping and packing. For the season just passed 

 this price average one cent per pound, and I am informed by orchard 

 owners that there is a reasonable profit in pears at this price. The or- 

 chardist's responsibilities are now over, and he is at liberty to walk 

 through the packing house and watch his fruit being wrapped up, boxed, 

 the "Big Red Y" label pasted on one end together with his own name 

 or brand, and the boxes either stored in tiers in the cooling room or. 

 packed at once in iced refrigerator cars for shipment. 



Some growers prefer to wrap and box their stock rather than ])ay the 

 discount from market price at the association shed, and in this case 

 the fruit is brought ready packed to the warehouse and loaded at once. 



This is, in brief, the "how" of the marketing. As to the "where" of 

 it, we may say as of the Union Jack that the sun never sets on north- 

 western Bartletts, for in addition to their shipment to Minneapolis, Chi- 

 cago, New York and other eastern markets, every year finds boxes of 

 these luscious fruits leaving the ports of Seattle and Portland for 

 Alaska and the Yukon, for Hawaii, the Phillipines, China. Japan and 

 South America. The officers of the fruit growers' exchange are in con- 

 tact with every fruit market in the civilized worlrl, and make it their 

 business to be constantly on the watch for new regions where north- 

 western orchard products can be poured in. 



Does the owner of a Bartlett orchard in the northwest make money? 

 In answering this question let's remember the fact that fruit raising 

 everywhere is, or should be, a specialized business, and that the per- 

 centage of failures in this district is due to lack of knowledge and to 

 adverse conditions of Nature is probably as great as elsewhere. The 

 Northwest has a splendid soil and climate and trees grow and bear well, 

 but they are subject to disease and insect pests as anywhere else. The 

 story of the fight against fire-blight is enough to make a book in itself. 

 The grower also has his own little troubles peculiar to the region, such 

 as with irrigation water, irrigation laws and water rights. While his 

 returns are often high, his land is high-priced and he must realize well 

 to make his investment pay. On the whole, T think a well-managed liear- 

 ing orchard stands as good a show of returning a profit there as where 

 it is located next door to its market. 



Here is a chart descriptive of one orchard of Bartlett pears, five and 

 six-tenths acres, six hundred and sixteen bearing trees, in the Parker 

 district. North Yakima, Wash., which shows by means of curves the 

 yield in boxes of pears per acre per year and the total yield of the or- 

 chard per year for the thirteen years between 1898 and 1911. The price 

 (average) per box per year and the total value of crop per year is also 

 shown. This is not, I admit, an average case, as this orchard was one 

 of the better managed pieces of property, but the soil and water were 

 the same as occur anywhere in the valley and the difference is largely in 

 brains and excutive ability. 



As a whole, the production of Barlett pears in the Pacific northwest 

 is an interesting story of a growing industry, and one that will become 

 greater as the region develops and the population of our country be- 

 comes more dense. 



