THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



Columbia, eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, a portion of Idaho, 

 and a little of western Montana. This area is about as large as that of 

 New England with New York and Pennsylvania added. Certain portions 

 of this region are well adapted to fruit culture, and here thrive, among 

 other things, apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, grapes, strawberries, 

 blackberries, and raspberries — but the apple is king, the production of this 

 fruit in 1910 being nearly 8,000,000 boxes, of which the state of Washing- 

 ton contributed about sixty per cent. The name Hood River has for years 

 been synonymous with the highest grade of apples, and Wenatchee, 

 Yakima, White Salmon, Walla Walla and Spokane are largely interested 

 in the industry, the development along this line in the last place during 

 the last few years being marvellous. To the east and north of the city a 

 large acreage has been planted to apples, and the largest irrigated apple 

 orchard in the world is about twenty miles to the north of that city. 



Of this vast Inland Empire Spokane is the capital, with a population of 

 over 100,000. It is an enterprising, wide-awake city, located on the banks 

 of a river of the same name. The falls of this river, located in the heart 

 of the city, generate electrical power sufficient to light the entire city, run 

 its electric traction, and operate mines for many miles around. This 

 wonderful power will make of the city in the near futvire a great manu- 

 facturing center. Up to date in every particular, its large and substantial 

 buildings indicate its financial worth and stability. One of its great 

 attractions is Davenport's restaurant, in refinement and elegance of ap- 

 pointment vieing with anything in New York City, and enjoying the repu- 

 tation of being the finest restaurant in the northwest. It has an interest 

 other than this to horticulturists, for its proprietor, Mr. L. M. Davenport, 

 is a great lover of plants and flowers, and the beautiful garden with which 

 he has surrounded his home displays the plant-lover in its artistic arrange- 

 ment. Situated on a steep hillside, with a brook traversing its entire 

 length, opportunities for water effects are at hand and these have been 

 delightfully developed. Mr. Davenport is, naturally, a member of the park 

 commission which is developing a large park system, and some of the 

 parks, including Manito with its " Zoo," are now laid out. 



A city of individual homes, there is little place in it for flats. In the 

 center of town there are some of the better class apartments, but the flat, 

 as we know it in New York, is unknown. It is quite a relief to one who 

 has been depressed by the overcrowding of our own city, to see the thou- 

 sands of small individual homes which make of Spokane a home city. 



It is the fruit industry and its sister, agriculture, which make for the 

 permanent wealth of this region. Mining has played and is playing an 

 important part in the tipbuild, but mining, at its best, is a progressive 

 exhaustion of the source of wealth, while horticulture and agriculture 

 .continually develop and increase. The desirable fruit land is limited, and 

 is to be found in sage-brush and timber districts upon which it is possible 

 to get water for irrigation. It is also necessary that the contour of the 

 land be such that there l)e good air-drainage — there must be no pockets 



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