Fruits^ Vegetables and General hiterests. 29 



where the waters of the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of 

 Juan de Fuca unite, in what is called the Archipelago de 

 Haro, is an island which, not only favored by climate, has 

 also great natural advantages for fruit and vegetable culture, 

 surpassing any other part of western Washington. Situate 

 partly in the cretaceous and partly in the lower silurian 

 epochs, it has a soil rich in lime and phosphates, made in 

 great part by the gradual erosion or decretion of the moun- 

 tain slopes. Orcas island, named by the Spaniards, is the 

 most favored of all the islands in the archipelago, or even of 

 those lying outside to the west, east and south. Mountains 

 rise on all sides, sheltering and warming by reflected heat 

 the valleys and rolling lands between them. The sides of 

 these mountains will some day be terraced and the grape be 

 cultivated ; and on higher slopes the peach and apple will find 

 a soil and exposure which will produce the richest results. 

 In every part of the island streams and natural springs abound 

 — plentiful for irrigation of the whole of the 28,000 acres 

 of bottom and valley lands. The soil, which varies from rich, 

 black clay loams to red and brown sand loams, is everywhere 

 underlaid at a depth of from eighteen inches to four feet with 

 a good clay subsoil. The prune and the pear find their 

 natural homes in the clay and heavy black loams, and the 

 gravel and boulder lands produce those superb apples and 

 peaches for which the island is famous. A well drained clay 

 subsoil, other things being equal, will always produce finer re- 

 sults than any other kind. The richness of the soil above is 

 never leached and wasted, as in those lands where the sub- 

 soil is of sand or gravel. Draining is very easily accom- 

 plished, as the lands are all rolling, and while so many ditches 

 are not required, those that are properly put in do more and 

 better work than where the land is level. Most of the drain- 

 ing has been done, so far, with cedar, or carefully constructed 

 rock work, but tile will probably, in the near future, take the 

 place of this rougher method. There has been a steady ad- 

 vancement in prices of lands for the past three years. To- 

 day uncleared ten and twenty-acre tracts bring an3^where from 

 $20 to $100 per acre, according to location, and cleared and 

 cultivated lands from $60 to $400 per acre, the higher prices 

 being obtained in the village, at the head of East Sound. 



"The fruits raised for market are apples, apricots, pears, 



